Education Startup Udacity Bets It Can Fill The Need For More Data Scientists With New Online Degree Program
Hot on the heels of a new $37 million White House initiative designed to encourage data science work at American universities, education startup, Udacity, is responding with a data science initiative of its own.
Context & Ripple Effects
Online education already had a marketplace-oriented entrant in Udemy, whose seed-backed push to democratize online learning framed the web as a distribution channel for instruction. Separately, Civitas Learning's 2012 funding showed that big data was becoming a higher-education priority in its own right.
Udacity is positioning a career-specific credential alongside the White House's university-focused data-science initiative. That makes the issue not only whether universities develop data-science capacity, but whether startups can package training around the same skills demand.
First-order effects
- Udacity adds an online data-science degree program, giving prospective data scientists a startup-run route alongside university-based programs encouraged by the White House initiative.
- The White House's $37 million effort and Udacity's program reinforce demand for data-science instruction through two different channels: public support for universities and online delivery from a private provider.
Second-order effects
- Online education providers such as Udemy face greater pressure to show that broad course marketplaces can meet career-specific technical demand as directly as a dedicated degree program.
- Higher-education companies working with data, including Civitas Learning's big-data-focused model, operate in an environment where data-science capability is becoming a more visible institutional priority.
Third-order effects
- If online credentials gain traction alongside university programs, technical workforce training will be supplied by a wider mix of universities, education startups, and course marketplaces rather than by campus programs alone.
The trend: Data-science skills are becoming a distinct education market, with online providers packaging job-oriented credentials alongside public investment in university capacity.