Building on AWS FAQ
Q: What are the prerequisites for this class?
A: 1-3 years background in software development or operations. knowledge of at least one high-level programming language. The course exercises will use Python however, it is not a requirement that the student is a Python programmer.
Q: What is the time commitment for the course?
A:Students should plan to spend 2-3 hours per week on this course if following the weekly schedule. Students may move ahead more quickly if desired.
Q: Will I receive a certicate for completing this course?
A: Users in the Verified Learner program will receive a certificate for successful completion of the course (see below). edX no longer offers completion certificates for non-verified users. More details here.
Q: Are there any costs associated with taking this course?
A: Students can enroll in the edX Verified Learner" program, which provides an edX certificate upon completion of the program. The course exercises will utilize the students own AWS account. The exercises have been designed to run within the AWS Free Tier. It is possible that students may incur charges if they are not using a free tier eligable account and/or leave resources running beyond the scope of the exercises. In addition, use of pre-paid credit cards may restrict access to AWS resources.
Q:What is the grading policy for Verified Learners?
A:There are assessments throughout the course. Some are graded and others will allow you to retry answers multiple times. The final assessment, based upon the earlier questions in the class will be graded. Verified users who would like to attain a certificate, will need to pass the final exam at a score of 65% correct or better. The final assessment will not allow retries.
Q: Are there additional benefits for Verified Learners?
A: Verified Learners will be invited to a weekly live discussion with course staff. This weekly discussion will run for starting the week of March 5, 2018 through the week of April 12, 2018.
Q:What are the learning objectives of this class?
A: Our goal for this class is that the student become "confident" in the use of the AWS services covered. This is not an exhaustive exploration of AWS but will instead walk students through the process of creating an application, that uses AWS compute, storage, database, authentication, image recognition, queuing and messaging services.
Q How are discussions used in this class?
A: There is a general course discussion group as well as weekly discussion groups where students may ask questions about the specific services covered or exercises of the week. We encourage students to participate in these discussion groups each week.
These discussion groups will be monitored by AWS staff and we encourage learners to help other learners. With that, please act appropriately in the discussion groups. Inappropriate behavior will lead to the offender being blocked from the discussion group and potentially being removed from the class.
Q: Will AWS monitor the discussions and be available to answer questions?
A: AWS staff will actively monitor the discussion groups and answer questions specific to the exercises and the topics covered in the class.
Q: Will course content be updated during the course?
A: All course content is available with the start of this course. As AWS is a dynamic set of services with frequent feature updates, it may be necessary for us to update material during the course. If we do so, a notice will be placed on the course home page.
Q How well will this class help prepare me for the AWS Developer Associate certification?
A: This classes will provide hands-on experience with the AWS platform. However, it does not do not cover all of the AWS services or concepts that are on the exam. We recommend that students who interested in AWS Certification look at the AWS Certified Developer - Associate page on the AWS Trainiing and Certification website.