I would like to announce the ROS Developer Learning Path and personal mentoring program here.
This program was inspired by the feedback from the readers of my books. The aim of the program is to deliver online live classes, mentorship to students/ professionals who are planning to become an expert ROS developer.
I believe personal mentoring can accelerate the learning of ROS compared to other tutorials. It’s a 3-month learning program and there is a fee for enrolling. I believe the fees are not very high. I am open to suggestions regarding the fees and course structure.
I am planning to take only a few people for effective learning. You can find more details about the program from the following link:
You can find more details about the program from the following link. Please let me know if anyone interested.
Course Link:
Note: Students who complete the course and projects will be awarded a course competition certificate from Robocademy signed by me.
@lentinjoseph great to see more educational materials around and especially with active mentorship! I’d be remiss for not bringing up another related thread as it seems to remind me greatly of this thread (https://discourse.ros.org/t/ros-certification-exam/1723) some time ago regarding “ROS certification”.
Though, I think the claims you make on your website are alot better tempered, some of the same concerns could be voiced here. A summary of applicable ones:
I think this point still holds some water. Can you give students or potential clients some feedback on why this certification is “valid”, what are the expected benefits from achieving it, and what gives your organization the authority to certify developers? A number of the concerns in that thread were regarding the job / career claims that came along with certification. I notice you make no such claims - which is good. Though you could just call it a ROS course with a certificate at the end; calling it a certification comes with implied value like
Companies/organizations accept this and have consulted in the value of the course
The certification has the backing of an organization like OR, AWF, etc
It provides tangible benefits to recipients beyond the value of learning the course material itself (else its just a course)
I think the claim “If you are performing well in the course, there is a chance for you to work as an intern in Qbotics Labs.” is disingenuous unless you actually plan on offering internships to your students, rather than abstractly saying that “sure, anything is possible I suppose”. I think that is cruel unless its actually your intend to tangibly offer role(s).
Which goes back to the points of what makes this a certification? If its just a course, that’s fine, but if you call it a certification, there should be some value attained by having the certification. If I get a certification from ABB on RAPID programming, that has value beyond the course materials learned by being certified by a company that could vouch for my knowledge and that this knowledge is sufficient to show proficiency in the subject (and/or could be a requirement for a job). When I get a certificate at the end of a Udemy course about basket weaving, the certificate is not a certification because it does not carry any additional value to me beyond skills imparted.
Things to think about, especially for a $1,000 price tag. I know you care deeply about ROS education from your books and other posts, and for a 3 month course $1,000 isn’t too terrible if there’s as much active mentorship as you’re proposing.
Thank you for your efforts in spreading and producing ROS teaching materials. I enjoyed reading one of your books that I requested to acquire by the library of my university.
I also have to tell you that I am concerned about the ROS training that offers certifications as a ROS developer, beyond a certificate that they attended to your course. Of course, I think OSRF should be the only entity that validates any official certification, but I think that this will not happen.
I am concerned that ROS developers who study and practice with the free material created by the community may require to pay for these types of certificates, also, to access a job.
From @smac, I understood the issues in providing certification for a ROS course. The certificate I am providing is the course completion certificate which is an acknowledgement from my side. I mentioned that it’s not an official certificate from Open Robotics.
I am charging some payment from students because this course is basically a personal mentoring program for ROS. It is taking my time (roughly 150 hrs) and I am charging for it. I believe this is not very high for a 3 months mentoring course. I am also ready to give discounts I am getting comments regarding it.
The main motivation of this course was the feedback of readers. So I thought what about create a live classes course and do it in an official way. It is an experiment by the way.
If students are interested in getting personal mentorship, I will do it, otherwise, drop it.
Whilst this is a good gesture, I doubt whether there will be takers at $1,000. Material will be re-circulated, what causes the price to go up to $1,000 per student, writing off R & D?
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The course covers almost all important aspects of ROS 1 and ROS 2. Also, it is not a recorded course, it’s a live mentoring program. 1K USD was an estimated cost of the course as per my hours. I will be ready for discounts as per the requests.
Also, according to you, what will be the ideal costing of this course? Can you give any suggestions regarding it @jd0027852
@jd0027852 I’d look at other similar length and scope courses, I think $1000 is a middle ground number. Looking at the pricing of Udacity Nanodegrees (https://www.classcentral.com/pricing-charts/udacity-nanodegrees) which run about 3 months with mentorship, this is definitely in the realm of reason.
. I understand the issue and I will change the certification part soon.
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