I Tried To Complete Udacity’s 3 Month Nanodegree in a Month….
Have you clicked on or searched for an online course in the past 6 months? If you have, you will have seen that there are A LOT of them available online. And as a result of the wonderful world of targeted advertising, I came across Udacity’s Business Analytics Nanodegree Program. The offer: 1 month free for a program that would normally cost $399 per month. I had tried and failed a few times already at completing online courses but with all the extra time I had from the pandemic, I challenged myself to complete this program in a month.
Real-World Projects
As you would expect from an online course, there are a number of lessons and quizzes. For the most part, these are all geared at preparing the student for three (3) unique projects. In fact, the lessons are not even necessary for graduation. The student only needs to successfully complete the projects…. think college classes that don’t grade attendance. There is also a required project that consists of reviewing your resume and LinkedIn profile. This was well needed because I am sure like me many of you may not haven touched your resumes in a while.
The projects are centered on the use of three (3) software packages:
1.) Excel/Spreadsheet program
2.) MySQL
3.) Tableau
The Excel/spreadsheet project focuses on forecasting and creating graphs from New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) data. The lessons/quizzes leading up this project cover basic statistics such as median, mean and standard deviation, and graphs such as histograms, pie charts etc. Students are also introduced to more complex spreadsheet functions such as VLOOKUP, AND, IF, OR, etc.
The second project uses MySQL and a music database source. From this database source the student is tasked with using MySQL to make three unique insights. In the lessons leading up this project, students become familiar with SQL functions such as JOIN, CASE, DATE, etc.
The final project has three different data sources – two of the more interesting data sources were flight records from 2015 and YouTube data for the top trending videos in a specific year. From these data sources, the student is expected to use Tableau to create dashboards and stories. This section in particular was very impactful as it highlighted the significance of data visualization in the modern world. For example, would you prefer to read that according to the flight data source, “Southwest Airlines had the most cancelled flights and the most cancelled flights across all airlines occurred in the state of Texas” vs. being presented with the below interactive dashboard to not only reveal the previous details but so much more.
Dashboard created in Nanodegree program
Data Visualization is such a valuable skill; students could go from Nanodegree to offering this service on platforms such as Fiverr. I checked, there is a market for this.
All of these projects, though fictional, put students in scenarios that are very plausible as a business analyst. This is a recurring theme throughout the course; lessons/quizzes are often framed from a real-world/industry perspective. Prompts such as “Imagine yourself as manager of a software company and you wish to pull data to determine which advertising channels are working best….”. These simple nuances are very helpful in reminding the student that the skills being learnt are directly applicable in the real world.
Feedback Loop & User Interface
Udacity also has a very personable and timely review process. During my project submittals, I received feedback specific to my work… not generic comments. On occasion, there were times I had a feeling my project fell short of the requirements but I just couldn’t pinpoint a solution or what was missing. Reviewers never failed to point out these shortcomings and provide constructive feedback on how to move forward and fulfill the project rubric.
Project Review comments
Some people can be very productive at a messy desk while others need to have everything in a very specific location at their desk to function. I say all that to say, there are different strokes for different folks. If you are anything like me, I get a little giddy for a good UI. Details such as color choice, font style and icon styling. When it comes together, its just…
Udacity’s interface utilizes a user focused, easily navigable and modern aesthetic. Navigation panes utilize white text against a dark background.
Udacity UI
This may seem insignificant, but just take a look at the evolution of the UI of companies such as Apple and Microsoft. Look no further than the development of dark mode and you’ll get a sense of how prevalent this color schematic is.
Price and Psychology intertwine….
I think I have beat around the bush for long enough, $399 per month is expensive. In comparison to most other online learning platforms, it would seem like a bad value proposition. However, value is a subjective term and based on my experience, I believe it was worth it. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete the program in a month but I did complete it in around 7 weeks. This would mean a cost of only $399. Still expensive, but the volume of content I received made it a good value proposition for me.
Another thing to note is that once you graduate, you permanently have access to the Nanodegree material.
Over the years, I have started many online courses, but often fell short of completion due to any number of reasons: plain old life, lack of discipline, loss of interest etc. From a purely psychological perspective, I believe the price of this course engendered a sense of urgency and discipline in my efforts. In my experience, college students study a bit different when student loans are in their name vs. their parents…
With all that being said, I would recommend anyone give the one-month free trial a try. If you don’t believe it is right for you, just cancel your subscription before the trial period ends. No harm, no foul. Just remember to set that reminder.
If you would like to give this course or another business course a try, click below. For transparency, this is an affiliate link that could lead to compensation for this site.
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