I joined Udacity when the mission was "Double the world's GDP" and the best engineers and researchers flocked there to create great content. I loved the culture and the people. It was family in the truest sense. When I left the company, it had been hijacked by greedy and stupid MBAs running the show with a huge number of unwanted meetings, buzzword-filled marketing, sub-par content, and burning cash with random "data-driven" experiments.
People passionate about education and those with genuine ideas were sidelined and many were let go in multiple rounds of layoffs. It's so painful to see Udacity being bought by Accenture, another MBA/consultants-led shitshow.
The courses that were created until circa 2018 were amazing. Those created afterward were barely worth the time, let alone the money.
I hope someday the great folks will get back together and build another great learning platform again.
I share the same sentiment! I also worked at Udacity until 2018. Those were some of the most fun years of my professional life. It was sad seeing the original people leave and, with them, dedication to the original mission. I know some folks are still kicking around edtech ideas, so who knows? Maybe Udacity 2.0, once again focused on "Double the world's GDP," will pop up one day?
People passionate about education and those with genuine ideas were sidelined and many were let go in multiple rounds of layoffs. It's so painful to see Udacity being bought by Accenture, another MBA/consultants-led shitshow.
The courses that were created until circa 2018 were amazing. Those created afterward were barely worth the time, let alone the money.
I hope someday the great folks will get back together and build another great learning platform again.