Programming Bootcamps as an Alternative to Lectures

Ariel Krakowski, Learneroo While many areas of the job market are still weak, one area is growing in demand: Programming1. This is because jobs that used to require people can now be done by programs. For example, law students are facing a difficult job market, and one reason for this is because algorithms can now analyze texts instead of lawyers.2 This trend will continue. Millions of people in the US are employed as drivers, but once algorithms drive better than humans, the humans will need to look for new work. As the tech investor Marc Andreessen said, software is eating the world.3 One would expect colleges to expand and update their computer science (CS) departments as demand for programming grows. Instead, Yeshiva University downsized its CS department and subsumed it into the Math department. Since YUs CS department is so small and weak, students avoid it, which causes it to remain small and weak. A couple of CS students in my year switched out of YU to pursue computer science elsewhere. Who knows how many students interested in computer science avoided YU in the first place? If YU would build a strong CS program, they would attract many talented students. As the founders of Google, Facebook and Oracle demonstrate, theres no lack of successful Jewish programmers in the world! YU needs to do something about their CS department or it will continue to lose many students (and future donors!). However, it should consider a more bold solution than just hiring more professors.

Most students in Computer Science did not get that much out of the lectures in computers. The best students would usually read or program on their computers during class instead of listening to the lecture. This was independent of the quality of the lecture, but because lectures themselves are not the best way to teach computers or programming. To learn a topic like programming one needs to actively practice it, not passively listen to a lecture. To quote Aristotle: For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre-players by playing the lyre... The lecture system4 has managed to survive the invention of writing and printing, but the internet will eat traditional lectures just as its changed other areas. At the very least, s oftware
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Software Developers ranked #1 on CareerBuilders rankings of Fast-growing high-paying jobs bit.ly/cbjob2014. Note that Programmers, Software Developers and Software Engineers are just different titles for the same thing. 2 See Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html 3 Why Software Is Eating The World Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2011 4 For more on the problems with Lectures, see The Change-Up in Lectures ntlf.com/issues/v5n2/v5n2.pdf For a professor taking a more chavrua-style approach, see Rethinking the Way College Students Are Taught bit.ly/learndontlecture

will play a greater role in software education! See The Future of Education5 for more on this topic; this article will focus on a different aspect. Jews are familiar with a different approach to learning than lectures - learning with a chavrusa, or study partner. It is hard to study complex subjects on ones own, so it often helps to work with a study-partner. A pair studying alone may also find it difficult to stay focused, which can be solved by joining a group that provides the right environment, structure and support. For example, in Morasha Kollel, bright and motivated students are able to learn a tremendous amount over the summer, primarily with chavrusa-learning in a structured environment. Colleges think that students learn due to their lectures, but really the environment and structure are the key to learning; the lecture is often just a distraction. Recently, some have successfully adopted a Morasha-Kollel-style approach to teaching programming. 'Programming Bootcamps', such as DevBootcamp or AppAcademy, have been popping up all over to teach web development in 2-3 months. Students in these programs often learn more practical programming skills there than they would in 3 years in many colleges. Lectures play a very small role in these programs. Instead, they gather bright students together to code for most of the day, and provide them with structure and help. Students go through online tutorials, and then spend most of the time practicing coding. When they need help or feedback, they have other students or mentors to turn to. This approach has been very successful, and many students have been able to land full-time jobs after graduating from their program. Academics, when they hear such comparisons, often snort a college is not a trade school, were not here to teach practical skills! Thats nice, but when you ask most students why theyre attending college, they cite employment as the number one reason.6 Students arent taking out loans just to be well-rounded or to learn to think critically, and colleges may not help with those things either.7 If colleges want to remain relevant they will need to adjust their offerings to match what their customers want.8 In theory, YU could learn from the bootcamps and offer its own programming bootcamp for students. This could turn YU from its current CS ranking to one of the best and coolest colleges to learn programming. The bootcamp could start as an experiment, and eventually become a real academic choice, with the option to earn credits and satisfy requirements. The bootcamps could be a block set aside during the day where students code for a few hours straight. Mentors will be there to provide structure and feedback for the students. Motivated students could learn

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The Commentator, Dec. 2011. Ariel Krakowski. The two top reasons students gave for attending college were to get a better job and make more money. Educational Attainment and Private Economic Welfare postsecondary.org/last12/10293Private.pdf 7 See cbsnews.com/news/study-college-students-not-learning-much 8 See yucommentator.org/2012/03/the-future-of-education-ii-a-new-curriculum for the subjects colleges should teach.

a huge amount in such a structure. In fact, this model could be adopted to other subjects too, and could help save a huge sum of money too. In practice, YU is not going to do anything so bold, so students should consider such options themselves. There are a number of programming bootcamps that teach web development, and a few recently opened in New York. There arent yet bootcamps that teach Java, but that is something that will change soon Ariel Krakowski graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yeshiva College in May 2012 with a B.A. in Computer Science. He is the founder of Learneroo.com, a site to teach programming and other topics online. Learneroo will be creating an online Java programming bootcamp this January. Ariel can be reached at ak@learneroo.com.