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Apr 23, 2019 - 08:47 AM
The “nanodegrees” offered by Udacity just give a different name to a common practice: the online certification. As with any online certifications, the value ultimately lies in whether or not the people who get them walk away with valuable skills.
With nanodegrees and other certifications, learners can target skill sets more specific than those offered by most college programs. And in the quickly changing world of ecommerce, those specific skills sets are especially valuable.
When hiring for marketing, you probably look for people who have a college degree (unless they have experience equivalent to a degree). However, marketing and related programs at colleges rarely can change their curriculum fast enough to keep up with the times. While graduates will walk away with some useful skills, you can’t expect them to get the most up-to-date knowledge (in an industry that changes year by year) from an institution that changes much more slowly.
Online certifications are pretty much the only way to fill those gaps, aside from on-the-job experience. However, as an employer, you don’t have the time to find out whether every nanodegree and certification offers value. That’s why you should let potential candidates speak for the value of their nanodegrees themselves.
Many Udacity graduates review the experience well. But just because they liked the program doesn’t mean they’ve actually learned what you need them to know. So ask them.
A candidate who has the skills you need will be able to explain how their nanodegree applies to the job. If they can’t explain what relevant skills they learned, they probably don’t have them.
Another benefit of Udacity is that learners walk away from the program with a portfolio of projects to show off. That portfolio, along with the candidate’s ability to explain how it applies to the job, will show you everything you need to know.
Apr 23, 2019 - 08:59 AM
As for how Udacity compares to Udemy and Coursera, the site AfterSchoolAfrica has the best writeup:
https://www.afterschoolafrica.com/9321/udemy-vs-udacity/
Here's an excerpt:
Udemy is an online market place open to ”industry experts” to teach their knowledge and area of expertise to learners. Udacity partners with “industry leaders” like Google, Facebook, AT&T & Microsoft, to teach technology skills today employers need. Coursera partners with “top Universities” like Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Manchester, and University of Sydney etc to offer courses to learners around the world.So Udemy is the least rigorous and Coursera is the most rigorous with Udacity falling somewhere in the middle. They also have a nice table summary. I've clipped part of it below but I recommend you visit their site for the complete table.
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