computer-science-path-learn-python-3-revamp

Computer Science Path and Learn Python 3 Revamp

01/13/2021

Good news! The Codecademy Curriculum team will be spending the next few months updating the Computer Science Path (and in the process, our Learn Python 3 course). 🏗

Computer Science has the fastest-growing interest among STEM majors.

A recent study shows that there has been a 9% increase in software engineering degrees and a 7.5% increase in computer science degrees in 2018-2019. This year alone the U.S. produced about 65,000 CS students. And there were even more CS grads in China (185,000 students) and India (215,000 students). That’s almost half a million new CS grads from these three countries in one year! 🤯

CS Lecture at UC Berkeley

But alarmingly, according to another study, 83% of Americans say they can’t afford college. Amid an ongoing pandemic and economic downturn, this number is simply not acceptable. Recently, the Curriculum team at Codecademy came together and brainstormed a few ways to tackle this problem.

"A modern CS program that’s credible and affordable.”

We took a hard look at our current Computer Science Path as well as the core courses offered at MIT and Stanford and identified numerous ways where we could transform the CS Path into an immersive classroom experience that teaches learners both theory of computation and practice of problem-solving.

Our 2021 north star is to bring a world-class CS curriculum that competes with the top CS departments in the world, right on the Codecademy platform and at a fraction of the cost for the learners.

Curriculum Updates

Our Computer Science Path and Python 3 content are some of the most popular content in our catalog. But we think we can do better.

Over the next six months, we’ll be adding several new courses, lessons, quizzes, projects, videos, articles, and curated resources — including textbooks and new open-sourced GitHub repos — to introduce and build upon foundational topics in Computer Science. We’re releasing a brand-new content type: the Portfolio Project, which can help you move off the Codecademy platform and develop a professional portfolio similar to college-level capstone projects. Additionally, we are rearranging some of the content so that it better reflects a traditional Computer Science program. We want to recreate a college lab experience right in your browser. Finally, we’ve integrated connective tissue to clarify what you’re covering in each course and how it relates to your overall Computer Science Path journey.

When?

New content will be added to the catalog starting Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

Take a look below to get an overview of the syllabus updates.

Computer Science Path Syllabus:

Current Changes:

  • CS101: Introduction to Programming (Part 1) – Today

Upcoming Changes:

  • CS101: Introduction to Programming (Part 2) – March 2021
  • CS102: Data Structures and Algorithms – Q2 2021
  • CS103: Discrete Mathematics – Q3 2021
  • CS104: Databases – Q3 2021

The Team

To make sure we build top-notch content that marries modern classroom pedagogy and industry knowledge, we created a brand new Computer Science Domain team and assembled a group of educators that have taught Computer Science and programming at world-renowned CS departments, high schools, bootcamps, and fellow EdTech companies:

  • Sonny Li ………………………….. Senior Curriculum Developer
  • Alex Kuntz ….…………….…….. Senior Curriculum Developer
  • Sarai Gould ….…………………. Senior Curriculum Developer
  • David Patlut …….…….……….. Senior Curriculum Developer
  • Carolyn Yao ……………………….……….. Curriculum Developer
  • Alex DiStasi ……………… Associate Curriculum Developer
  • Alisha Grama ……………. Associate Curriculum Developer
  • Adam Herman ………………….…………….…… Project Manager
  • Tim Liedtke ……………………………….……………………… Designer

Note: This is not the sole project that the Curriculum team is taking on in 2021. There will be adjacent Curriculum teams working on a wide spectrum of content in our pipeline, including Web Development, Mobile Development, Data Science, and more. So stay tuned for those!

How does this impact you?

If you’ve already started or completed the Computer Science Path and/or Learn Python 3, you will see some new content added to the Path and course and changes to the syllabus.

You won’t lose progress on the coursework that you’ve already completed; however, you may notice that your overall progress percentage has decreased, as there is a greater amount of content included in the improved Path.

Recap

We will be continuously updating our Computer Science Path in 2021 to bring a modern university equivalent CS program that’s affordable and credible right on Codecademy. Our north star is to build a world-class curriculum that competes with the top CS departments around the world.

Happy 2021 and wish us luck! 🙌

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