I actually really like UW's Professional & Continuing Education school. So far I've taken four Computer & IT classes and I've learned a lot. UW has been a great fit for what I was looking for. I learn best through the traditional classroom format. UW was one of the only places that offered part-time night classes that are in-person. They also offer online only classes or self-paced study if you are interested in that. The classrooms are located in Downtown Seattle, which is convenient for me. The building is easy to get to using public transportation or you can use their parking garage which is reasonably priced. The classes usually meet from 6-9 PM, once a week, for nine weeks. I agree that the classes are expensive, with the average cost around $1,150 each. If you are currently working, check with your employer to see if they have a tuition reimbursement program or talk to your boss to see if they will cover it as a training expense. Other students used the G.I. bill or unemployment benefits to cover the cost. UW also offers some need-based scholarships. Some of my classes have definitely been better than others. In general, I would say that the Certificate program courses seem more structured/developed versus the intro/pre-requisite classes. A lot of it also depends on who your teacher is. However, there is only one section offered (per location/format), so you don't really have a choice. UW does send a survey around the third week, so they really value feedback and will try to improve things if they are not going well. Lastly, I would say that the refund policy is strict, but fair. In order to get a 100% refund (minus registration costs), you need to drop out before the class starts. If you drop out during the first week, you can get 75%. The classes are small, so they only take a limited number of students and if you drop out, it's not like they can get someone else to take your place. To make sure you are signing up for the right course, read the course description carefully, attend an Info Session, or e-mail one of their Enrollment Coaches. read more

UW Professional & Continuing Education - One of the classrooms - holds about 32 students. - Colleges & Universities Near Me - Seattle, Washington

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I am disappointed to learn, in the middle of taking my class, that the instructors are not required to answer emails nor speak with you outside of class time to answer questions about the material. If I had known this, I would never have taken the class. I did not realize there would be no support during the class. I was told if I had questions then it was my responsibility to acquire a tutor. read more

INTRO TO C# Full disclosure: I'm a newbie (6 months of self-learning) and have tried a coding camp (Epicodus, dropped out after week 1, regretfully) and also basic online coding courses (CodeAcademy). I dropped out of Epicodus to pursue what I thought would be a more "professional" achievement in the form of a Certificate in C# from the UW. I took the Intro to C# class to start my journey and was in doubt ever since the first class. The first class is just intros to fellow classmates and the next two classes are just lectures with very little application. They get you to stay past the refund deadline by telling you that it gets better. It doesn't. Maybe the other courses are more in-depth and maybe I just got a bad professor (great professional accolades, but not much of a teacher, in my opinion). More importantly, the environment is just wrong for learning to program. Class time is wasted with poorly structured material (they would edit/correct it in class!) and lectures like you would expect from College, and this is not productive. Save your money, go to a private coding camp. FYI, Epicodus puts there material online for free, which is where I am going before I decide on a bootcamp. Here is the link:www.learnhowtoprogram.com read more

UW Extension is the University of Washington's continuing education program. There are more than 100 programs to choose from. Some lean more towards work related education, while others are more for personal enrichment. I recently graduated with a certificate in Human Resource Management. I enrolled in this program to attain additional education in HR, as I felt I needed information in some areas and I thought additional formal education would be beneficial. This also served as a primer to determining whether or not to seek a MBA, in terms of gauging the stress of working full-time and going to school in the evening. There were six courses stretched over three quarters, with 2 1/2 hour classes on Monday and Wednesday nights. I found several of the courses to be productive, while some not so much. If the material taught me something that I did not know before, I felt thrilled about it. Since each course was essentially limited to about 10 sessions, with the exception of one, material breezed by pretty quickly. I felt like trying to memorize and holding in all the information I could. I prefer classes that appear to be more free flowing or that have hands-on activities over classes of lecture over PowerPoint in which information is motored through. Since all this information is coming at you, I think things should be looked at from the student's mindset of what way of disbursing information would be most stimulative. As for the administration of the program, I think things were relatively smooth outside of some mishandled communications. My classes were held primarily in the same area of the UW campus which was good. I do also like now what they are doing at having classes in multiple locations in Tacoma and in Bellevue for closer commuting. This helps ease the burden of working and commuting to get to classes. Costs were reasonable at about $600 a course, at least for my program. Some companies may also have educational reimbursement programs for employees In place which ease the financial burden, in addition to the educational tax credit. For lifelong learning and career development, I would recommend UW Extension as a good option. read more

I enrolled in the UW data analytics certificate in Fall 2019. In class instructors did a decent job teaching R, but they were really bad with providing feedbacks on your assignments. I asked for some feedback regarding my final project after it was graded and recieved no response. The following quarter I decided to give it another chance, but doing it online this time. The online course(the data visualizaiton course taught by Reid Havens) is so much worse. You can tell that they have zero interest in your learning based on the homework/project feedbacks - which is usually a "Good job!", "Well done!", "Good used of colors!". I expected receive constructive feedbacks since I know I am still learning about data analytics and is far from perfect. Furthermore, you typically have to wait for a week(if you're lucky) to recieve a response to your questions, even though the syllabus said to expect a three day reponse time. The course material was on the easy side and they definitely could have incorporated more practice projects. There are way better data analytics courses out there. The course costed me $2300 and I learned much more participating in an online data science bootcamp costed only $14. I definitely regret going through with this and allow UW to rob me again. I'm just writing this review hoping that there won't be another victim :) read more

Project Management was totally over rated class. I am sure UWPCE has some classes that are actually great with good instructors. Jennifer and the staff are overrated and you never got enough help. MS project was introduced and no one had experience using it, this was a nightmare. I thought based on UW's name it would be quality, nope. Don't waste your money here. read more

JavaScript: Programming For The Browser was easily the worst purchase of my life Important to know before taking courses here: You can only get a refund if you withdraw during the first week. That means you're deciding to stay in the class based on, most likely having only attended the first class where you go around the room and introduce yourselves. I already understood basic JavaScript so the first quarter was an OK refresher course. The teacher was OK and the text book was decent. But the second quarter was a total waste. The teacher didn't teach us and just gave us assignments based on what he thought we should have learned n the previous class. The terminology he used when giving us tasks sounded like he was he was talking about a different language and everything was worded ambiguously. The T.A. didn't even seem to know what he was talking about. There was no textbook but he made us sign up with "safari books," yeah...... ""SAFARI BOOKS"" then he would tell us to watch a bunch of videos on """SAFARI BOOKS,"""" videos that had nothing to do with what he was teaching us or what he'd assign to us. One of the "plusses" of these classes is that you are supposedly able to take it from home via adobe connect which I tried, but the connection constantly drops, plus the teacher spent most of the class going around and asking students questions; all you could hear when the students were talking was the digital noise reduction from the teachers mic. I had no idea what was going on from home. Also the assignments were only available via bitbucket which he never officially explained how to use and once you did figure it out, also had serious connection problems. I'm pretty sure that the teacher was not a JavaScript developer. I got the impression that he was coming from a different programming language, because he wasn't really able to explain any the intricacies of the JavaScript language, just generalizations about OOP programming. I'd thought he was going to be getting deep into Frameworks and APIs but NOPE! Final project was basically, build whatever you want if you had the spare time to teach yourself between working your 9-5, taking the class, and trying to figure out what exactly it was he wanted you to do for homework. I didn't bother taking the 3rd quarter; I wasn't willing to gamble away another $1500. Instead I picked right up where I'd left off before starting this course, and I'm now becoming comfortable with MEAN stack development, no thanks to the UW Continuum. read more

Took the Front End Web Dev program for two quarters and left. The classes are basically a working developer walking through power points with very little hands on training and almost no collaboration with other students. In other words, the course in its current form could well have been taught in 1998. While the instructors have been nice, they also work full time at their day gigs and you get very little access to them if you get lost. The lack of support and vague instructions were super frustrating. Yes I learned some good things, but I never had the chance to master any skills before we moved on to the next topic. They also give assignments that are really hard to figure out as they are not well aligned to the lectures/ppts. I spent tons of time on google sorting out what to do to fill gaps in the curriculum. The excuse they use is that devs need to be resourceful, but what was I paying for if not to have them teach me what to do? I've been in touch with a former classmate who continued to the third quarter and this person said that nearly everyone is incredibly lost and frustrated. Half of the class has dropped. I'm not surprised. In summary, the class does teach you some valuable things. But the course is mostly a survey of all of the things devs need to know... in no way would I think that I was at all prepared to become a developer as the program is promoted. Unless you know the material already and just want a certificate, it is incredibly hard. It also has teachers who are good at being devs, but have little to no teaching experience, extremely limited office hours and use outdated instructional delivery methods. IMO, the course is a huge disappointment. I really hoped the UW's good reputation would be held up in their continuing ed program, but wow was I let down. The courses felt slapped together, poorly supported and taught by amateurs. If I had to do this over again, I would spend the money and go to Code Fellows or something. read more

Classroom was extremely hot, nothing was done about this.. We had 30 students packed into this room. Professor was absent and had his TA teach the most important class of the program. At $900 a pop for 30 students they got to be making a killing off of this.. The presentations and homework was out of order several times during lecture. I heard nothing back on my final project and was just sent the "course completion" letter. Save your money, go to Coursera for free or visit a REAL professional education center. read more

Other than having UW in its name, this program is not worth the money for several reasons. a. There are better and cheaper resources out there. Try Udemy Jose Patillos Python classes. The material is superb and better instructions. b. The self paced program claims that it is self paced. However, the time cap on the class is 4 months which is a little longer than a semester. For a lot of working people it does not provide the flexability. c. The material and the videos offered via the class is ordinary. There is better material out there. Summary, if you want the UW label or some else is paying for the class, take it. Otherwise, there are better alternatives out there read more

UW Extension came highly recommended to me by a few co-workers who had also taken some of their certificate programs in the past. I have taken extension courses in the past, and I've always found that they are hit or miss; professionals in the field aren't always the best teachers. The program offerings are extensive - not only do they offer a large catalog of certificate programs, there are also a lot of great individual courses and workshops to select from. Some programs are also offered on-line (for a small additional "technology fee") - an added convenience for the working professional. Classes are offered either in Downtown Seattle or Bellevue, and are taught by industry professionals. The two certificate programs that I enrolled in - Object-Oriented Analysis and Database Management - were taught by instructors who were not only professionals, but had prior teaching experience (the last "technical" course I took was from a brand new university professor who was not at all fluent in English.). I found the programs to be very structured - almost too structured with no flexibility to take any time off from the program (which I found surprising; most working professionals cannot always commit to attending class from 6 - 10 every Monday for 9 months!). One pro to this: the instructors were all in communication with each other and knew what needed to be taught for us to move onto the next quarter successfully. Unlike more college courses with a generic syllabus, there were assignments that crossed quarters, and continuous learning that built on the foundations from the previous classes. Working in the tech industry, I was taught to learn new skills to remain competitive. The courses offered through UW Extension have really helped me build my career in a positive direction. In addition to Extension classes, they also offer UW classes on-line and on-campus options to enroll in undergraduate and graduate courses each quarter. read more

It's a 3. I have had good classes. I had to practically reach through the phone to get info.. and I do not mean nicely. I had to make numerous phone calls.. some classes do NOT have the correct info in the class info - dang i t - why did i thave yo be mine? read more

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WITH R PROGRAMMING I gave up on the certificate, learned much, and spent a lot of money. There are many great R tutorials online that are free --Julia Silge; Dr. Bharatendra Rai. The third quarter instructor expects much more of the final project, and apparently even more of late projects based on my and others' experiences. At least one student turned in six revisions before it was accepted. The final project was due after in-class reviews, so be aware that course reviews will not show the discrepancy of final project expectations with the rest of the course -- and the final project is required to earn the certificate. I began to get an inkling that something was amiss with the third quarter instructor when they were not ok with my use of the Tidyverse, calling it "vanilla." Out of curiosity, I used a similar methodology as another student that got full credit for my third revision and this too was deemed unacceptable. I had used similar approaches and analyses for the homework and received full credit. read more

The cert provides a good overview of data science methods, database functionality, basic project management, basic ML methods, and coding in python. Some of the homeworks were especially challenging if you did not have experience with the subject matter prior to taking the course. read more

1/2 way through the 2nd class which has the stated goal to, "explore the art and science of data visualization and information design". So far, we have spent 90% of our time in Excel using Power Query and DAX to shape and transform data. Do yourself a favor and take either one of the following classes instead. Udemy - Data Visualization with Plotly and Python Udemy - Tableau 10 A-Z read more

I took the Android Development Fundamentals course in Autumn 2014, which consisted of 11 weekly evening classes, each 3 hours long. The class was hosted in the downtown Seattle campus, not far from where I work, so it was very convenient. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed in the class and even more disappointed in myself for not requesting a refund immediately once I realized the direction the class was headed. Although the promotional materials for this course showcased an experienced instructor with 3 years of teaching experience, that is not who taught this class. Instead, the instructor was an entrepreneur with 2 years of Android background who had just begun teaching, and his teaching inexperience showed. Although I don't doubt that the instructor knows his subject, the class seemed poorly planned, with many long, off-topic anecdotes and poor direction, as if the instructor were working from the most bare of outlines for his lesson plan. Topics were disjointed and the relationships not clearly explained. The instructor frequently had difficulty explaining concepts in detail and early lessons often consisted of reading bullet points from PowerPoint slides. The code examples were typically developed ad-hoc by the instructor during class, from projects he happened to be working on, rather than being developed specifically for the class and tested in advance. This resulted in lost time as the instructor looked up syntax and attempted to correct bugs to get the code to compile and the examples didn't always clearly demonstrate the topic. Also, as a result, the example code was not available to students before or after class for study and therefore did not contribute significantly to the instruction. In addition to my complaints about the instructor, the format of the class did not work well, and seems to be little more than a way for the school to increase revenue and class sizes without paying additional instructors. The class was taught in both classroom and online formats simultaneously, with a TA interacting with the online students and acting as a sort of bridge between the two groups. I was in the classroom group but monitored the online class as well. I discovered that there was a lot of discussion and clarification that occurred among the online students that never made it to the classroom students. Conversely, the online students were unable to hear the student questions or discussion that occurred in the classroom and were not able to request clarification during the lecture in the way that the classroom students could. I think that the learning experience of both suffered as a result. The equipment had a number of issues as well, including poor online video and audio performance for the first few classes, and missing or unconfigured software on the instructor's machine that had to be installed and configured during class. In summary, I found the class to be a colossal waste of $1,000, not to mention the many hours of my time. The use of an inexperienced instructor without a well-defined lesson plan, poor class materials and preparation, the ham-handed combining of online and classroom instruction, and of course, the declaration that the last day to request a refund is *before the first day of class* are all reasons that I will absolutely never enroll in another CE course at UW without assurance that the course and instructor are on par with the instruction that should be expected from a professional university. Instead, I suggest you go check out that well known online instruction site for an excellent Course on Android programming for absolutely free. read more

I am currently taking the certificate program in photography. The level of knowledge from my instructors is great. The resources are top notch. Parking in the evening is affordable. I am so thrilled with my decision. This was a great investment in my hobby. read more

I took a sql dev online class, and would strongly recommend other places. The instructor knew the subject well and was truly able to demonstrate the ability to write code on the spot and debug what went wrong. However, the instructor was also not completely organized. The communication via e-mail was substandard if not non-existent, grading the first homework assignment did not happen until late into course (lesson 7), and the teaching structure was based on out-of-date syllabus from a previous sql dev class. UW P&CE brought in a TA to back up the instructor. That was good of P&CE to listen to the student's concern. This showed they are committed in bringing in a good, quality courses into the fold of academia. The TA helped explain further in the topics of each session and bolster the instructor with more useful tidbits of information which kept a sinking ship from hitting rock bottom. This is also why there is only 2 stars when I think the class and what I experienced should merit only 1 star. After lots of reading, listening on the discussion board from fellow students, researching from other sources, and using examples/recordings by the instructor, I am able to apply what was learned into my job. That gave me a sense of accomplishment. If only the instructor had more quality time to for the class and truly available to communicate with, the class would have been stellar. This wasn't a very bad disappointment or let down...just a tad unfortunate. For me, I would rather stick with a formal classroom session instead of online just from this experience. read more

Single star for the Android program -- save your money and sign up for a Coursera course. The format that UW is using to present at least some classes has an in-class audience and an online audience simultaneously resulting in a single instructor presenting to up to twice as many students in two different mediums concurrently. Classes I've taken that have had just one format at a time have been great -- C++ (online) & Java (in-person) classes were excellent. But combining the two and trying to present to both at the same time seems to overburden the instructor/presenter. As a result the presentations in the Android program in this dual format are confused and slower and the feedback from the presenter for work submitted is slow and practically non-existent because s/he's got maybe twice as many submissions to look at. read more

I am in the online Project Management Certificate program. It is a HORRIBLE program that is very poorly organized. DO NOT waste your money on this. They recently switched online platforms and definitely rolled it out too soon, as they were not prepared (this sentiment was expressed by faculty as well). I spend more time trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing than I do on the actual material. The professors are unavailable and seem almost as confused as the students. They are given the information, assignments, powerpoints, etc.. then just record their voices over the slides. You are told to do assignments, but given little guidance on how to actually do it. Many of us are new to project management, so we need to see actual examples of the things we are being required to do and given an explanation as to why we need to do them; both are rarely provided. Once you turn an assignment in, feedback is not provided, so you have no idea if you have actually done it correctly or not. Assignments build on one another, so if assignment A was done incorrectly and you were not informed, the rest of your assignments will be incorrect as well. How am I supposed to apply what I think may or may not be right to a real world project management setting? I can't. This program is a rip off and a cash grab. UW should be ashamed to have their name associated with this program. My colleague completed the PM certificate at Bellevue College and had a much better experience there. read more