"Have a real project you want to build" and "You have to throw yourself in or you will fail." are spot on. At Thinkful (http://thinkful.com/ http://thinkful.co

"Have a real project you want to build" and "You have to throw yourself in or you will fail." are spot on. At Thinkful (http://thinkful.com/ http://thinkful.com/) our students spend more than half their time on projects they start from scratch, using real tools for exactly this reason. As a result they have 10x the engagement and completion rates vs other online ed tools (MOOCs et al). Failing is learning, but failing is tough. We make that easier.