Udacity
Latest
Udacity's 'flying car' engineering course starts next month
Flying cars have always been a goalpost of the future, but last year companies like Toyota, Airbus, DeLorean and Volvo's parent company invested in or announced plans to get their own units flying soon. If you wanted to get in on the ground floor of tomorrow's transportation, you might try joining the first class of 'flying car engineers' in a new nanodegree program at Udacity fronted by Sebastian Thrun, the former leader of Google's self-driving car program.
Voyage tests its self-driving cars in retirement communities
Online learning company Udacity decided to redirect the engineers it's training into a new spun-off self-driving tech company, Voyage, back in April. Now they're starting to test their autonomous technology with folks who could be greatly empowered by autonomous vehicles: Retirees in San Jose.
Lyft offers 400 scholarships for online self-driving car course
Online learning portal Udacity launched its first 36-week "nanodegree" course for self-driving car engineering last year. There's a new, introductory course available now as well, focused on bringing students with minimal programming into the larger program. Even better, Udacity has partnered with Lyft (which has self-driving plans of its own) to provide scholarships to the intro course in order to increase diversity to the program. 400 scholarships are available to US-based students with "varying levels of experience;" the application window closes October 1st.
Another startup promises self-driving taxis 'soon'
Popular online learning service Udacity already trains engineers for work in the fast-growing autonomous vehicles field, but now the company is ready to harness all that talent and launch its own self-driving taxi company. Led by CEO (and former Udacity Vice President) Oliver Cameron, the new spin-off company will be called Voyage and has given itself the goal of getting autonomous taxis to "real users" in less than five years.
Google will teach you to write Android apps
Learning to make your own Android apps isn't easy, especially if it's your first time programming anything. Do you find a tutorial and hope for the best? Sign up for classes at the local college? Google might have a better way. It's introducing an Android Basics nanodegree (available in a week-long free trial) at Udacity that has Google experts teaching you how to write simple Android apps, even if you don't know a lick of code. The online course guides you far enough through Android Studio that you'll have an "entire portfolio" of programs by the time you're done -- you may not write the next Instagram, but you should be comfortable.
Online 'nanodegrees' boost your career without requiring time off
Climbing the career ladder can be daunting. You frequently need new skills to move ahead, but it's not always practical to take time off just to get some new credentials. However, AT&T and Udacity may have just solved this conundrum by unveiling "nanodegrees:" short online courses that are designed to boost your talents without disrupting your life. The upcoming programs teach subjects like app development and data analysis over the course of six to 12 months, assuming you devote 10 hours per week; you won't have to use up vacation time just to earn a certificate. You'll even get career help in the field you're studying, so you should have a better sense of how any new talents will apply in the real world.
Udacity launches Open Education Alliance to help modernize university curriculums
Udacity's first partnership with an institution of higher learning might not have turned out as well as it hoped, but a setback at San Jose State University won't cause the online learning portal to call it quits on college campuses. Quite the contrary, in fact. Today, Udacity announced the creation of the Open Education Alliance to "bridge the gap between the skills employers need and what traditional universities teach." The alliance is comprised of both Silicon Valley heavyweights like Google, AT&T and NVIDIA and educators including Georgia Tech and Khan Academy. The OEA's goal is to enlist the help of both companies and educators in building a new curriculum to help students learn what they need to choose and succeed in a modern career. Here at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013, Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun and California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom discussed the need for a shift in our educational system, and consequently the OEA. "It's important to be creative about this," said Thrun, "we need to move away from an 'industry of drones' by enabling students to learn at their own speed." Naturally, accomplishing this task requires a combination of Udacity's online learning tools to give folks on-demand access to learning materials they need and a physical classroom environment to keep students on task. According to Newsom, "It's not mass education anymore, it's personalized."
San Jose State University suspends Udacity online course trials
San Jose State University's online education pilot held the promise of real course credit without the hassles of attending class in person. It hasn't worked that way in practice, however, and both SJSU as well as its partner Udacity have suspended their plans for fall courses. Quite simply, there have been too many flunkies so far -- while 83 percent of students completed their sessions this spring, no more than 44 percent of any given class earned a passing grade. SJSU and Udacity will use the break to learn what went wrong and retool the program, although it's not clear just when (or if) internet-based classes will resume. Online education is far from finished when similar for-credit trials have yet to begin; for now, though, SJSU students will have to drag themselves to the lecture hall.
Udacity to announce partnership with San Jose State University, will trial for-credit online classes
Working alongside college professors at San Jose State, online course start-up Udacity will launch a pilot program for remedial and college-level algebra. Importantly, these classes won't simply result in a nice certificate, but genuine college credit. Students will have to stump up $150 for each three-unit course, with the intake limited to 300; half will come from San Jose State, while the remaining places will be given to those attending nearby community colleges and high schools. The online course start-up, founded by former Stanford professor Sebastian Thurn, says that its own mentors will assist university staff in administering the course, which will include instructional video and web-based quizzes. MIT and Harvard's similar EdX course saw promising results during its own pilot tests at San Jose. While 40 percent in the traditional class arrangement got a C grade or lower, only 9 percent using the blended online course picked up the same grades. California Governor Jerry Brown hopes that the courses might help reduce barriers to college education entry -- more than 50 percent of entrants are unable to meet the college's basic requirements in math and English.
