Table of Contents

  • General - General questions regarding our learning platform
  • Badges - Questions about badges and certificates of completion

General

Q: Does API Coach offer discounts for active students?

A: Yes. Please contact us with your active student email address (ending in .edu) and we will generate a one-time use coupon that applies a 50% discount at checkout.

Q: Does API Coach offer discounts for active military, reserves, and veterans?

A: Yes we do. As a thank you for your service, please contact us with your military ID and we will generate a one-time use coupon that applies a 50% discount at checkout.

Q: Does API Coach offer refunds for a course?

A: We understand that sometimes a course isn’t the right fit or now isn’t the right time to take a course after all. If you have not completed the first unit of a course and it has been less than 30 days since the purchase, please contact us and we will review your refund request. Unfortunately, we are unable to refund your course fee once the first unit has been completed or after 30 days from the purchase.

Q: Why does API Coach charge for courses?

A: We recognize that there are a variety of options, both paid and free, to grow your skills and invest in your career. We have several differentiators:

  • Consistency - We want your experience to be consistent throughout your learning. While you can stitch together your learning from different sources, we firmly believe that a clear learning path from a single group of educators will improve the effectiveness of learning through a common use of materials, terminology, and a unified approach.
  • Deeper Insights - Our learning paths are designed to build upon one another through proper curriculum development that looks at the entire path, not just a single course in isolation. This affords us opportunities to bring deeper insights into each course, as we can lean on our previous courses to establish a firm foundation of understanding.
  • Hyper-focused on APIs - We are passionate about APIs and want to help everyone gain a deeper understanding of all aspects of APIs. Rather than trying to address a breadth of skills across app development and IT, we are hyperfocused on the skills required at all stages of an API program.

Q: Does API Coach offer a certificate of completion at the end of a course?

A: Yes. We have partnered with Credly to generate a badge and a certificate of completion at the end of each course. See the Badges section for more details on how it works.

Q: What is the difference between self-paced, instructor-guided, and instructor-led courses?

A: We recognize that not all courses require the same learning approach. We offer self-paced courses that you can complete in a single day or spread across several days as time allows.

However, self-paced courses don’t always offer the best learning environment as you aren’t able to gain feedback on what you did and learn from the feedback of an instructor. Live workshops are very restrictive when it comes to the time required and are difficult to attend with your day-to-day responsibilities. So we mix a self-paced format with instructor feedback through an instructor-guided approach. You engage with a few lessons, complete an exercise, and then submit your work to be graded. We provide feedback with your grade to help you to go even deeper in your learning.

Finally, we do offer instructor-led courses. However, due to the time and increased cost required to deliver these kinds of courses, we only have a limited number of opportunities to sign up each year. Feel free to signup for our waitlist and we will let you know when one of our live workshops is scheduled.

Badges

Q: What is a badge?

A: Open badges are web-enabled versions of a credential, certification or learning outcome which can be verified in real-time, online. They are issued at the completion of a course and, in most cases, as you demonstrate specific skills throughout a course.

Q: When is a badge issued?

A: Badges are always issued at the successful completion of a course that meets the minimum passing score. In addition, most of our courses issue skill badges throughout your learning journey, often at the end of a unit of learning.

Q: What types of badges are issued?

A: We issue two types of badges:

1) Course completion badges that are given after you successfully complete a course. 2) Skill badges, which are given when you demonstrate specific skills during a course.

Q: How does my certification get displayed as a badge?

A: We have partnered with Credly to translate the learning outcomes you’ve demonstrated into a badge, issued and managed through the company digital badging platform. The technology Credly uses is based on the Open Badge Standards maintained by IMS Global. This enables you to manage, share and verify your competencies digitally.

Q: What are the benefits of a badge?

A: Representing your skills as a badge gives you a way to share your abilities online in a way that is simple, trusted and can be easily verified in real time. Badges provide employers and peers concrete evidence of what you had to do to earn your credential and what you’re now capable of. Credly also offers labor market insights, based on your skills. You can search and apply for job opportunities right through Credly.

Q: Who is Credly?

A: Credly is the end-to-end solution for issuing and managing digital credentials. Credly works with credible organizations to provide digital credentials to individuals, worldwide.

Q: How will I know if I’ve earned a badge?

A: You will receive an email notification from Credly (admin@credly.com) with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account.

Q: What if I don’t want my badge to be public?

A: You can easily configure your privacy settings in Credly. You’re in complete control of the information about yourself that is made public.

Q: Is there a cost associated with Credly?

A: No. This is a service we provide to you, at no cost.

Q: What’s to keep someone else from copying my badge and using it?

A: While badges are simply digital image files, they are uniquely linked to data hosted on Credly. This link to verified data makes them more reliable and secure than a paper-based certificate. It also eliminates the possibility of anyone claiming your credential and your associated identity.

Q: Where and how can I share my badge through Credly?

A: You can share your badge directly from Credly to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook; over email; embedded in a website or in your email signature.

Q: Can I export badges issued through Credly to other badge-storing platforms?

A: Yes, you can download your badge from the Share Badge page. Your downloaded badge contains Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) compliant metadata embedded into the image. This allows you to store your badge on other OBI-compliant badge sites, such as the Badgr Backpack.

Q: I have a question about Credly. Where can I find support?

A: You can find tutorials and answers to additional questions here: support.credly.com