| | Lisa | Over the last several years, I have worked with multiple online programs. In each case, I have found myself frustrated for one reason or another. My experience with Learn Verified has been a welcomed change. The curriculum is clear and concise, while still presenting a challenge. The lab work provides a valuable platform to practice what you have learned. The entire program is well scaffolded, delivering lessons step-by-step, culminating in projects that demonstrate the bigger picture of how all the pieces fit together. The curriculum is open-source, so it is constantly being improved by students with the approval of instructors. The program has a valuable feature where you can ask questions and get answers from other students and instructors in a real-time chat session. The process of talking through a problem with another student or instructor as it comes up is a tremendous improvement from the message board approach I have seen in other programs. The feedback at Learn comes live, and prevents the types of roadblocks that lead to frustration and disinterest. One of the co-founders of the school is incredibly involved in the program. He typically gives three live lectures per week based on topics the students have requested. He’s active in the Slack channel and is constantly offering to help students with whatever they need to succeed. Even though this is a remote program, you really get the feeling that you are part of a community of students eager to help each other get through any roadblocks they encounter. I had considered attending an in-person bootcamp, but the flexibility afforded by Learn lets me move at my own pace. This lets me re-visit topics that I need to spend more time on. This would not be possible if I was attending an in-person bootcamp. I can efficiently breeze through topics that are more intuitive to me, while spending more time on ones that are more challenging. You still get the same material that students in the in-person Flatiron bootcamp get, but you can navigate at your own pace. Most importantly, I have learned more in the past few months with Learn than I learned in two years of self study. This program has focused me on the right topics to study, and the right order to study them. Finding individual free resources is easy, but figuring out how to combine them into a worthwhile lesson plan is nearly impossible. This program sets you up with exactly what you need to learn, providing a great foundation of knowledge that is setting me up to code in the real world. |
