How Codecademy Does Asynchronous Learning
Having recently enrolled in Codecademy to learn programming languages, I’ve done the programming foundations and HTML/CSS courses and I’m finishing up the Javascript course.
These courses are completely self-driven and asynchronous. They grant their learners complete autonomy to jump around, look up solutions, and engage at their own pace.
I’ve mentioned the way they structure their lessons at work a few times this week, and we’ve actually been implementing one of the strategies they use. Video answer keys! For every project in Codecademy, there is a demo video of a professional developer completing the assignment. You can follow along, skip to a part where you get stuck, or ignore it all together. But it’s UP TO YOU.
Codecademy has nailed asynchronous learning design, if you ask me. There are conceptual lessons, followed by real world challenges or projects, followed by knowledge checks, with reinforcement practices available on demand.
For Codecademy, it’s all about independence and flexibility. They are speaking my love language! I’ve also yet to reach a challenge that is too difficult- the way the topics gradually build in complexity feels just right.
So it turns out I’m learning not just how to code, but also how to build online courses. This is a bonus perk I wasn’t expecting.
