Udacity is a for-profit educational organization founded by Sebastian Thrun,
David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky offering massive open online courses.
According to Thrun, the origin of the name Udacity comes from the company's
desire to be "audacious for you, the student". While it originally focused on
offering university-style courses, it now focuses more on vocational courses
for professionals. History
Udacity is the outgrowth of free computer science classes offered in 2011
through Stanford University. Thrun has stated he hopes half a million students
will enroll, after an enrollment of 160,000 students in the predecessor
course at Stanford, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and 90,000
students had enrolled in the initial two classes as of March 2012. Udacity was
announced at the 2012 Digital Life Design conference. Udacity is funded by
venture capital firm, Charles River Ventures, and $200,000 of Thrun's
personal money. In October 2012 the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz
led the investment of another $15 million in Udacity. In November 2013,
Thrun announced in a Fast Company article that Udacity had a "lousy
product" and that the service was pivoting to focus more on vocational
courses for professionals and "nanodegrees" As of 28 April 2014,
Udacity has 1.6 million users in 12 full courses and 26 free courseware.
In 2014, the Georgia Institute of Technology launched the first "massive
online open degree" in computer science by partnering with Udacity and AT&T; a
complete degree through that program costs students $7,000.
Courses The first two courses ever launched on
Udacity both started on 20 February 2012, entitled "CS 101: Building a
Search Engine", taught by David Evans from the University of Virginia, and "CS
373: Programming a Robotic Car" taught by Thrun. Both courses use Python.
Four more courses began on 16 April 2012, encompassing a range of ability
and subject matter, with teachers including Steve Huffman and Peter
Norvig. Five new courses were announced on 31 May 2012, and marked the first
time Udacity offered courses outside the domain of computer science. Four of
these courses launched at the start of the third "hexamester", on 25 June 2012.
One course, Logic & Discrete Mathematics: Foundations of Computing,
was delayed for several weeks before an email announcement was sent out on 14
August stating that the course would not be launched, although no further
explanation was provided. On 23 August 2012, a new course in
entrepreneurship, EP245 taught by retired serial entrepreneur Steve Blank,
was announced. Four new specialized CS courses were announced as part of
collaboration with Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Autodesk, Cadence Design
Systems, and Wolfram Research on 18 October 2012, to be launched in early
2013. On 28 November 2012, Thrun's original AI-class from 2011 was
relaunched as a course at Udacity, CS271.
Udacity announced a partnership with San Jose State University on 15 January 2013
to pilot three new courses, two algebra courses and a statistics course,
available for college credit at SJSU and offered entirely online. Three months
later, the pilot was expanded to include MA006, MA008, and ST095, as well as two
new courses, CS046 and PS001. On 18 July 2013, the partnership was suspended
after more than half of the students failed their final exams.
In June 2014, Udacity and AT&T announced the "Nanodegree" program, designed to
teach programming skills needed to qualify for an entry-level IT position
at AT&T. The coursework is said to take less than a year to complete, and cost
about US$200/month. AT&T said it will offer paid internships to some graduates
of the program. = Course format=
Each course consists of several units comprising video lectures with closed
captioning, in conjunction with integrated quizzes to help students
understand concepts and reinforce ideas, as well as follow-up homework which
promotes a "learn by doing" model. Programming classes use the Python
language; programming assignments are graded by automated grading programs on
the Udacity servers. Enrollment
Over the first several months of Udacity's existence, enrollment for each
class was cut off on the due date of the first homework assignment, and the
courses were re-offered each hexamester. Since August 2012, all courses have been
"open enrollment"; students can enroll in one or more courses at any time after
a course is launched. All course lectures and problem sets are available
upon enrollment and can then be completed at the student's preferred
pace. Udacity had students in 203 countries in
the summer of 2012, with the greatest number of students in the United States,
India, Britain, and Germany. Udacity students for CS101 range from
13-year-olds to 80-year-olds. Advanced 13-year-olds are able to complete
multiple, higher-level computer science courses on Udacity.
Certification Upon completing a course, students
receive a certificate of completion indicating their level of achievement,
signed by the instructors, at no cost. Issuing of the free certificates is
being phased out. In addition, beginning 24 August 2012, through partnership with
electronic testing company Pearson VUE, students of CS101 can elect to take an
additional proctored 75-minute final exam for a fee of $89 in an effort to
allow Udacity classes to "count towards a credential that is recognized by
employers". Further plans announced for
certification options would include a "secured online examination" as a less
expensive alternative to the in-person proctored exams.
Colorado State University's Global Campus began offering transfer credit
for the introductory computer science course for Udacity students that take
the final examination through a secure testing facility. Udacity is also
collaborating with Georgia Tech to offer courses toward a master's degree in
computer science. Awards
In November 2012, founder Sebastian Thrun won the Smithsonian American
Ingenuity in Education Award for his work with Udacity.
See also ALISON
Coursera Eliademy
edX Khan Academy
LearnStreet CK-12
ScalaCourses.com StraighterLine
The Saylor Foundation TechChange
Edureka uzity
Udemy Intellipaat
References External links
Official website