There are only about 3 weeks left before the final Nanodegree deadline on April 4. Take advantage of these resources so you can complete your projects and graduate on time!
We are excited to roll out the Bertelsmann Career Resource Center, your go-to spot for finding advice, tips, and tools to help you take your next career steps. Come here to find:
You can find a list of Student Leaders for your channels here. They are there to provide guidance and support, and already have some pretty great ideas for how to make the next few months engaging and inspiring, no matter your track, experience level, or goals!
If you're looking for a little more 1:1 accountability, then sign up for a study buddy! You will be matched with someone who has complimentary availability, and can set up times to study together, check in, meet up (virtually or in person!), and celebrate your wins. Sign up here!!
Remember Student Leaders from Phase 1? We’re excited to bring them back in Phase 2, with a slightly different focus on projects, since these are required to graduate and earn your Nanodegree certificate. As always, our goal is for everyone to learn as much about data science as possible and graduate with a Nanodegree, and we are calling on Student Leaders to help everyone get there!
Interested?
Please fill out this form by Sunday, September 30, 23:59 UTC
We are approaching the end of Career Month! Next week will be the last of our 4-week series, and the theme is You've Got the Job... Now What?
To recap, each week has had a different theme, covering finding your dream job, applying, and interviewing.
If you weren't able to attend the live webinars, you can find them all recorded on YouTube and organized on the Career Month page of this website. This will remain live through at least the end of the scholarship, so as you take your next steps in your career, visit this page frequently for tips and refreshers.
Remember: your careers evolve over the course of your life! Even if you have a near-term or long-term goal, you are likely to do many other things before you retire, if you ever retire! Use the tips, skills, and resources shared by the subject matter experts over the course of Career Month to help you be ready to take your next step, whenever or whatever it may be!
We know it's been a while since many of you logged in to your classroom, and for even more of you, this is your first Nanodegree!
To help you get started on the right foot, please take some time to watch the Orientation video. Kathleen goes over how to submit projects, Udacity's academic honesty policy, and some resources and programs you can expect in Phase 2.
Many of your questions will be answered here, so please watch this BEFORE starting your Nanodegree!
Many of the projects demonstrated an impressive range of skills and theories from the challenge course, some going beyond the basics to incorporate more advanced data concepts, and we loved how creative groups got with finding data sets to work with!
We want to give you all a chance to review these projects, and vote on which ones you think present their data in an interesting and engaging way, address a key issue or question, and communicate their conclusions clearly.
REVIEW YOUR PEERS' PROJECTS HERE AND COMPLETE THIS SURVEY BY END OF DAY ON TUESDAY, JULY 31We know many of you have already started working on group projects, which is amazing to see. While this is not a required part of the course, we are really excited to see what you all are working on, and wanted to give people an opportunity to showcase their work to us and to the community! Today, we are rolling out the *Student Project Showcase!!* :tada: This is an optional activity for students who are interested in sharing their work with us and their peers.
Why should I participate? Three reasons:
If you're interested in collaborating with a group, please use the redesigned Group Projects Spreadsheet to find a group or start a new one. Thank you to @Riyokosan, @Rosaria, @Amar, and @ioedeveloper for creating this! Instructions for the sheet are on the first tab.
Interested? Great! Learn more on the Project Showcase page about specific expectations, deadlines, and to get answers to your questions!
Take this week to celebrate the hard work and achievements you've accomplished so far in the challenge course! We know the halfway point can bring some dips in enthusiasm, so we're sharing tools, resources, and tips on how you can continue to prioritize your wellness so you can finish the course strong!
Head over to the Resources tab to find everything we're sharing each day this week.
Shout out to @Nora, @cordiallykathy, @EA Sara, @hirza, and @Abhipsa for all the time and effort you put into creating this amazing database.
You can...
Let’s all work together to grow this database!
Have you gotten help from a peer recently? Saw someone offer words of encouragement or motivation? Benefited from a resource that another student posted? We want to hear about it!
Please use THIS FORM to shout out your peers for being helpful, supportive, and all-around awesome. You may shout out as many people as you wish, but please only one person per form! Each week, we will pick a couple shout-outs to highlight to the community, so please indicate in the form if you wish for it to stay anonymous, and we will not post yours.
Cheers to being awesome!!
We shared some stats in Friday's announcement, and wanted to repost them here for all you data heads out there:
So if you haven’t made major progress in the course yet, it’s OK! You have more than enough time to do it, but make a schedule now so you're on track to catch up!
Application deadline for Student Leaders was Wednesday, June 6; we are in the processes of selecting and notifying student leaders, and will announce them to the community on Friday, 6/15.
Interested in starting or joining a project? Great! Remember, group projects aren't required for phase 1, but they're a great way to challenge yourself and engage with your peers. But where to begin?
Head over to #group_projects in Slack to see what other people have started working on, or visit the calendar/study session list to find project-oriented meetups!
We'll be reopening the "Find a Study Group" doc once we have finished pairing people and making new channels, so you can also find other people via that document throughout the course.
Finally, one of your peers made a document to also help people organize themselves into project groups- check it out here!
Looking to meet up with other students? The calendar is up and running- head over to the calendar tab here on the website to view and add events happening near you or online.
If you're looking for a study group, we also have a spreadsheet where you can find others near you, in your time zone, or with similar interests. Fill this out by end of day Tuesday, 5/22 and Marat and Kathleen will group you by the end of next week.
Regardless of whether you meet up with your study buddies online or in person, we want to hear about it! Don't forget to take a picture/screenshot of your group and post it to the Facebook album.
HAVE AN OPINION? We at Udacity want to provide you with the best community experience so you feel supported in your learning. Please take a moment to fill out this short survey so we can learn how to do that better!
Your insights will help us design a community experience that supports you. Thank you in advance for your feedback!
Please note that this is going out to all current and former Nanodegree students- for question 3, please select "scholarship-specific Slack workspace" unless you are part of other Nanodegree Slack workspaces, too, in which case you should select all that apply.
We hope you all had great weekends and were able to make some solid progress in your course! A couple updates to kick off your week:
If you are just getting started, welcome to the community! Be sure to check out the orientation video, FAQs, and AMA transcripts. Finally, make sure you join Slack.
Lots of people have asked about other opportunities to participate and get involved. We love your excitement, and please know that more is coming! We are holding off on rolling out additional programs since we wanted to give everyone some time to get settled into their classrooms.
Finally, we've seen and heard some comments that Slack and the forums feel like a participation competition. This is not the intention of having a participation requirement, and we actively discourage students from posting just to check a participation box! Again, we are looking for quality, not quantity- this means not spamming Slack/the forums and following both communication and community norms (see the Code of Conduct and How to Slack pages for more detail on both).
We have seen time and again that the most successful students are those who learn in community. Don't participate to get our attention- participate in a way that allows you to both add and gain the most value in this amazing community of learners! Your peers are your most valuable resource and source of support.
Missed the AMAs so far? Not to worry! You can find transcripts of all previous AMA sessions saved here in the forums.
You can also view questions that your peers have asked in the Student Questions doc, and add your own questions that haven't been asked before.
Please use the email address that you applied to the Scholarship with for both the Classroom and for Slack. Otherwise, we won’t be able to track your participation for the Phase 2 selection.
Congratulations! Tens of thousands of students applied to be part of the Bertelsmann Udacity Data Science Scholarship, and 15,000 were selected to join for Phase One. We are excited to welcome you to this community, and for you to start learning on May 8!
You can find everything you need to know about your scholarship on this website, so please visit this page frequently for access to resources and answers to all your questions.
Take a look around, and if you haven't already, please watch the Orientation video (on the right) to get answers to many of your questions and get started in your scholarship course.
Happy learning!