Bellevue College and Coding Dojo will begin offering partnered classes this fall. Photo from Coding Dojo.
Bellevue College and Coding Dojo will begin offering partnered classes this fall. Photo: Coding Dojo.

As demand for trained software engineers increases, universities and colleges are straining to keep up.

Last month, the University of Washington’s computer science department—already bursting at the seams— became the number one choice for incoming students, and the UW will soon start construction on a second building to house the growing CS department.

Photo from Coding Dojo.
Photo from Coding Dojo.

But for institutes without resources like the UW’s, keeping up-to-date on quality computer science education can be a challenge. Bellevue College hopes to fill this need by teaming up with Bellevue-based Coding Dojo to launch their Coding for Higher Education program, the first partnership of its kind in the country.

The program will start this fall, with one course in Ruby on Rails and one in JavaScript/MEAN. Coding Dojo will supply the curriculum, instructors, and online platform for the courses, which will take place on the Bellevue College campus.

Coding Dojo was founded in 2012, and moved its headquarters to Bellevue in 2015. It also has locations in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Dallas.

Mark Veljkov, a product manager with Bellevue College, said the two organizations share more than a zip code: they also have similar approaches to the classroom.

“Their model of delivery fit very well,” Veljkov said. “It’s competency based, it’s a flipped classroom model, and its very interactive.”

“We feel really confident that when students get through with this program, they’re gonna be in pretty good shape,” he added.

Kevin Saito, Coding Dojo’s vice president of marketing and product management, said there is potential for expanding the program to other universities.

“We’re definitely looking to partner with other folks that are progressive minded and outcome based, like Bellevue College,” he said, adding that Coding Dojo is working on possible future partnerships.

Each of the courses will be split into three modules, and tuition will run at  $1,299 for an individual module or $3,500 for all three.

Founded in 1966, Bellevue College is a state-assisted, community-based, associate degree-granting college set on 100 acres in Bellevue, just east of Seattle.

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