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Google offers free Android development Udacity course

67 points by hansy 12y ago

dhawalhs 12y ago
Direct link to the course page: https://www.udacity.com/course/ud853 https://www.udacity.com/course/ud853
deleted 12y ago
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- dhawalhs 12y ago
  The course is free. To access it click on "View Courseware". $150/month is for Verified Certificates, Coaching etc.
- nstart 12y ago
  I'm guessing that's people going through the shopping cart and then dropping out before completing their purchase.
nstart 12y ago
Thanks for this. I'm excited about this course. Personally I never really liked the course material in the developer docs. It seems structured, but you can go into way too many directions at once. At least that's what happened to me
adamors 12y ago
> $150/month > Free 2 week trial.
- algorithms 12y ago
  It's free if you don't want/need the certificate and personal coaching.
- sgk284 12y ago
  The Udacity site has gotten a little aggressive / spammy with trying to force people into paying... but if you click "view courseware" you get the full course for free.
algorithms 12y ago
My question to other android developers and especially people in hiring positions: Do you think such a certificate would be a deciding factor in the hiring process? (Especially for entry-level positions, but also generally)
- narag 12y ago
  To be honest, I believe that taking the course could be a deciding factor, more than the certificate. What I'll be looking for (hopefully soon) is someone that can navigate the environment and familiar with APIs. I'm considering taking the course myself anyway.
- on_and_off 12y ago
  what matters is what you can do, how much you understand the platform tools (it is not required of a junior developer to write renderscript kernels, but he/she at least need to know basic concepts such as view recycling or view holders) and whether you are able to write maintainable & extensible code. This course probably help for at least some of these points. I just reviewed a test made by somebody that would like to join our team. There were some very weird use of view in there, for example holding references to dozens of view objects in order to display them in a grid instead of caching the bitmap themselves, among other things. That was a big no-no. A junior developer is going to make mistakes (and she already has a couple of years of experience) but if each of his/her code reviews end up with a -2, both parties are going to lose their time.
cliveowen 12y ago
The highest barrier of entry for Android programming isn't the lack of learning resources but the need to use Eclipse/Android Studio coupled with very bad documentation.
- ansimionescu 12y ago
  I'm fairly sure you can use IntelliJ as well. Yep, there you go: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/android.html http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/android.html
  - octopus 12y ago
    Android Studio is based on IntelliJ (the Community Edition if I remember correctly).
    - georgemcbay 12y ago
      Yes, this is correct. Also, you don't have to use Eclipse or Android Studio at all if you don't want to. You can use whatever text editor and whatever build system floats your boat (ant and gradle are common). The only time I use either of the Android IDEs (Android Studio, because Eclipse is horrible) is when I need to do on-device visual debugging; otherwise I just do command-line builds and deploy using adb.
sidcool 12y ago
I have started with the lessons and the beginning is quite promising.
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roma1n 12y ago
Okay, I realize that complaining about pricing makes little sense, but $150/month for the "full" course, with the free option labelled as a simple "textbook"? That changes the mooc positionning somewhat. In my case (student) I would not take the full course. Seems that Coursera is doing something right in that respect: you can get a verified certificate for $49, or pay to get a capstone project graded individually. You also get to complete a substantial part of the course before committing to a certificate. That brings value to individual students while keeping the price affordable. /end of pointless rant
bhavysw 12y ago
good know that google started free course.
TheAlchemist 12y ago
Just watched most of the material. Really great stuff. Good android tutorials are hard to find in my opinion. Even in the official documentation, most of the time it's quite long and always 'support libs' oriented. Those videos are by far the best learning material on Android I have found so far.

67 points by hansy 12y ago

dhawalhs 12y ago

Direct link to the course page: https://www.udacity.com/course/ud853 https://www.udacity.com/course/ud853

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

dhawalhs 12y ago
The course is free. To access it click on "View Courseware". $150/month is for Verified Certificates, Coaching etc.
nstart 12y ago
I'm guessing that's people going through the shopping cart and then dropping out before completing their purchase.

nstart 12y ago

Thanks for this. I'm excited about this course. Personally I never really liked the course material in the developer docs. It seems structured, but you can go into way too many directions at once. At least that's what happened to me

adamors 12y ago

> $150/month > Free 2 week trial.

algorithms 12y ago
It's free if you don't want/need the certificate and personal coaching.
sgk284 12y ago
The Udacity site has gotten a little aggressive / spammy with trying to force people into paying... but if you click "view courseware" you get the full course for free.

algorithms 12y ago

My question to other android developers and especially people in hiring positions: Do you think such a certificate would be a deciding factor in the hiring process? (Especially for entry-level positions, but also generally)

narag 12y ago
To be honest, I believe that taking the course could be a deciding factor, more than the certificate. What I'll be looking for (hopefully soon) is someone that can navigate the environment and familiar with APIs. I'm considering taking the course myself anyway.
on_and_off 12y ago
what matters is what you can do, how much you understand the platform tools (it is not required of a junior developer to write renderscript kernels, but he/she at least need to know basic concepts such as view recycling or view holders) and whether you are able to write maintainable & extensible code. This course probably help for at least some of these points. I just reviewed a test made by somebody that would like to join our team. There were some very weird use of view in there, for example holding references to dozens of view objects in order to display them in a grid instead of caching the bitmap themselves, among other things. That was a big no-no. A junior developer is going to make mistakes (and she already has a couple of years of experience) but if each of his/her code reviews end up with a -2, both parties are going to lose their time.

cliveowen 12y ago

The highest barrier of entry for Android programming isn't the lack of learning resources but the need to use Eclipse/Android Studio coupled with very bad documentation.

ansimionescu 12y ago
I'm fairly sure you can use IntelliJ as well. Yep, there you go: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/android.html http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/android.html
- octopus 12y ago
  Android Studio is based on IntelliJ (the Community Edition if I remember correctly).
  - georgemcbay 12y ago
    Yes, this is correct. Also, you don't have to use Eclipse or Android Studio at all if you don't want to. You can use whatever text editor and whatever build system floats your boat (ant and gradle are common). The only time I use either of the Android IDEs (Android Studio, because Eclipse is horrible) is when I need to do on-device visual debugging; otherwise I just do command-line builds and deploy using adb.

sidcool 12y ago

I have started with the lessons and the beginning is quite promising.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

roma1n 12y ago

Okay, I realize that complaining about pricing makes little sense, but $150/month for the "full" course, with the free option labelled as a simple "textbook"? That changes the mooc positionning somewhat. In my case (student) I would not take the full course. Seems that Coursera is doing something right in that respect: you can get a verified certificate for $49, or pay to get a capstone project graded individually. You also get to complete a substantial part of the course before committing to a certificate. That brings value to individual students while keeping the price affordable. /end of pointless rant

bhavysw 12y ago

good know that google started free course.

TheAlchemist 12y ago

Just watched most of the material. Really great stuff. Good android tutorials are hard to find in my opinion. Even in the official documentation, most of the time it's quite long and always 'support libs' oriented. Those videos are by far the best learning material on Android I have found so far.