I needed some extra money in 2018 after purchasing a new house. I was recruited to be a part time adjunct instructor “on behalf of” Case Western Reserve University. It was entirely operated by Trilogy Education Services. In exchange for allowing Trilogy to slap the university’s name on it, incorporate into the university’s official website and marketing materials, and borrow a room for a couple hours in the evening, they share some of the profit. It’s not clear to me what if any influence, decision making, or oversight the university had over the program, but I suspect little to none. I only talked to Trinity staff, most of which were good people but just cogs in the machine like me.

Students received zero support from the university despite being advertised as an accreditation directly from it. It had been advertised as an intense 6 month alternative to a degree, which is a very wild stretch. In reality, it was a long and kinda brutal (if you were completely new to programming) guided tour of JavaScript-focused “full stack development”. The syllabus was predetermined by Trilogy and was very superficial, rigid, out of date, and focused on quantity of topics rather than quality. Students were largely frustrated how little time we had to ask questions or dig into a concept until being whisked off to another. It also required that the individual had to do most of then learning on their own time without support from myself or the TAs, although I did try to be available via email during the week and had office hours. Trilogy insisted they vetted applicants to make sure only qualified candidates were in classes to ensure a fair and high quality experience for everyone. The reality is the only vetting Trilogy did was that the payments cleared. I spent an inordinate amount of time doing tech support and teaching people how to use computers, which was frustrating for me, other students, and the poor person who was swindled into paying $8k for something over their head. “Graduating” just meant you had to pay, show up and submit something for assignments, the bar being so low that some students received their certificate but had learned virtually nothing. The post graduation professional services, which I was not involved in whatsoever, were the part that students were particularly angry with. Bare minimum, hand wavy, and the job placement was a joke. Graduation day was supposed to showcase the student’s skills and be a meet and greet with employers. The reality is only a couple of actual employers showed up, didn’t hire anyone AFAIK, and most of the “employers” there were grifters, scumbags, or clueless people. There was a lot of “I don’t have a business or any money yet but I have this revolutionary idea for a blockchain app and I’d like you to build it”.

In the beginning, I was pretty into the bootcamp. I enjoyed teaching and there were some really great students and TAs. By the end, I felt really embarrassed and ashamed to be part of something so terribly misrepresented and overpriced.

(As an aside, I was introduced to two professors at a party where someone mentioned I was teaching a CWRU… I carefully corrected them that I was only doing this bootcamp and only part time, not working for the university. The two professors were not happy with me. I learned that I was basically a scab, and which really just capped the whole experience for me)