Steve Wozniak’s Woz U online coding educational platform has disappointed some students, a new CBS report claims.
The online education company, which offer a 33-week program for $13,200, is criticized for supposed low quality teaching resources. According to CBS, these allegedly range from out-of-date materials to unqualified student mentors.
“I feel like this is a $13,000 e-book,” one former student said. “It’s broken, it’s not working in places, lots of times there’s just hyperlinks to Microsoft documents [and] to Wikipedia.”
The student continued that, “When you’re doing code and you’re following along, and there’s a typo, and you get an error, you don’t have any idea why you got the error. And you’re like how can – did somebody not proofread this? Did somebody not make sure it worked?”
Typos are listed as just one of many problems. Others include pre-recorded “live lectures,” and unqualified instructors. In one case, a course did not even have an instructor. As per CBS‘s report, this damning feedback is backed up by both former Woz U students and employees.
“Drive, drive, drive the sales”
One of the company’s “enrollment counselors,” Tim Mionske, is quoted as saying, “It is drive, drive, drive the sales,” and saying, “Your job’s on the line” when it comes to closing sales. Mionske was laid off last June after dwindling enrollment figures.
CBS says that Steve Wozniak denied multiple requests for an interview. When he was tracked down in person at a conference, the article notes that:
“‘I’ve had some calls, but here’s the trouble, I’m in the busy part of a speaker’s life,’ Wozniak said, when [CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil] approached him. A woman called for security. ‘Come on, don’t make statements and pretend like they’re questions,’ Wozniak added, walking away.”
Woz U President Chris Coleman has issued a statement, acknowledging errors in the course content and saying that the team has put in place a quality control system to catch problems. He also said that Steve Wozniak reviews the curriculum.
Source: CBS
