Inside Udacity: Developing Intro to Programming

Hi, I’m Sara! I work at Udacity as a course manager, meaning I’m often on the Udacity end of the conversation when students check in with questions about our courses. I’ve also recently donned a course developer hat, meaning I work with Professor Cay Hortsmann and Cheng-Han Lee to develop our new Intro to Programming course. 

Developing a course at Udacity is pretty exciting. It generally goes like this: 

Brainstorming, scripting & writing sample code

Initially, Cheng-Han, Cay, and I brainstorm cool examples of things you can program, like drawing a graph of your friends. Next, we write lesson scripts and test out all the example code.

Filming

When we film the videos, I always find that the code has a mind of its own. I plan some mistakes so students can see the process of reasoning about bugs, but sometimes I make new mistakes while filming. I guess those ones will be more authentic :) Recognizing and fixing bugs is a critical skill. Bugs are a constant reality of programming, and they are conquerable.

Cay and I in the recording studio

Editing

When I finish recording a video, I hand it to our talented video editors, who edit the footage so that it flows well and feels like a finished product.

Coding quizzes & assignments

The polished footage is uploaded to the site where Cheng-Han codes all the quizzes and programing assignments. Without this last critical step, all the content would be just another lecture. At Udacity, we plan the course around the questions, because when you make mistakes while answering questions, your brain grows.

Cheng-Han coding in stealth mode 

I love being a Udacity course developer for Intro to Programming because I believe that very soon, if it hasn’t happened already, we will realize that programming is as important for careers as reading and writing is. It’s something you can use to communicate with the world, and to build your ideas into realities.

More and more, the world needs people to learn CS, and we’re struggling to keep up with educating all of the students who want to learn. I came to Udacity because if I build good content here, potentially thousands of people can use it to learn to program. Working at Udacity, I am able to make a difference by reaching students at a scale I never dreamed of. If you want to take the course to earn college credit with San Jose State University, you have three more days until enrollment closes on Friday, May 24th.

Sara Tansey

Udacity Course Manager & Developer

CS101 Spanish Study Group

Today, we’re welcoming two Udacians, Dennis and Edwin from Guatemala City, back to the blog for a special announcement.

We first met Dennis and Edwin when they traveled from Guatemala to attend the HTML5 Game Development study group hosted by Udacity and Google. They were inspired by the study group, which students could attend in person or online via YouTube livestream, and they had a very Udacious idea - to bring similar CS101 study groups to Spanish-speaking students.

Dennis and Edwin built a Spanish-language study group series that follows in the footsteps of the inaugural HTML5 San Francisco study group. They offer a hybrid in-person and online study group to accompany Udacity’s CS101 lessons.

Hard at work!

Interested? The study group will start on June 4, and will meet for one hour per week for six consecutive weeks. Dennis and Edwin will kick off each week with a short lesson recap, and afterwards will open the floor to questions. To submit and vote on questions for the study group, visit the study group forum.

Students can fill out the RSVP form to attend the Guatemala City study group in person. The group has room for about 50 students to attend in person, and 25 folks have already RSVP’d, so hurry to RSVP. If you hear back from Dennis and Edwin, you’ll have a standing invitation to the study group.

Testing the filming equipment

You can reserve your virtual spot by subscribing to the Livestream event, and stay connected in the Google+ community and on Facebook. Questions? You can also tweet to Dennis and Edwin at @denniszelada and @mcinside.

Huge thanks to Dennis and Edwin for expanding CS101 hybrid live/livestreamed study groups to Guatemala. We also want to thank our Udacious translators for making it possible to learn CS101 with Spanish captions!

Sebastian Thrun Takes Coffee Break to Discuss Online Masters Degree

Welcome to this week’s Coffee Break! 

It’s been a big week for us at Udacity, what with our HTML5 Game Development certificate program launch, announcing our collaboration with Georgia Tech and AT&T to offer an Online Masters Degree in Computer Science, and debuting our I/O course.

Whew, that’s a full week! The buzz around these new developments has been tremendously encouraging -- thank you for all of your support in these new adventures.

For this week’s Coffee Break installment, Sebastian talks with fellow Udacian, Clarissa, about the Online Masters Degree, as well as course certificate alternatives for students who aren’t interested in the entire degree.

For more thoughts from Sebastian, be sure to read his blog post reflecting on MOOCs, empowerment and education. 

Happy Friday and Happy Coffee Break!

10 Reasons to Take Your Education Online

Happy Friday, Udacity! 

Millions of people are getting inspired by a new era of online education, and we here at Udacity are absolutely thrilled to watch empowered students advance their education and their careers with our free, online courses. Virtual classrooms are filling up all over the interwebs!

We are so jazzed about online learning that we decided to make a list for everyone who needs a few extra reasons to take their education online. We polled the office and this is what we came up with!

Here’s one of the reasons: There’s no such thing as being late to your laptop.

This man has never been late in his life. Only early. 

We care deeply about the future of education and believe that higher education is a basic human right -- Udacity’s mission is to bring accessible, affordable, engaging and highly effective education to the world. 

We also believe in having fun, so stay tuned for more lists.

Udacity at Google I/O

Udacity is really excited to be participating in Google I/O this year at their Developer Sandbox, and we’ve created a custom mini lesson to give I/O attendees -- and anyone else who is curious about what it’s like to learn with Udacity -- a taste of a simple lesson.

Figure out which philosophers are thinking, waiting, and eating

In this short, 10 minute “lesson,” we’ll walk you through solving a brain teaser. Share this with your friends and challenge yourselves to see who can solve this puzzle about philosophers and chopsticks today!

College Algebra with Udacity and San Jose State University

Hi, I’m Miriam, one of the course developers for College Algebra, a course you can take this summer with Udacity and San Jose State University to learn the fundamentals of algebra -- and earn college credit while you’re at it. 

College Algebra, taught by San Jose State's Dr. Julie Sliva Spitzer, fellow course developer Sarah Norell, and myself, will take you all the way from defining variables through finding roots of higher degree polynomials through solving exponential and logarithmic equations.

Learn to use algebra to predict panda population growth. 

Whether you are new to algebra or want to strengthen your understanding of the subject, College Algebra will make concepts resonate on a deep level and will help develop your intuition for problem solving. The engaging, and often amusing, examples used will give you a chance to play around with math while also realizing its relevance for everyday life.  

If you’d like to help out a startup that makes windshield wipers for glasses, determine the age of the Dead Sea scrolls, or predict how a panda population will grow, joins us in College Algebra!

One of the awesome things about Udacity is that once a course is created, it will always be available. Now that all of the lessons for College Algebra have been released, you can work through the entire course at your own pace, whether you want to zip through as quickly as possible or give yourself a generous summer vacation break.

Also, join me as I fly through the solar system! 

Of course, if you want to earn college credit this summer at San Jose State University, you do have to enroll for credit by Friday, May 24th, so sign up today!

Miriam Swords Kalk

Udacity Course Developer

Entry-Level Mathematics with Udacity and San Jose State University

Summer is almost here! You might have travel plans or you might be staying in one place. Either way, I hope you’ll find time to learn something new and join me for Entry-Level Mathematics. My name is Chris Saden, and I've teamed up with not just one but two professors at San Jose State, Sandra DeSousa and Susan McClory, to create an exciting math course.

Now if you’re thinking, “Hey, Algebra is not for me” or “I’m no good at math”, then watch this clip about London’s Black Cab Drivers and see if you can change your mind.

These drivers learned an immense amount of knowledge over time, and the number of their neural connections actually grew. You have that same ability to make your own connections with math!

In this course, we will take a visual approach to learning Algebra. We’ll explain math symbols, like a cube root, by drawing perfect cubes, and we’ll draw diagrams to support our reasoning. 

I’m much more of fan of showing rather than telling so here is a sample question from the course.

If this has you thinking, then come join us for Entry-Level Mathematics. Be sure to register by May 24th if you’re seeking to satisfy the the ELM requirement in California. While this course does not offer college credit toward a degree, successful completion of the course can allow you to take more advanced math courses.

This course will prepare you for our College Algebra course so if you are looking to brush up on the basics or wondering which course to take, this is a great starting point. I hope to see you in class!

Chris Saden
Udacity Course Developer