Accenture to Acquire Udacity • Hacker News Board

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#81

Post by anogrebattle » Thu, Mar 07, 2024, 1:24 AM UTC

farhanhubble wrote: post #64

I joined Udacity when the mission was "Double the world's GDP" and the best engineers and researchers flocked there to create great content. I loved the culture and the people. It was family in the truest sense. When I left the company, it had been hijacked by greedy and stupid MBAs running the show with a huge number of unwanted meetings, buzzword-filled marketing, sub-par content, and burning cash with random "data…

I share the same sentiment! I also worked at Udacity until 2018. Those were some of the most fun years of my professional life. It was sad seeing the original people leave and, with them, dedication to the original mission. I know some folks are still kicking around edtech ideas, so who knows? Maybe Udacity 2.0, once again focused on "Double the world's GDP," will pop up one day?

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#82

Post by stuckkeys » Thu, Mar 07, 2024, 3:24 AM UTC

iamleppert wrote: post #14

I paid over $1,000 for one of their “nanodegree” programs. After it ended, they had the nerve to lock all the content, including all my notes and submissions as well as course content like videos and such. I highly recommend anyone avoid them.

Wth js a nano degree lol. Some kind of fancy certificate?

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#83

Post by hilux » Thu, Mar 07, 2024, 7:37 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #73

hilux wrote: post #50

The collapse in value of OPMs and EdTechs is something to behold: Byju's, Coursera, 2U, Udacity ... I don't understand it.

Because they mostly turned out to be something that professionals, often already with multiple degrees, were willing to dabble in for free. They didn't really alter the education landscape in any significant way--in part because any certificates weren't really valued by companies.

Many certs are absolutely valued - look at the number of people who change careers with a cert from UC Berkeley Extension - and beyond that, 2U and Coursera, and others, were heavily investing in the degree space.

The explanation for their failure is more complex than "certs are worthless."

Obviously 2U overpaid for edX, but that's just one example. And why didn't edX do better?