Adult education options go digital in Minnesota

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ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Options for adult education are changing rapidly in Minnesota, and online offerings are a big reason.

The St. Cloud Times (http://on.sctimes.com/1FglKci ) reports Minnesota-based choices available to adults now include software development courses with Prime Digital Academy as well as online Web development courses with Frontend Masters. Prime Digital charges about $12,000 for 18 weeks of its boot camp of classes, while Frontend Masters charges $39 per month or $390 a year for access.

Also in Web and software development, groups Girl Code It Minneapolis and Twin Cities Geekettes are offering women a chance to learn how to code and break into a male-dominated field.

Minnesota is also home to the first law program letting students earn a law degree mostly online, being offered by St. Paul's William Mitchell College of Law.

Jeff Cobb, founder of lifelong learning consulting firm Tagoras, said many more options have come up in the last few years for adults looking to further their education. And adults are "much more aware of the possibilities that are out there."

Cobb, who wrote a book called "Leading the Learning Revolution," said online learning is an "established fact," and that it's "not even a trend anymore."

Marc Grabanski, who founded Frontend Masters in April 2013, began his path to development by coding games for his calculator while he was a teenager in Litchfield. His website offers live workshops filmed in Burnsville, led by engineers and developers from places including Reddit, PayPal and Etsy.

Prime Digital Academy is helping address the "significant gap between talent available and what's needed," said its president and founder, Mark Hurlburt. People interested in the academy must go through an application process that takes 10 to 15 hours.

Minneapolis is getting ready to give funds to Prime Digital, and Hurlburt said it would help underrepresented groups in tech sectors such as women, minorities, veterans and low-income populations.

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Information from: St. Cloud Times, http://www.sctimes.com