When Google announced it was developing an open-source mobile platform—the Android Operating System—its massive appeal was mostly rooted in the fact that the source code was, of course, available to anyone and everyone who wanted to develop a mobile application. This would make it more appealing for software designers, of course, since they could develop applications to address any market gaps they might wish to address.
Of course, while the promise of this project is to make mobile application distribution accessible to more people, one major obstacle is that not everyone knows how to program applications. Google/Android has attempted to make the process easier with several products that help people to develop simple apps from scratch as well as to teach them how to make more complex applications.
Teaming up with Udacity
Well, it looks like Android is not giving up on the average user who wants to program applications. Google has just announced a new way to learn the process. Teaming up with Udacity, Google wants to provide a free, week-long “Android Basics nanodegree” during which experts will teach you how to start writing simple Andoid apps—even if you know absolutely nothing about coding.
This online course will guide you a decent way through the Android Studio, far enough that you will complete the course with an “entire portfolio” of programs. Sure, you might not write the next big social media application, but you may just write your own apps that help make your life much easier, as you learn the basics of Java script, how to work with Web APIs, and how to interact with an SQLite database.
While this course is free, students can also opt to pay for additional coaching and even career counseling. As a matter of fact, Google appears to be quite encouraging in regards to move students on to a Career-track Android nanodegree. And to sweeten the deal—and to encourage more app-minded folks to make the leap—Google will offer scholarships for this mini-degree for the first 50 people who complete the Basics course.
Obviously, this is an attempt from Google to find new programmers, not just a free course for everyone to use. Of course, Google has no problem with providing this nanodegree for free as it will expand the market, but at the end of the day, they likely hope that users will create more opportunities within the whole of the Android wold.