Thursday, September 17, 2015

Udacity Says It Can Teach Tech Skills to Millions, and Fast

Advanced technology is becoming more and more integrated in workplaces today. Because of this, it will be important for many people to learn how to use these new technologies and how to keep up to date with them. Because of this increasing demand for tech skills in the workplace, companies like Udacity are offering online courses for relatively low prices to teach people about fields like web development and programming.
The first significant point of this article is the fact that it only takes a couple of months to earn a degree from Udacity. Within months, students taking online courses from Udacity can learn some of the tech skills that are in high demand from large companies. This will be useful for educated people already in the workforce that may be unfamiliar with new technology or have outdated skills. Within a relatively short time, it may help a person to obtain the skills needed to obtain a better job at companies like Google or Facebook.
Another significant point of this article is that courses from Udacity only cost $200 a month. This is much cheaper and takes less time than earning a degree at a university, both with in-person classes and online ones. This could mean that learning important technology skills may become more affordable in the future, and that more people will be able to take these classes from home and start careers working with technology.
Another important point mentioned in this article is the fact that Udacity works with employees from companies like Google to teach its classes. That means the classes are teaching skills relevant to the needs of tech companies, which could lead to many being hired after earning a degree from these online courses. This is significant because not many massive open online courses work directly with companies in the fields they are teaching about. This could mean that more people will use Udacity to get hired by companies in the tech industry.
In general I thought this was a very informative and interesting article. I think companies like Udacity hold a great potential in changing how the world of information technology will work and educate others. However, I think there are a couple of things the article could have improved on. First, the new courses mentioned in the article have only been around for about a year, so it is hard to say yet whether the degrees are or will be effective in giving people new career choices on a large scale. Second, though some other massive open online course services were mentioned, there was not much discussion over how Udacity compares to them in terms of effectiveness. Third, I think the article could have discussed more in depth what effect Udacity may have on larger universities that teach similar skills to students.

Manjoo, Farhad. "Udacity Says It Can Teach Tech Skills to Millions, and Fast." The New York Times.The New York Times, 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

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