What/How/Why Do Software Developers
Want to Learn in 2019?

Many other surveys corroborate this finding. In a 2018 survey from StackOverflow had more than 100,000 developers around the world answer the question: “What Do You Hope To Be Doing in Five Years?” Here are the results:

Source: StackOverflow 2018 Developer Survey Results

More than 70% of respondents hope to either hold a more specialized role, found their own company, or move into management. Developers in the latter category know they’ll need more knowledge and hands-on experience with the right technologies in order to move up the career ladder and be effective in their new roles.

It’s common knowledge in the technology industry that developers are in high demand and can generally switch jobs when they want. Indeed, the Stack Overflow survey found that more than half (56%) have been in their current role for less than two years. Keeping their skills sharp and up to date allows them significant upward and lateral career mobility.

We now have some grasp on why developers learn, but how are they doing it in 2019? As DevelopIntelligence found in previous surveys, a mix of group and solo learning is common. In the Stack Overflow sample, 48% of developers have taken some sort of online video course or participated in a MOOC. MOOCs from Coursera, Udacity, or Stanford offer friendly video courses taught by top experts, and they’re supplemented by forums, group challenges, exercises, and other social features.

Formal learning is also popular. According to Stack Overflow, some 35% of respondents said they received on-the-job training similar to an expert-led DevelopIntelligence course. Other top responses include participating in coding competitions like HackerRank (24% of respondents tried it) or participating in Hackathons (26%).

DevelopIntelligence recommends combining all of the aforementioned learning modalities into a formal learning program for developers. Instructor-led courses are our bread and butter, but we’ve also helped many companies organize internal hackathons and coding competitions. Furthermore, our instructors regularly recommend the best MOOCs to students to ensure that learning doesn’t stop once a class is over. Learning happens in so many contexts and forms, companies should leverage the ones that developers love to promote knowledge retention and on-the-job application.

Developers also like to learn by reading. Surprising, right? You’d think it would be all about technology, but no. Stack Overflow data revealed that most developers teach themselves by reading documentation, Stack Overflow, books, or forums. It’s a logical off-shoot of their ability to search out and identify the best information at the moment of need.

Source: StackOverflow 2018 Developer Survey Results

Therefore, it’s helpful for companies and non-technical people to be aware of the popular online developer ‘watering holes.’ Developers often visit places like dev.to and r/programming to stay current on the latest technical developments, share their knowledge, and occasionally spar with their peers.

The DevelopIntelligence 2018 Developer Learning Survey Report found there is an interesting difference between how less experienced vs. more experienced developers learn. More experienced developers tend to prefer reading and instructor-led training, while less experienced developer tend to prefer reading, videos, and learning from peers more than ILT.

Do the math: Multiply those hours by the high salaries developers command, and you’re looking at at least $18,000 or more per year in lost productivity, per developer. One hour in an expert-led, hands-on course is worth more in learning dollars than many hours reading docs alone.

Academia confirms this. There have been some very interesting results when comparing self-paced vs. group learning. The research paper Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching has been cited almost 6,000 times by other papers, according to Google Scholar. We don’t want to go too far down the research rabbit-hole here, but one of the key ideas in the paper is that “novice learners….lack proper schemas to integrate the new information with their prior knowledge.”

Schemas are like a web that allow different pieces of knowledge to connect to one another. An expert instructor/developer has a fully-built schema around a technology like Python data science, Java 8, or functional reactive programming such as React. A great instructor will start a class by presenting this web/schema to their students, and then help them navigate it as they learn new material.

This prevents students from floundering due to lack of information or potentially latching onto a poor or ineffective solution and going too far down the wrong path. The paper states that when students learn “with pure-discovery methods and minimal feedback, they often become lost and frustrated.” Minimizing that frustration and providing direction is the instructors’ primary role in developer learning. MOOCs and docs reading are helpful, but effective, well-designed instructor-led training will help students learn in a more efficient and holistic way.