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Talking C++: An Interview with Simon Brand

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Talking C++: An Interview with Simon Brand

Mariel and Sonny, authors of Codecademy’s Learn C++ course, sat down and video chatted with Simon Brand, a C++ Developer Advocate for Microsoft based in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Simon is an organizer of #include , a C++ Standards proposal author, and a frequent conference speaker.

The first question we have for you is… what drew you to C++?

I kind of fell into C++ by accident. At university, I was doing some compiler work for OpenCL, which is a language for programming accelerators, like GPUs, DSPs, specialized hardware—one programming model for all of them. Working with those compilers, the C++ decision was kind of made for me and I got interested in it and got a job in a very similar kind of field.

So I was still doing C++ and the interest in it kind of just grew from there. I started reading blogs, watching videos of conference talks, and decided I wanted to write my own blogs and get involved in the standard process and start talking at conferences myself. So it just grew from there.

Fantastic, thank you. Where do you see C++ heading in the future?

I think the C++ standardization is the healthiest it’s ever been, depending on how you want to define that. The mailing for San Diego, which was the meeting before the most recent one, had like 60% more papers than any other mailing in the history of C++. So the standard has more and more people involved, evolving at a greater rate than ever before. So it’s definitely still on its way up. For such an old language, the momentum for the standard is the highest it’s ever been.

I think in terms of where it will go in the industry, I think it will continue to develop in the embedded space, which has pretty much been owned by C for the longest time. But I think as developers in that space try and look elsewhere, or more young people get involved in the community and have context for what’s going on in other languages, people will start to look at things like C++ or Rust for embedded development more.

And I think it will still be growing. From the data that I see, it’s still growing in adoption across the board as well. So it will continue to be used in the financial industry and in video games and all the places where it’s currently a market leader.

Do you have a testing framework that you recommend for beginners to get started with?

I think Catch2 is the best one to get started with. It is very accessible and very easy to integrate into your projects. Very friendly to work with as well, I’d say. The documentation is pretty good, too.

And what IDE (integrated development environment) do you use?

Visual Studio on Windows and Visual Studio Code elsewhere, of course! For most of my career, I used Emacs.

“I think that the topic of a starter project doesn’t matter as long as it’s something which interests you.” -Simon Brand

For this next part, tell us the first thing that pops into your head!

return 0; in the main() function?

I don’t tend to.

using namespace std;?

Never in a header.

Variable naming convention?

I tend to follow the standard library. snake_case for pretty much everything. PascalCase for template parameters. SHOUTY_CASE for macros.

Favorite thing in STL (Standard Template Library)?

Oooooh… well optional is kind of my thing at the moment, because I wrote a paper for it. Oh actually, I’ll go for std::vector. It’s the go-to workhorse of C++ even if it has some problems as well.

And then one last question. What’s a good project for learners to do? Like what’s a really solid foundational project?

Yeah, I think the best topic for a foundational project is just something you’re interested in. It can be essentially anything. Like if you are into films, come up with something with that works in that space. If you’re into sports, think of like some simulation things. I think that the topic of a starter project doesn’t matter as long as it’s something which interests you.

I think what does matter is making sure that it’s well-scoped, so that when you have a “when I get to this, then I’ll have something and I’ll be able to show it off.” That might be like a series of milestones or something like that. But you should have some kind of scope in mind. Because otherwise, with these things, you get started and then feature creep sets in. And then you just lose momentum and you move on to something else.

If you want visible progress, try to have something with scope: clear milestones or something you want to learn and practice. I think that’s more important than what the project actually is, for sure.

A huge thank you to Simon Brand for what they’ve brought to the C++ community. Simon gave a thorough review of our Learn C++ course, providing ample feedback to make the C++ code more modern and technically accurate. Follow them on Twitter: @TartanLlama.

Announcing the Winners of the C++ Community Challenge

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Announcing the Winners of the C++ Community Challenge

C++ Community Challenge Prizes

When we launched Learn C++ Module 5: Vectors and Module 6: Functions, we also kicked off a month-long C++ Community Challenge—an opportunity for C++ Pro learners to team up and build something amazing together.

The project was open-ended, and each team’s submission was judged based on:

  • Use of C++ vectors and functions in code.
  • Collaboration.
  • Originality and readability of code (original code solutions, use of style conventions, use of comments to keep things legible).

Several of you found buddies across the globe to tackle the challenge. 🌍

You told us about the amazing efforts you put in, coordinating calls and screenshares, working together on GitHub. We are so impressed with the work you did…

Finding partners on the CLL slack channel

And the results are in!

1st Place 🏆:

HomeCook Recipe App
Using the HomeCook recipe app to find salmon and kale-based recipes

Built by Eric from California, USA and Sinan from Istanbul, Turkey, this recipe finder especially wowed us.

Check it out on GitHub.

We asked Eric about his experience working on the challenge and translating his learning into a standalone project:

“I learned that I needed to learn a whole slew of things:

  1. How to use XCode
  2. How to use Debugger
  3. Common Workflow steps/documentation – this I think would be very beneficial to get people on the same foot, and help initiate collaborations.”

Runners-up 💪:

  • Choose Your Own Adventure: A text adventure game featuring a bartender and a dragon.
  • TrafficFare: An updated MTA fare calculator.
  • Choose Your Path: A text adventure game featuring a cave-dwelling bear.

So, what did Eric and Sinan win aside from bragging rights? Codecademy hoodies and Arduino Unos!

What is an LXP and why do I want one?

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What is an LXP and why do I want one?

A colleague of mine attended a session this past week at ATD that covered LMS, LXP and LCMS (why LCMS was included? no idea).  Anyway, he said that when the speaker asked how many people had heard of an LXP, only a couple of hands raised up.

I wasn’t totally surprised, because what I find is that some people have heard of the names of some LXPs, but do not realize they are in fact not an LMS, rather they are an LXP.

These two vendors are EdCast and Degreed.  Both of which are LXPs.  Are they the best ones in the market? In my opinion, no.  But, they do offer strong components, just as they have some weaknesses.   However, that is for another post.

Getting back to being unaware, I find the same issue with a few vendors in the learning system space who are really LXPs, but have no idea.  I ask them a couple of questions, if they say “yes” to all, congrats you are an LXP.  Yet, I have been in polite discussions with the head of sales at one system, and the CEO of another who adamantly told me they are not an LXP.   It reminded me of the vendors in the space who scream they are not an LMS, even though they hit all the standards of an LMS.  

The difference here though, is that those two vendors specifically, really had ZERO idea where they slid into.

Just as I have done in the past regarding standards to be an LMS, I will put forthwith here shortly, what are the standards I see for an LXP.

Before doing that though, I would like to provide you with some trends, that I am seeing including one previously mentioned on what is happening between the LMS and LXP market, to my sadness.

Trends in the LXP Space

  • Becoming similar to LMSs – overall that is, not everyone of them, but boy from a learning environment to administration to content curation they are getting quite close.  This is why I think folks find it challenging to discern which is which.  There are though key differences.
  • Mentoring isn’t in every LXP.  In fact, it is only in a couple compared to the entire market.  Learn Amp has some functionality in the mentoring angle, for an example, but many LXPs are still holding back.  
  • Similar content.  No surprise here, but gee-whiz how many content providers do you need that offer business leadership or Office 2016?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to find those with UVP (Unique Value Proposition) to offer to your audience?  I know of one foreign language provider who focuses on business with their foreign language content.  Plus offers “live tutors”.  How many systems offer that content provider? Zero.   
  • Mobile with on/off synch – the majority of LXP vendors offer mobile apps with on/off synch.  This is a trend that will continue.  I’d say their adoption rate to on/off synch with native mobile apps is quicker than it was with LMS vendors. 
  • Heavily driven by Skills – Skill development and skill-building.  It continues with anything tied to skills, but – and this a huge one, not skill ratings, where only a few vendors play to the extent they should.  Sure, anyone can add a skill rating, but to do so with some level of an algorithm, tied to numerous variables that can be defined by an administrator is slim pickings (although Slim Pickens was a fine actor).
  • Video Management – as it relates to auto transcripts is on the rise.  It will continue. Video bookmarking is a close second. 
  • Learning Record Stores – higher adoption rate in comparison at this stage to LMS vendors.  That said, the same issue that is plaguing LMS providers is happening with LXP providers – so few are activating the LRS.  Again – makes zero sense. 

They follow the same argument that many LMS vendors do – no one is asking for it.  Well, no one asked for Blu-Ray, and yet, surprise, surprise it dominated the market.  Oh, and how many people were aware of 4K video?  What about 8K (and yes, it does exist).  If I don’t know, I won’t ask, so why put the onus on the consumer, when uh, you as the vendor should be the experts.

  • Metric challenged –  Ugh it is bad.  Part is due to the lack of embracing LRS in terms of it being live, part is that if you compare them to an LMS (many not all, mind you), the robustness isn’t there.   I’m not comparing them to an HCM either.  A heat map is only as good as the information/data it is providing and the ability for the administrator to extract into useful insight towards training and learning.
  • Extended Enterprise – So many LXP vendors want into this segment, and so few are successful.  If I was an LXP vendor, this is a segment I would place resources into, so it can happen.
  • Who are you?  Content Providers and other learning systems are not familiar with the LXP size, revenue potential or growth potential.

Here is something I found really funny about Rosetta Stone – they had absolutely no idea on what an LXP was, nor where they interested in being in an LXP. 

Want to know why?  They never heard of an LXP.

They weren’t the only ones that fell into that trap.  Pluralsight, a darling of recent note in the e-learning space, were unaware of the LXP market too. 

I know this, because I talked to a top exec at the company, regarding them being integrated with an LXP, and was informed that they had no interest because they receive so few requests.  Oh, that makes so much sense (not really).

LXP Standards

Here comes the bride, all dressed in LXP colors. La, la, la..

Now I am aware that there will be people who will go, my LMS does the same thing, and yes, there is more overlap now than before, but LXPs still can be unique and they still seem to lack certain functionality, that from an LMS standpoint, is different.

(In no particular order)

Content – Content – Content Aggregator

In simple terms, an LXP must have at least 10 3rd party content providers that are either fee-based or free to the client (the customer, not the end user).  They are if you strip everything out, a content aggregator in basic terms.   Content drives the LXP.  Let me repeat that – content drives the LXP. 

Many LXP vendors still do not allow you – the client – to upload your own content you built and/or 3rd party content you bought that is not available in their marketplace/exchange or whatever they call it.  Now, thankfully this is changing in the LXP space, but it is not where it should be.  Degreed for one, a system I do like, does not allow you to upload your own content from a 3rd party authoring tool.  You can link to it from the platform to wherever you want to house it, like uh, an LMS for example. 

The linking angle by the way is more common that you think, a minus in my opinion. Again, it is not universal, and there are many that allow you to upload your own content after it was built in an authoring tool or purchased via 3rd party who is not in the LXP platform itself, but it is still not across the board – and by the way a difference with LMS vendors (who I’d say 85-90% allow you to upload your own content built in a 3rd party authoring tool – as long as it has the same course standards as the LMS).

Freebies include YouTube and TED – both of which are common.  On the fee-based side, the end user does not buy the content, rather it is the client who does.  For example, you – an employee works at WidgetRUS.  WidgetRUS signed with LXP1.  

LXP1 offers 25 different content providers.  WidgetRUS buys 500 seats of content from VooSpirit.  You, the employee, can now access the content from VooSpirit which appears in your catalog (what the end user sees) or via the channels (depending on how the vendor displays).

Just as in an LMS, the client does not have to buy seats to seats with the content.  For example, if I have 5000 employees, but only want 500 to have content bundle B, I can do that.  And so forth.

Target Audience

L&D.   That’s it.  Learning and Development is their target market in terms of an audience.  Oh, and within that, employees.  Extended Enterprise might land the customer – which they definitely want at some point, but in the standards piece it is at least L&D (with employees)

Bolt – not Tampa Bay

Sorry, had to make a funny to my friends who love the NHL Lightening.  Anyway,  Bolt-on, add-on is the primary for an LXP.  This is to say, they are an add-on or bolt-on to an existing learning system, usually an LMS.  Now, does this mean every LXP does this, no, but more than not, do.

There are LXP vendors who see their end game as being a true standalone replacing a client’s LMS, and therefore making themselves the only learning system in town (for that client).

UI/UX

It is modern, streamlined to a point.  But not so streamlined that you are bored in a matter of seconds.  I tend to find them, as a whole, not to adapt to drag and drop on the learner side, as much as they should, and on the admin side, ditto.  

Learner Topics of Interest or Personal Interest

A staple in every LXP.  The learner-centric model exists here in full play. End users select the content based on what skills they want to learn, what are their general interests, etc.  The whole approach is about personal and professional development. 

Channels or Playlists

It appears as a cornerstone in the LXP market.  Depending on the LXP vendor’s nomenclature, they might call it a channel or a playlist.  It is the same thing.

Most Popular,  Highly Recommended, Most Recommended

Content that is, and these are listed again, either as a channel or a playlist.

Other channels (or playlists) include

  • Highest rated or similar vernacular (might be called most popular)
  • Recommended (based on what the employee has taken, regardless if it is completed or not – uh, wait, let me restate that, on what the employee has taken, as some vendors’ algorithm requires the learner to complete the content, in order for the recommendation to be more effective, which, yes, as you can see, defeats the purpose of why e-learning was created in the first place)

Some vendors offer or have as their primary, crowdsourcing, which yes, in this case, sounds intriguing, but is really awful when it comes to recommendation, highest rated, most popular, trending (more on that in a bit).

  • Trending or similar terminology 
  • New or latest – depending on how the vendor pushes it out.  
  • Assigned – please, punch me in the eyeball.  I absolutely hate “assigned learning”, worse many LXP vendors are adding it, and even worse than that, if they offer it as an option, it is the default option.  Since many people never change defaults, you can see where this is going.  And assigned will appear either as a channel/playlist or right on the top of the learner home page. Please, pass the misery on. 

As noted earlier, administration and learning environment are pretty consistent to the LMS market, please see my LXP template as proof – and which contains everything that can exist in an LXP. 

Other musts in an LXP

  • Content curation – huge.  
  • Content capabilities

Specifically within the content capabilities:

  • System can use job roles and/or skills to identify and present recommended or suggested courses to the end user
  • System uses ratings or voting from other end users to identify most popular or trending courses
  • System uses learner’s profile (skills, topics of interest, etc.) to identify most popular content or suggested content
  • System includes “Based on interest (from the learner) to show content on the learner main page (their home page)
  • System continues to add more topics of interest, whether based on AI or by other means
  • Content excluding courses can be listed in the trending/Most Popular and/or Recommended
  • System uses only our company’s employees and/or learners to identify most popular, recommended, etc.  – I should note, that with “crowdsourcing” this goes by the wayside. 
  • System uses learner’s profile (skills, topics of interest, etc.) to identify most popular content or suggested content

Video management – specifically video streaming, and video can be shared on social media channels.  Auto detection FPS is not universal, sadly.  

Machine Learning – this is using an algorithm

Here are the standards for machine learning in an LXP

  • Can create a learning path based upon recommendations using algorithm over a period of time
  • Recommends courses/content based on job role, skill and/or additional variables
  • Recommends content based on learner’s personal interests or topics of interest (as defined by the learner)
  • Recommends courses based on previous courses in-progress/completed
  • Recommends content/documents/videos/etc. based on in progress/completed courses or content
  • Ability to include other items to enhance recommendation of courses/content
  • System able to push out higher level of content (learner interest or “recommended”) as learner expands their skill sets/knowledge

Other Standards

  • Widgets – some refer to them as blocks
  • Netflix like experience (at least for now) – this is achieved via the channels angle
  • Browser extensions or bookmarklets –  it is not universal, but many LXPs offer it, therefore it slides into the standards –  I should note that in the LMS market, the number of vendors that have bookmarklets is quite low.  Bookmarklets enable the end user to capture what is on that web page.  Some do a better job than others.  No one to my knowledge has yet conquered the capture this paragraph only and leave notes like a note book on that page for others to see and leave their notes and comments.  Nor have I seen the bookmarklet ability to tie into OneNote for example.
  • Playlists or channels can be shared via social media
  • Ability to assign courses based upon skills needed/required for job role
  • Ability to move the “recommended”, “trending” etc. to different areas, i.e. your system has “my topics of interest” – last, but we want it to be first, and want “recommended” to be last.
  • Administrator can change skill ratings that learners set themselves
  • Manager can view skill ratings defined by learner, and modify (i.e. change to more accurate rating as established by manager)
  • Built-in Knowledge Reinforcement Capability (inc. mastery of learning option)

Under the Analytics

  • Analytics include not only content within the platform, but also web site links, articles posted on the net, eBooks, etc.
  • Drill-down capability from a chart, graph or similar (i.e. graph shows data points of X, the admin can click on those data points within the graph and see additional information/specific information per data point)
  • Data visualization at some level

Skill Management

This replaces the term “competency management”.

  • Track skills by content
  • System includes skill ratings, whereas the learner can rate themselves
  • Allow for multiple attributes to be used for skill ratings
  • Allow learners to self-assess their existing skills
  • Allow learners to post on profile or elsewhere in the system, their skill rating on either one subject area or multiple subject areas

Why “Crowdsourcing” is not something I’d recommend be used in an LXP

I wrote this the other day on my daily posts on Linkedin, but based on reader feedback (numerous folks asked me to post it on my blog, so here it is)

Crowdsourcing works this way – everyone on the system, regardless if they are an employee/client of yours or not, gets to rank/rate/vote on the content, and as a result, the “most popular”, “highest rated” are a culmination of everyone.

On top of that, the “recommended” which uses the algorithm is based on everyone, not just your employees, which clearly skews the results. Now, with the vendors who do this, the admin side will only show that client’s employees (results) and not everyone on the system, but that doesn’t resolve what the employee sees.

Here is why it is a bad idea

a. Bandwagon is achieved. It is a very successful propaganda technique, “just like you and me”, if I see that 1500 people like and rate high, Outlook 2016, I’m more than likely to go in and check it out. I might even rank it a plus, because others are.

b. People like to be just like you and me – another propaganda technique, which can sway folks. A lot of data backs this BTW. You might go in with a “yuck” and leave with a yeah, because how can so many people think yes, and you think yuck? Therefore it must be good.

c. Your employees have no idea that the results are cumulative of everyone on the system and thus will assume it is just their company. People tend to gloss over the numbers. They just see the content.

d. You as the client have no idea on who else is on the system, thus are they like you – in terms of your verticals or not? Do you really want to have your folks align to Mitch’s “Grim Reaper” funeral home employees or We make Baskets firm or the non-profit, “Ginsu Knives”?

e. Everything the end user sees is skewed. Thus, if you were looking on the front end, and not just your admin side, you would automatically think – “this is just us” – nope it is not.

f. Vendors who only offer “crowdsourcing” as the only option, should allow the client to make that decision, with the default being “client only” and if the client wants to do crowdsourcing instead, they make the switch.

Bottom Line

Whew. I know the post is a bit long, but providing an in-depth overview is not something that can be written in 1000 characters, nor should it be. 

Coming in July, I will be publishing my LXP Buyer’s Guide – which will be 100% Free to download, etc.  It will list every LXP vendor on the market, along with the latest info on this segment.

Soon thereafter, I will publish my debut LXP Grid and the criteria (this will appear on my blog).   In version 2.0 of FindanLMS, coming this August, you will be able to search by type of learning system, with LXP being one of those types.

As of right now, on Findanlms.com, there are numerous LXP vendors on the learning system search engine platform including

Learn Amp, Degreed, EdCast, 360Learning, Coorpacademy, Filtered and Looop. Coming in June, Instilled, the newest LXP to hit the market, can be found.  To learn more about each of these vendors and compare them, simply, register, authenticate (your e-mail address) and login.  100% free of course. 

With Learn Amp, Coorpacademy and 360Learning, you can send them your RFP and schedule a demo within the platform.

Until then, feel free to share this post with anyone who is curious about what an LXP is, even if they work at, well, you know.

E-Learning 24/7

 

 

How we Changed our Learning Culture and Achieved 100% Learner Engagement at Coursera

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How we Changed our Learning Culture and Achieved 100% Learner Engagement at Coursera

By Ian Stuart, Director of Learning & Development at Coursera

Coursera is the world’s learning platform, and education is in our DNA. Our employees are life-long learners who share a passion for our mission to transform lives with access to the world’s best learning experience. For these reasons alone, you might expect Courserians to complete courses like they’re binge watching the latest season of Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. As a fast-growing Silicon Valley start-up, we faced many of the same challenges as other companies do with making time for learning. We knew we needed to turn this around and make learning a top priority.  

The Challenge

At the start of 2018, we set out to drive deeper learning engagement amongst Courserians. In the past, we’d challenged the company to reach learning goals, but at best we’d only reached a 25% completion rate. With varying degrees of success, we tried everything from study groups and friendly competitions to marketing campaigns and regular email reminders. Like other companies, we were challenged by time constraints and competing priorities. Although they highly value learning, some of our executives even voiced concern that learning programs might divert energy away from important initiatives. We knew were going to have to up our game in order to move the needle past a 25% completion rate.  

The Solution

For 2018, we decided our approach needed to be aggressive and ambitious if we were going to make this shift happen. We put a stake in the ground by setting an aggressive goal for 90% of employees to complete at least one course on Coursera by the end of 2018. To back this up, our CEO became the ultimate champion of the goal, advocating for learning across the company and getting the leadership team onboard.  

That was just the tip of the iceberg. To hit our ambitious targets, we had to put the right engagement strategy in place. Below are a few of the most successful strategies we utilized:

  • Curated Course Collections — We met with each executive to understand near- and long-term learning needs in their organizations and mapped course collections to those needs. This gave employees a clear path to select courses that would build important skills for their roles. By aligning learning to organizational goals, leaders were able to see the value in making time for learning.
  • Executive Sponsorship and Accountability — Our executives bought in and became leading advocates who inspired their teams to learn. Each leader shot a launch video highlighting course collections, committed to completing courses themselves, and communicated progress updates within their organization and at the company-wide All Hands. At the end of the year, every executive had completed at least one course.
  • Learning Champions — Each organization appointed a Learning Champion, who became a source of expertise and helped others to learn by organizing learning groups, sharing updates and data, and holding everyone accountable. Learning Champions also met regularly with each other to share key learnings and best practices.  
  • Communication, Communication and more Communication — The company All Hands became a forum to inspire learning. As noted, leaders and Learning Champions shared progress updates at All Hands. Additionally, learners shared inspirational stories about how they applied their new skills in their roles. The L&D team inspired healthy competition across organizations through regular performance updates across teams.  

The Results

We didn’t just hit our learning goal of 90% completion — we knocked it out of the park by achieving 100% completion! We were also building critical role-relevant skills: over 50% of course completions came from courses in collections curated by our leaders. Most importantly, we achieved a true culture of learning where our employees weren’t just advocates and believers in our product, but regular users. We also created a successful and repeatable learning engagement model that can be built upon in 2019 because employees value it. As a matter of fact, when it came time to prepare our 2019 learning program, our executive team was ready to go and it took very little effort to assemble a group of new Learning Champions. Employees knew what the role was, it’s importance to the company and understood the unique leadership opportunity it provided. We’re now well on our way to repeating our feat of 100% completion, and more importantly, strengthening our learning DNA.

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Q&A with Shwetabh Mittal, Head of Product and Corporate Strategy for Coursera for Business

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Q&A with Shwetabh Mittal, Head of Product and Corporate Strategy for Coursera for Business

We recently sat down with Shwetabh Mittal, the head of product and corporate strategy for Coursera for Business. Shwetabh was excited to provide a peak into how our product roadmap is developed and share some of the most exciting upcoming new features. In particular, he shares how he’s thinking about skills-based features in the wake of the Global Skills Index, and provides his initial thoughts on what our recent Series E fundraising round means for the Coursera for Business product experience

Tell us about yourself and your experience.

My background is in business strategy and building products in technology companies. I have spent time in multiple companies such as Google, LinkedIn, EMC, VMware and, most recently the last 3 years at Coursera. My expertise lies in understanding market needs and customer pain points, developing strong strategies to capture the market and build products that achieve great product-market fit for the end customers.

Personally, I am a passionate learner who spends 6-8 hours every week learning new concepts as things change faster than ever in the technology industry. I am beyond excited about growing the role of technology in providing global access to high-quality education at affordable prices. I currently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife. We are avid travelers and have traveled to 26 countries together. Our goal is to get to 50 countries within the next 10 years!  

What has you so excited about the work you are doing at Coursera?

As a life-long learner and ardent believer in democratizing education for the world, I am incredibly excited about the work we’re doing at Coursera. Education is one of the most powerful tools for millions to lift themselves out of poverty. It has contributed to an ever-burgeoning middle class around the globe. The online education industry is ripe for disruption. It is becoming common for an individual to change multiple jobs in their life and hence they are expected to keep learning throughout their life to develop the skills they will need to stay on top of their game.

Access to the right skills is going to be an even bigger requirement for businesses and economies to succeed, more critical than ever before. They are witnessing a skills landscape that is changing faster than any of our previous generations. This pace is being fueled by the digital transformation in almost every field or function possible. Keeping this in mind, our goal is to build Coursera into a skills management and deep skilling partner for employers around the globe.

Tell us about your product roadmap. How do you approach getting it built and what are the key inputs?

Building a product roadmap is an iterative process during which the product team works closely with our customers to seek their input. The starting point really is to understand the customer needs and pain points, which happens through multiple channels such as product advisory boards, customer advisory boards and individual discussions with customers. Once the product team has a good understanding of customer needs, we delve deeper to understand which needs are the most acute and will impact the biggest set of our customers. In parallel, we evaluate the market trends of where the overall learning and development market is headed and synthesize these learnings as features in our product roadmap. It helps us create a version of the product roadmap which we then iterate on with our customers to refine and finalize.

Can you tell us your top priorities for the Coursera for Business product in 2019? How does the recent series E funding impact these priorities?

We are focusing on six key areas in 2019:

  1. Making the administrator functionality more powerful and flexible
  2. Adding more reporting &  connecting data-based insights to that reporting
  3. Enriching our API to help with deeper integrations with customer LMS systems
  4. Deepening engagement through improved content discovery for learners on our platform
  5. Helping our customers  measure skills transformation on Coursera
  6. Other exciting enhancements, that while we aren’t ready to share details yet, we can’t wait to get in front of our customers later this year!

Raising another round of funding is a very exciting moment for all of us here at Coursera. This additional funding will help us increase our investments in strengthening the Coursera for Business product, deepen our relationship with our business customers and bring delightful new functionality at a faster pace.

We’re excited to learn more about how these priorities will impact the product experience.  Can you talk about the admin functionality in particular and what customers can expect to see?  

Providing more powerful functionality to our Admins is our first big focus area. An important part of that is to enable them to buy and structure the product the same way their organizations are structured. For example, this would enable a customer to buy centrally as an L&D organization and then distribute and cap licenses by each Business Unit. Another big area that we will be working on is to provide more tools and functionality to Admins to engage with different learner populations across their organizations. For example, an admin could send a congratulatory note to learners who finished a course in the last week or send a reminder to learners who need a nudge to complete or make meaningful progress in a course. We believe that these tools will help business leaders to motivate and engage their learners.  

How about reporting and data-based insights?  Can you tell us more about what are you doing to help customers understand the impact of Cousera’s learning on their employees?

We are currently researching a prototype concept that will help enterprises understand the skills their learners are learning on Coursera, their aggregate skills levels, and their most skilled employees. We are hoping to get this functionality in the hands of our customers sometime in Q3.

Connecting learners to the right content is critically important.  What are some of the things you are doing for learners to make it easier to find the right content for their learning needs?

We have conducted multiple experiments to improve the content discovery experience for our learners. In Q2 we are working on launching new search filters and a browse experience that will provide more options for learners to find the content that is best suited for them. In addition, we are going to experiment with surfacing short form video modules from our courses to help our learners engage with popular Coursera content in a shorter time increments.  

Last question!  How would a customer go about sharing their feedback and help provide input into the Coursera product experience?

We love feedback and the more the better:

  1. Apply to join our Product Advisory Board to get a direct line to our product managers
  2. Provide feedback through our regional Customer Advisory Boards
  3. Provide feedback to your CSM who can put you in touch with our product managers
  4. Coming soon, provide feedback to our team from within the product

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Advice from Google IT Support Learners

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Advice from Google IT Support Learners

Thinking about pursuing a career in IT? We talked to Coursera learners who found success in their own careers after completing the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, a program that can help prepare you for a job in IT support. Here are their words of wisdom for anyone who wants to pursue a career in IT:

Donald R. Georgia, United States

“The Google IT Support Professional Certificate program is awesome. It really provides you with a great foundation in IT. Don’t limit yourself to only one foray into technology. Keep learning and growing, because outer space is the only limit.”

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Susan F. Alberta, Canada

“If you like it and enjoy it, give it a try. I started off in an administrative role and mover time, I proved to be a greater asset by going above and beyond my roles and responsibilities. By doing that, my role in the company has changed over time such that my supervisor is trying to place me in certain roles so that I can excel and grow as an employee. My role has now expanded to include IT Support. I find that with IT, there is so much opportunity to learn and grow because the area is so broad. If you like IT and you want to do something interesting, there is so much you can do in IT and there is so much to learn. You will never stop learning in this industry.”

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Tristen A. Georgia, United States

“The advice I would give to anyone about getting into IT is to imitate the example of children. Children are curious, fearless, and have powerful imaginations. They always find a way to get their desired prize, no matter how long it takes to get. We as adults tend to over-calculate or set too many limits on our goals, or we become complacent and give up on our goals. These qualities are not the keys to success in IT. Be fearless and go for it!”

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Christina J. Texas, United States

“My advice to anyone who has an interest in IT is to just try it.  There are so many aspects of IT, so you are bound to find something you want to pursue. You have to always remember, one sure way to fail at something is to not try at all.“

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Jesse P. California, United States

“My advice for others who are interested in pursuing a career in IT is to go for it! IT is a challenging-yet-rewarding field of work. There are constant puzzles to unravel and ambiguities to deal with. However, having tangible results to show for your hard work results in an unparalleled sense of accomplishment.”

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Aldi S. Oregon, United States

“If someone wants to pursue a career in IT and they enjoy helping people solve their problems with technology, they just need to apply. The Google IT Support Professional Certificate program I took on Coursera was very helpful. It teaches everything you need to know to be an IT support professional.”

 

Oars and S’mores

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Oars and S’mores

What story could this image tell?

Choose three or more of the elements pictured in this illustration and use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem that connects them.

Post it in the comments, then read the related article to find out about more about this illustration.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

Word + Quiz: mountebank

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Word + Quiz: mountebank

: a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

_________

The word mountebank has appeared in 11 articles on NYTimes.com in the past two years, including on April 13, 2018, in “Is Stan Lee Being Held Prisoner by Real-Life Villains?” by Ben Widdicombe:

On Tuesday The Hollywood Reporter published an investigation that said that Mr. Lee, 95, is the victim of “elder abuse,” partly at the hands of his 67-year-old daughter, Joan Celia Lee. The Daily Beast reported last month that Mr. Lee, who is said to be worth around $50 million, was “surrounded by a panoply of Hollywood charlatans and mountebanks” and being “picked apart by vultures.”

A radio talk show in Orlando, Fla., even aired a rumor that he is being “held captive” by handlers who “have him basically locked up in the house.”

_________

Learning With: ‘A Pledge to Pay Morehouse College Students’ Debt Prompts Elation, Envy and a Host of Questions’

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Learning With: ‘A Pledge to Pay Morehouse College Students’ Debt Prompts Elation, Envy and a Host of Questions’

Before reading the article:

Did you hear about the billionaire investor who shocked and delighted the 396 graduates of Morehouse College when he pledged to repay their student loans? Watch the video above to see what he says.

Then, make some guesses before reading further:

— What percentage of students at four-year colleges do you think has at least some student loan debt?

— What do you think is the average amount of debt each student owes?

— Do you think recent black graduates of four-year colleges owe more, or less, than their white peers? Why?

To find the answers to these questions, check out this Q&A. What, if anything, surprises you?

Now, read the article, “A Pledge to Pay Morehouse College Students’ Debt Prompts Elation, Envy and a Host of Questions,” and answer the following questions:

1. What questions has Robert F. Smith’s announcement raised?

2. Myles Washington, a graduating senior whose debts are expected to be paid, says, “I felt a level of survivor’s guilt.” Why?

3. How, according to some quoted here, might steep student loan debt impact this generation of students? How might these debts also impact future generations?

4. How many full-time, first-time students finish their undergraduate studies at Morehouse within six years? What economic benefit does completing some college have?

5. Morehouse is now working to calculate the student loan debt, and other details of the gift, and will reveal the final figure soon. But make a guess: About how much student loan debt would you guess these 396 students have altogether?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— In “A $40 Million Experiment,” Op-Ed columnist David Leonhardt quotes Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about what this gift might mean to economists who study and design debt-forgiveness programs.

“This could be the start of what’s known in Econ as a ‘natural experiment,’” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Sunday, referring to the announcement that a billionaire would wipe out the student debt of every graduating senior at Morehouse College this year. “Follow these students & compare their life choices [with] their peers over the next 10-15 years.”

What are your predictions? Will these 396 graduates achieve more than they would have if they were saddled with debt? Will they “pay this forward” by giving to others, as Mr. Smith says he hopes they will do? Do you think some will choose careers they might not have been able to afford — for example, as artists, teachers or social workers — if they had huge debts to pay off? Why or why not?

— The Times Editorial Board says that if we are applauding the “gift” of an affordable education, “something has gone wrong.” Do you agree with them that “equitable taxation,” which would close the loophole that allowed Mr. Smith and financiers like him to become billionaires in the first place, is a better solution?

One Last Adventure

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One Last Adventure

When the outdoors enthusiast Isabella de la Houssaye was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, she decided she would go on one last adventure with each of her five children. The image above shows the journey she took with her 19-year-old daughter — a climb to the top of Aconcagua, the highest summit outside the Himalayas.

If you thought you were going to die soon, how would you spend your remaining time? What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you spend your days with? Why?

What wisdom or important lessons would you try to impart on your loved ones before you went?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related story to learn more about Ms. de la Houssaye’s final trek.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

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