Udacity is a MOOC or Massive Open Online Courses platform. Udacity began as an experiment in online learning, when two Stanford University instructors elected to offer their "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course online to anyone, for free. Over 160,000 students in more than 190 countries enrolled. The potential to educate at a global scale was awe-inspiring, and Udacity was founded to pursue a mission to democratize education. It would take several years of intensive iteration and experimentation to clarify a focus on career advancement through mastery of in-demand skills, but today, Udacity proudly offers aspiring learners across the globe the opportunity to participate in—and contribute to—some of the most exciting and innovative fields in the world.
The Udacity mission is to…
“Train the world’s workforce in the careers of the future.
We partner with leading technology companies to learn how technology is
transforming industries, and teach the critical tech skills that companies are
looking for in their workforce. With our powerful and flexible digital
education platform, even the busiest learners can prepare themselves to take on
the most in-demand tech roles.”
If you only have time to read this far, let me just say that
Udacity does just that, and they do it rather well.
How does it work?
Udacity offers a list of project-based tech programs; this
means that you gain the skills by practicing on real cases from existing
businesses. To see what the program includes, proceed on the course page itself
and read the syllabus. Each program takes about 3-4 months of learning with
about 5-7 hours per week on average.
What each client gets is a custom learning plan and a
technical mentor who gives you unlimited feedback. Also, Udacity is constructed
in a way that a customer has a flexible learning path and, what is the best, a
student studies on real-world projects by leading companies.
After the payment, you got about 3-5-month access to all the
course content – so you need to finish all the assignments by this time. This
is different than other online learning services where as long as you pay a
monthly fee, the content is available forever. I feel that Udacity takes the
right approach here, students will be diligent to make progress when they are
faced with a real deadline.
About Pricing
Each program has a price, the price which can be paid upfront or divided into monthly payments. Udacity offers to finance, and often discount the initial cost of many of the programs.
Other Notable Features
Udacity offers two types of courses, free and paid. Paid
courses are very detailed, and they are wrapped around “Nanodegree Programs”
which create a curriculum and flow of related courses that take the student from
beginner to intermediate to advanced topics on the chosen subject.
The Nanodegrees topics and curriculum are clearly outlined
in the syllabus which along with other necessary information is available to
the student before purchasing the course.
Free courses are topics covered as parts of existing Nanodegree
Programs. Free courses are provided in a standalone fashion.
Udacity partners with leading technology solution providers like Google or Amazon to offer students Scholarships for some of the most on-demand Nanodegree Programs. Currently, they are accepting applications for the AWS Machine Learning Scholarship Program (Registration closes on 6/23)
Register for Udacity's AWS Machine Learning Scholarship to learn machine learning fundamentals for free!
In addition to great courses on today’s most in-demand fields, Udacity also offers career preparation services. Their career services include:
- Resume Review
- LinkedIn review
- GitHub Portfolio Review
“AI is one of the fastest-growing and most transformational
technologies of our time, having added over 2.3 million new jobs in the past
few years. Spend 10 hours per week to advance your career.”
Let’s face it, AI is or will be part of every piece of
technology either currently in play or future development. Knowledge in this
area will open a ton of opportunities going forth.
School of Autonomous Systems
“The field of autonomous vehicles is set to grow by 42%
within the next four years, with salaries for top engineers averaging well into
the 6 figures.“
There are several companies actively developing autonomous
systems to go in your car, delivery vehicles, public transportation, etc. The
global autonomous vehicle market demand is estimated to be at approximately 6.7
thousand units in 2020 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 63.1% from
2021 to 2030. Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles, are a
key innovation in the automotive industry. They have high growth potential and
are acting as a catalyst in the technological developments of automobiles.
School of Business
“Today’s business objectives are achieved with user
research, design, distribution, analysis, and strategy. Whether you’re getting
started or advancing your career, you’ll establish the right foundations with
Udacity’s School of Business.”
If you are an aspiring Business Analyst, Digital Marketing
Professional, Business Owner, etc., then this field is for you. As more and
more business is done using emerging technologies, the understanding of those
technologies from a business perspective becomes essential.
School of Cloud Computing
“Today, all companies, big or small, are adopting cloud
computing to enable their digital transformation. The growth of this technology
has created an incredible demand for cloud computing jobs, from Cloud
Developers and Cloud DevOps roles to more specialized roles such as Solutions
Architects and Cloud Security Engineers. You can join this growing field – get
started today.”
AWS, Azure, GCP are the future of enterprise computing. New
organizations are almost exclusively choosing to leverage existing public cloud
providers to build their organizational infrastructure.
School of Cybersecurity
As more and more technologies are exposed to the world and
need to be protected, the need for cybersecurity professionals continues to
grow. Average salaries for cybersecurity professionals are very lucrative.
Consider this, in the future, we are headed towards, not
only will most of our personal and professional lives will be lived using a fair
amount of digital systems, but also conflict will take on the form of digital
or cyber conflict. In the future, personal defense might be in the form of
cyber defense.
School of Data Science
“Build expertise in data manipulation, visualization,
predictive analytics, machine learning, and data science. With the skills you
learn in a Nanodegree program, you can launch or advance a successful data
career. Start acquiring valuable skills right away, create a project portfolio
to demonstrate your abilities, and get support from mentors, peers, and experts
in the field. We offer five unique programs to support your career goals in the
data science field.”
Some have argued that data is the top commodity of the 21st
century. Data tells a story, but to get the story you need to know how to
extract, manipulate, and analyze the data. Today, we are facing a different
issue, companies now have too much data, which is almost as bad as not having
enough. Professionals that can manipulate data to extract valuable and actionable
intelligence will be handsomely rewarded.
School of Programming
“Programming is a critical skill in today’s economy, and
there is a shortage of qualified developers. Whether you’re new to coding,
adding more skills, or advancing your career, 10 hours a week will prepare you
for your ideal developer job.”
I can personally attest to the benefits of dev. skills expanding
your career opportunities. I am an Android Developer Nanodegree Graduate. The
skills I learned have allowed me not only to gain a whole new dimension but
also to discover personally that I love to make things. Not only have I been able
to open new doors for myself professionally, but I have also found a new hobby that
I love.
School of Product Management
“There’s a good reason Product Management roles in the U.S.
have grown an astounding 32% over just two years. A good product manager with
the right skills can transform any business. Udacity’s School of Product
management can equip you with these skills, helping you develop experience
across the business, design, and tech domains through hands-on,
industry-relevant projects and mentor feedback.”
PM is a very rewarding field. Imagine being tasked with overseeing a project that changes the way an organization performs operations, or becomes more efficient, or profitable, or eliminates inequality in the workforce. In addition to professional success and rewards, there is a sense of personal satisfaction that is always derived from knowing that you have made a difference.
Here you will find the course breakdown, including what
projects you will be building throughout.
The different courses are broken down into lessons, each of
which has lectures and exercises. The project work is similar to that of the
course exercises with just enough of a variance to insight the thought and
problem-solving in the student. In other words, in your projects, you will build
something using the concepts taught in class, but you cannot just simply copy
and paste the exercises and submit them, or copy a project from the internet,
the submitted work has to be sufficiently original.
Throughout the lessons, you will have quizzes that you have
to successfully negotiate to continue to make progress and to complete the
lesson. There are no hints here, you have to know the answers. The quizzes are
not designed to deter to slow down progress, but rather to reinforce the concepts
just learned.
The course is capped with a capstone project, which is a project
that will cover all the concepts covered in the class and showcase the student’s
ability to successfully apply all those concepts into one final elaborate and polished
piece of work.
In the Android Nanodegree, for example, the final task was to build a genuine application. There was a clearly outlined list of requirements for this application, as well as other parameters and deliverables that were required to successfully negotiate the final project. If your submission does not completely meet all necessary project requirements, you will receive coaching from one of the course mentors on course references, documentation, videos, etc., that you can look at to get your submission accepted. In other words, the mentors are there to help you succeed and they will help, every time that you get stuck throughout the course. They will not give you easy answers though.
The courses are laid out in a way that makes sense, with lessons that take the content and roll it over into the next subject giving the students a sense of continuity and progress. What you learn in Lesson 1, you will often use in Lesson 2.
Who is Udacity for?
I do not think that curriculums like those offered at
Udacity can yet replace a traditional college education. This is not because
the content offered at Udacity is not top quality, because it is. But rather because
there are a ton of other things that students learn while in college, and also because
society is not entirely ready to let go of some traditions. Having said that, I
think platforms like Udacity will continue to gain momentum and recognition because,
much like anything else, today folks are looking to achieve as quickly as
possible. What better way to do that than to take a course that teaches you to
specialize in something, with no other distractions or electives, in a fraction
of the time it would take for a traditional degree, and at a fraction of the
cost.
For those who might already have some education and are looking to expand, and branch out into other related areas, Udacity is a perfect fit. Learn, grow, demonstrate, and be promoted and rewarded.
That is the ultimate question. It was for me.
When I enrolled in the Android Dev. Course I knew very
little about programming, aside from some light scripting. Within a few months
of having completed the course, the skills I learned at Udacity and one other
place, opened a whole new set of doors for me professionally. After two years
of continued practice of those skills, they have yet again opened even bigger
doors.
If you’re thinking about gaining solid expertise in tech or
business-related fields or switching to a new occupation then Udacity provides
practical learning that allows students to apply to a job.
The free courses offer a quick way to gain some knowledge on
a specific topic to articulate or get a better understanding of a specific
field or discipline.
Deals
Udacity periodically offers substantial discounts on some of
its courses in addition to partner-sponsored scholarships. Right now through
6/29, Udacity is offering financial support through a special discount of up to
75% off to apply towards a Nanodegree program.
Get up to 75% OFF in Financial Support to advance your career! Apply today to unlock your discount.
People spend a lot of money on things they do not need, or that present little to no value over time. You can never go wrong with spending money on education. Knowledge is power.
J.
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