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by yjhoney 2208 days ago
This beta group has been going on for a year, early 2019. Our retention rate is really poor, until today's posting about 400 signups and only 8 made it to the end. The current first phase is actually to answer this question:

"For the students that complete the whole curriculum, could they contribute to a codebase that users use and follow good coding practices like an engineer would?"

The answer is yes, so now we have a happy path. Next phase is to increase this funnel.

1 comments

I'm curious to learn what you plan to do in order to understand the retention rate issues
When students engage with me to ask questions, I usually just ask them directly: "If you decide that this isn't for you, please let me or someone else on the team know before you do so we understand how we can make this a better learning platform for future students"
Have you discovered patterns? I've done some research work on remote learning, so genuinely curious.
not enough engagement. If I reach out to students and engage in conversations with them regularly, they have a higher chance of following through. I start high up in the funnel, to pay utmost attention to students who are at the end (JS6). Then when I have free time, I go down the funnel and pull students up. As I polish the end, I get more and more time to engage with students lower in the funnel. I just reach out and say hi, ask them why they are learning and if they have any questions and concerns.
That sounds great, the way you are doing it. I think companies end up gamifying the product approach,to generate feelings that are similar to what happens when you engage one on one (from a neuroscience perspective)