Thread by @ossia

I'm excited to share freeCodeCamp's big goal for the next decade:

📜 To provide computer science bachelor's degrees...
🏛️ from an accredited US university...
🆓 for free.

[thread] 🧵

freecodecamp.org/news/free-accr…

We want this degree program to be freely available to anyone anywhere on the planet.

Regardless of their socioeconomic background, or their ability to obtain a US visa.

Much of social mobility is still locked up in university degrees.

Want to work abroad? Many countries require a degree for a work visa.

Want to enter the US military as an officer (instead of enlisted)? You're going to need a 4-year degree.

Some tech companies have done away with degree requirements. But most high-paid job openings still require a degree.

There are a million students from abroad here in the US, paying a small fortune to earn a US degree.

But what about all the families who can't afford to do this?

And what about the millions of busy adults here in the US who don't have a degree?

Many of them are raising kids or tending to family members with disabilities – all in between working shifts, commuting, and trying to get enough sleep.

If you remove monetary cost from the equation – if you make all coursework self-paced and give people as many years as they need to finish without penalty...

You can make a university education more viable for these busy adults.

We will expand freeCodeCamp's curriculum into a comprehensive computer science bachelor's degree – with similar breadth, depth, and rigor of top US computer science degree programs.

This will be hard work. But the even harder part: getting accredited.

I've done a lot of research on this over the years. We need to:

A) Partner with an existing accredited US university, or

B) Set up physical campuses where we can offer some in-person courses in addition to a online learning. Then apply for accreditation ourselves.

We are going to need help from higher education experts.

It will take years to attain full accreditation.

And we are going to need money. A lot of money.

Grass-roots donations only cover about half of freeCodeCamp's operating costs.

We run 70+ servers and now have 30 teachers/developers on our team.

The rest comes from grants from partners like @snyksec, @MongoDB, @newrelic, @Replit and dozens more.

If we want to build up an endowment and eventually gain accreditation, we're going to need more resources.

Here are 3 approaches we're taking for this in 2022:

Approach #1: Seeking out large gifts from individual donors

The Android app we shipped this year? A kind donor has funded its development. I'm working directly with these patrons to help them maximize the impact of their gifts.

Approach #2: Showing display ads to non-signed in visitors

We now show display ads to forum visitors who aren't signed in. We'll do the same on the publication.

No political ads.
No alcohol ads.
No gambling ads.

We'll try to minimize load times / data usage.

Approach #3: Grants from Web3 development-focused projects to create courses around their tools

There are thousands of job openings for Web3 devs.

We'll prioritize carbon-neutral blockchains. If we do anything that causes emissions, we will purchase carbon offsets.

Let's help thousands of busy adults finally get their Computer Science degree.

Here's how you can get involved.

If you have worked at any of the US Department of Education or CHEA-recognized accreditation organizations, or have recently gone through accreditation/re-accreditation at your institution, I would value any advice you may have. Please DM me.

If you are an independently wealthy freeCodeCamp alum – or someone who wants to make a gift toward helping busy adults to get their degree – Please DM me.

And if you are a working-class idealist like me, who wants to make technology education more accessible to families here in the US and around the world, we would welcome your support: freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-do…

This will be a multi-year, multi-million dollar endeavor. But I am undaunted.

Many busy adults and their families stand to benefit from a free, accredited computer science bachelor's degree program.

Together – with some hard work – we can make this goal a reality.