Excerpts from my Android Associate Developer Journey with ALC, Andela, and Udacity.

Emmanuel Wamuo
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

To be completely honest with myself (yes my very self), the first time I heard about the Google and Andela sponsored Andela Learning Community(ALC), my first impression was not again! I told myself I don’t need another long tutorial on android development, because I had finished some online courses , I have many gigabytes of videos that till date have never been opened for once and I had just published my first app on Google Playstore (Nigerian Headlines) which for me at that time was no mean feat. I had this new resolve on learning: “short tutorials and implementation”, so I felt I would just be wasting time, and yes you already know, I was wrong!

Well after further considerations (sometimes you have to love second thoughts), I found out that with the ALC program: I would be getting a certificate (yes a real one this time around) backed by Google (Android Associate Developer Certificate) , the training was prepared by Google in collaboration with Udacity, and the program was being organized by Andela one of the biggest software development companies in the world. I just had to change my mind for good, and signed up. Starting the Intermediate track of the ALC was a breeze thanks to Andela, we had to submit an app to prove our competency in android development , on qualification, we were grouped into teams of six and enrolled for the Udacity Associate Android Developer Fast Track, which started our interaction with the Udacity training. It involved watching short videos, reading notes and references, solving practice exercises, quizzes and submission of projects.

The approach to learning on Udacity was awesome, it fit into my “short videos and implementation” resolve. On Wikipedia it is termed the learn by doing model.

Each course consists of several units comprising video lectures with closed captioning, in conjunction with integrated quizzes to help students understand concepts and reinforce ideas, as well as follow-up homework which promotes a “learn by doing” model.

Project submissions were like gold(code) hunting trips, where your code is reviewed and lots of tips, suggestions, links and code snippets(gold) were shared on how to improve your software development skills or solidify your understanding of various features, topics or android components ( psst . . . my team’s name was The Code Diggers). To top it off, I was introduced to a mentor, what? Another awesome aspect of the Udacity training! Yes! She had answers to your questions, she had all the right links to code samples and tutorials, I still wonder how she does it, all I just have to do is ask, then she delivers like the mailman all the right gists(GitHub) in record time.

Finally, taking the exam was a bit challenging at first, because there is this initial pressure during an exam that ultimately settles when you calm down and follow the instructions. The narrative was: a developer stopped work on a particular project and I was asked to complete it (Who knows his/her name? Why on earth did he/she leave though? lol wild thoughts!). Well after going through the instructions carefully, I implemented some features from scratch, completed some other features, wrote tests and fixed bugs.

I am glad I took this great opportunity, where I learned a lot about creating android applications the right way, localization and accessibility, android components, designing responsive layouts, debugging, writing tests and lots of other features. I can’t wait to design more apps. I would love to thank Andela, Google, Udacity and the entire Android Learning Community for the awesome experience.

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