Has ChatGPT essentially killed the educational model of the coding bootcamp?
For more than a decade, more and more colleges have offered these so-called bootcamps — short-term training programs (usually around 12 weeks long) that focus on teaching market-friendly coding skills. More than 100 such programs exist in the U.S., according to Course Report, and they have been touted by many in Silicon Valley as a no-frills antidote to what were seen as bloated and expensive traditional college degrees.
Last month, though, a major bootcamp provider, 2U, made what industry observers called a “bombshell announcement” to walk away from the bootcamp sector. 2U had purchased bootcamp manager Trilogy Education about five years ago for about $750 million, and officials say they worked with 50 colleges and universities to offer these intensive coding programs. But in a December announcement, 2U said it would “transition away from our traditional bootcamp offerings.”
The company didn’t sell off this struggling business unit, it just shut it down. As Phil Hill, longtime edtech blogger and consultant, wrote: “It was not even worth selling, either because of a lack of interest, or a lack of belief that there was any remaining value worth the administrative effort to sell, or both.”
The company’s stated reason for dumping bootcamps was that the tech landscape has changed, and that employers need fewer entry-level tech employees these days. As 2U said in its announcement: “Employers are increasingly focused on hiring for more specialized tech skills, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. At the same time, the growing availability of shorter, lower-cost courses, along with the rise of generative AI, has created easier and more accessible pathways for learners to quickly and efficiently acquire skills for entry-level tech roles.”
A recent article in The New York Times illustrates that changing landscape. It noted that tech companies are increasingly relying on new AI chatbots to take over parts of what human coders did — so much so that some tech employees now described their role as a “GPT monkey,” doing minor tasks and leaning on ChatGPT and other tools to do what used to be considered the real work of software writing.
2U said it was pivoting to offering other kinds of microcredentials through edX.org, which it bought for $800 million in 2021.
Back in the hype phase of coding bootcamps around 10 years ago, I spent a day observing the teaching at an early provider, General Assembly. I was struck by how focused the instructor was on essentially deconstructing the specific day job he held as a user-interface designer at a big tech company. In addition to coding skills, the promise was that the bootcamp could teach students how to craft their resume and speak the language of the tech company to beat out other job candidates. That’s probably valuable, but these programs bear high costs for students — usually around $14,000.
In a podcast series I reported for EdSurge a couple years ago, I told the story of Tim Lum, a returning adult college student in his 30s, who dreamed of becoming a computer coder and tried a bootcamp to break into the field. He enrolled in a bootcamp in Honolulu, where he lives, but found it chaotic, since people in the class arrived with a wide range of skills — some struggling with basic computer literacy. As he describes it, he largely taught himself using the bootcamp’s curriculum. When he finished, he decided that he still needed a traditional computer science degree to land the kind of job he was interested in, so he enrolled in a local community college and recently transferred to the four-year University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Especially in a world where AI tools can do the basics, it seems that it might be harder to take shortcuts to meaningful higher ed credentials.
— Jeff Young, an editorial director at EdSurge and host of the EdSurge Podcast.
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