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Case Study: DeepLearning.ai

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An interview with DeepLearning.ai

In this case study

The partnership between DeepLearning.AI, AWS, and Vocareum in delivering the Data Engineering course represents a major advancement in cloud education. By providing hands-on, real-world training in live AWS environments, this collaboration is not only enriching the learner experience but also equipping professionals with the practical skills needed to succeed in data-driven roles. With Vocareum’s platform simplifying access to AWS, automating lab workflows, and supporting seamless integration with Coursera, the course empowers learners to move beyond theory and confidently apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios.

Course Development & Partnership

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Can you tell us about the inception of the Data Engineering course and how the partnership with AWS and Vocareum came about?

The Data Engineering course was created to give learners practical, hands-on experience working in real cloud environments. Our partnership with AWS and Vocareum played a key role in bringing this to life. Vocareum’s platform provided AWS accounts for learners, so they didn’t need to set up their own, making the process simpler and more accessible. This lowered barriers and allowed learners to focus on building skills rather than managing cloud resources.

At first, the labs were built directly in Vocareum’s interface. Later, these labs were integrated into Coursera using Vocareum’s API. Vocareum’s team was incredibly helpful throughout, providing guidance on lab setup – templates and policies, cost management, API calls, etc.

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What role did Vocareum play in the design and execution of the hands-on labs in the Data Engineering course?

Through Vocareum’s UI, we were able to set up learner instructions, manage lab initialization, and automate grading, ensuring a structured experience for learners. This made it easier to create labs that were both engaging and aligned with the course objectives.

When we transitioned the labs to Coursera, Vocareum’s API allowed us to maintain the core structure and logic of the labs while integrating them smoothly into the new platform. 

Although the platform streamlines much of the process, there are occasional issues with lab clean-up and ongoing access, which require monitoring and manual updates. On average, we manually update around five labs per day to ensure learners continue to have a smooth experience.

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How did Vocareum's platform enhance the hands-on learning experience compared to traditional methods?

Vocareum’s platform enhances hands-on learning by providing learners with real AWS accounts, allowing them to gain practical, real-world experience that traditional methods often lack. This direct access to live cloud environments bridges the gap between theory and application, making the learning process more impactful.

Platform Features & Integration

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How did Vocareum's integration with AWS simplify the learning journey for students? Can you give examples of how this seamless experience was crucial to the course’s success?

Vocareum’s integration with AWS simplified the learning by allowing learners to  access the Vocareum UI directly through an LTI link. This eliminated the need for separate logins or manual AWS account setup, streamlining the process. Grading and feedback were handled within Vocareum, giving learners immediate insights to improve their work. With the API integration, learners can access AWS credentials directly through Coursera, enabling them to work with live cloud environments without leaving the platform.

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What specific features of Vocareum’s platform made it the best fit for delivering the labs?

Vocareum’s platform was efficient for delivering labs due to:

  • Real AWS cloud environments for hands-on experience
  • Lab instructions on the platform
  • Automated grading and detailed feedback

Although, an IDE with VS Code containers would have been ideal for the Data Engineering courses. However, we faced various issues and had to explore alternative solutions.

Impact on Students & Learning

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What kind of feedback have you received from students regarding the hands-on labs hosted on Vocareum?

Learners appreciated that they were given the opportunity to access AWS resources and complete the labs without the need to create their own AWS account and be charged for completing the labs using their own account. Also learners appreciated the hands-on activities that allowed them to practice cloud concepts, and how the environment was already set up so that they could just focus on learning the concepts.

On the other hand, learners found that it was a bit unfortunate to completely lose their progress after the end of their sessions.

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How did the hands-on labs on Vocareum help bridge the gap between theoretical learning and real-world applications?

By providing learners with access to AWS resources, the labs allowed the learners to get hands-on experience with interacting, creating and maintaining data pipelines in the cloud. For learners to fully grasp the concepts in data engineering on AWS, they need to be given the opportunity to explore the AWS console, choose the desired resources and connect these resources together. Moreover, we discussed in the lectures many challenges that a data engineer can encounter like permission and networking issues, and the learners got the chance to practice how to troubleshoot such errors in the labs. We also discussed high level concepts such as dataops, data management, and orchestration and the learners were able to learn in the labs how these concepts can be actually implemented when building the data pipelines.

Collaboration Experience

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How would you describe the overall collaboration with Vocareum? How did their team support the success of the course?

The overall collaboration with Vocareum was positive, with their team providing strong support throughout the course development and delivery. David Lin was always available via email and calls, which was very helpful for addressing any questions or issues. However, having him on Slack for quicker communication would have been even more efficient. While responses from Vocareum’s engineering department were occasionally slower via email, their overall support in resolving various issues was consistent.

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What challenges did Vocareum help solve during the development or delivery of the course?

David Lin was always attentive to our needs: when we were exploring IDE options, he proposed using the VS Code container within Vocareum. Although the engineering team couldn’t fully support its implementation, he suggested leveraging the API, which we successfully implemented. Additionally, David helped address issues related to Vocareum accounts, roles, fleet management, and cost control, ensuring a smoother experience throughout the course.

Business Impact & Future Plans

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How does the hands-on experience enabled by Vocareum contribute to the broader goals of DeepLearning.AI, especially in preparing learners for real-world jobs?

Most of our learners seek practical skills to build new products, lead teams, and enhance their career opportunities. In the rapidly advancing field of Machine Learning and artificial intelligence, learners need to anchor their newly acquired knowledge with hands-on labs and experiences. These hands-on experiences, enabled by Vocareum, add a sense of acquiring a practical skill when the learner knows they can apply what they have learned in a real-world situation. It increases their confidence, allowing them to approach real-world projects with insights, practice, and experience.

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Looking ahead, how do you see Vocareum contributing to future DeepLearning.AI courses or initiatives?

DeepLearning.AI is very learner-centric. The mission of the organization is aligned to continue to improve the learner’s experience. This includes providing up-to-date, relevant, and practical knowledge in the machine learning and artificial intelligence space. An immersive hands-on experience is a very important piece of that puzzle. Vocareum will continue to add to DeepLearning.AI’s mission by making it easy for learners to continue to acquire and practice their new skills in courses with their hands-on lab-focused learning experience.

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