
Codecademy’s CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours - fvryan
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/03/codecademys-codeyear-attracts-100000-aspiring-programmers-in-48-hours/
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Jun8
Maybe I'm biased from seeing one after the other but recently there has been
so many data points on, how to call it, self-paced teaching/learning that I
think this movement has definitely gained critical mass. People still debate
endlessly about the relative merits of classroom teaching vs. approaches like
Khan Academy, but the enormous success of Stanford and MIT online courses
followed by codecademy and now this is, to me, irrefutable proof of a huge
need.

The next step is to diversify these approaches to other domains, i.e.
x.cademy. How about creative writing, web design, typography, plumbing,
general relativity (if you think this is far fetched, check out all the
questions from laymen on Physics exchange about GTR and gravity)? It would be
great if there were a standard way of putting together course materials, i.e.
a wrapper format and standard ways of presentation.

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hkmurakami
I wonder how the impending proliferation of Code/KahnAcademy-like sites will
impact the bottom line of traditional "e-learning" providers such as
SkillSoft[1], which provide training material for businesses.

Would CodeAcademy remain a B2C company while the existing B2B electronic
learning companies remain untouched? Would CodeAcademy go head to head with
these companies to fight over the money of HR departments worldwide? Would
CodeAcademy's existence spur a price war?

I'm very keen on seeing how these online academies' business models develop
over time.

[1]<http://www.skillsoft.com/>

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GFKjunior
The more people learn the better. We should also encourage programming to
younger generations.

I came across the Fedora Sugar on a Stick distro and fell in love with it.

<http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/>

I've been making copies and handing them out to all my cousins and relatives.
The Python coding sections are impressive.

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knowtheory
Why even acknowledge the number of signups for a service like this?

Should I even care how many accounts are created? I'd be more interested in
either % conversion for how many people signed up for classes, or % who
completed the free test classes.

Is 100,000 people entering their details into a form even a laudable
achievement from the perspective of the general public (or even the
programming public)?

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baddox
Why even acknowledge the number of signups for a service like this? Because
Codeacademy is a startup, and startups generally like releasing impressive
numbers and getting coverage on tc.

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knowtheory
But that's the thing. What does this number mean? Does it matter to you?

Are we celebrating their social media skills? :P

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zds
We prefer to think we're celebrating the fact that so many people finally
realize the importance of coding.

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anthonys
I hope you guys plan to release numbers progressively throughout the year on
how many people are successfully continuing with the course?

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richardburton
I think this demonstrates that lots of people have a desire to understand code
but do not know where to start. 5 years ago I wanted to apply for Computer
Science because I knew I loved computers. However, my math is not great and I
would never have been accepted so I picked Politics instead. I dropped out
after two months.

I am a self-taught coder but I think what I bring to the table is a reasonable
understanding of how humans interact with my code. I test all my sites out on
my grandma. If she can use it then I know it is easy enough to use.

Computer Science and software design are two very different areas. I think I
would have got into coding much earlier if I had been able to apply for the
latter.

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americandesi333
The key question that still remains is, how do you find the best learning
sources and how do you get credit for it? Are badges the right solution? Its
great to see that these many people are embracing self-paced learning. With
the democratization of education, it has opened doors for anyone to create a
curriculum online now. But all this will soon cause an information overload in
terms of self-paced learning opportunities and it will become critical to
start organizing this plethora of resources

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UK-Al05
I'm guessing a provider will become a pseudo-standard. Probably somebody like
MITx.

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easymovet
It helps to have the huge email list of codecademy. If only I could get a link
to <http://oneworldcollege.com> on there :) Still, I'm excited to see
education go mainstream like this.

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zds
We didn't email our users to get to that number ;)

