Bertrand Meyer

Are we there yet?

Trying to fix a binary search attempt.

A recent Communications of the ACM article casts aspersions on the innovative concept of code academy, a fast-developing approach to teaching programming. The analysis in this article, based on my own experience developing a code academy in the past three years, shows that there is no justification for such contempt. Code academies are a different approach, complementing the traditional university model; they do not offer everything that universities do (and do not pretend to), but also provide a number of benefits not available from university education. They can also serve to provide university graduates with new expertise. They fill industry's crying need for good software developers. They are a complement to universities (and MOOCs), not a competitor, and have earned their place in the battery of educational models.