NANODEGREE PROGR AM SYLL ABUS

Digital Freelancer
Overview
The goal of the Digital Freelancer Nanodegree program is to prepare students to enter the digital
marketplace by teaching key skills to create a successful digital business. Students will learn freelancing
basics and essential skills as well as how to build their personal brand to start a successful online
business in the global freelancing marketplace.

Estimated Time: Prerequisites:

1 month None

Flexible Learning: Technical Mentor

Self-paced, so you Support:
can learn on the Our knowledgeable
schedule that works mentors guide your
best for you. learning and are
focused on answering
your questions,
motivating you and
keeping you on track

*The length of this program is an estimate of total hours the average student may take to complete all required coursework,
including lecture and project time. If you spend about 10 hours per week working through the program, you should finish
within the time provided. Actual hours may vary.

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Course 1: Freelancing 101 and Preparing to
Market Yourself
This course will discuss the fundamentals of digital freelancing by outlining the benefits and disadvantages
of working for yourself, as well as the main differences between working as a freelancer versus a traditional
role. In addition to establishing the mindset and skills of a freelancer, this course will teach how to market
yourself as a freelancer by creating your personal business identity and brand, using social media in a
strategic way to find clients, and creating a portfolio website targeted towards client acquisition.

As a digital freelancer, the most essential item to have is a

portfolio website. Your portfolio website humanizes you and
gives the client a chance to interact with you in a more personal
way. It also highlights your skills in the field by showing instead
Course Project : of just telling and allows the client to reach out and contact you.

Building a Portfolio Website For this project, you will be creating a 4-6 page portfolio on
that Will Get You Hired a website hosting platform of your choice. The website will
consist of a homepage, an “about” page, a “portfolio” page,
and a “contact” page. By the end of the project, you will have
a functional, client-ready website that raises awareness about
your services among prospective clients, articulates your skills
and highlights relevant projects from your portfolio.

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 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Explain the difference between digital freelancing and

a traditional job
• Distinguish between the security of traditional work and
Fundamentals of the fluctuating nature of freelance work
LESSON ONE
Digital Freelancing • Describe the benefits and pitfalls of digital freelancing as
a profession
• Explain the roles in which a digital freelancer may take on
including boss, networker and self-advocate

• Leverage marketing strategies in demonstrating a

personal brand
• Develop a thematic, professional brand to be used in
Marketing communications to potential clients
LESSON TWO Strategies to Set • Articulate your professional journey and motivations through
Yourself Apart an elevator pitch and professional description
• Outline and document guidelines for your brand using
marketing resources such as a brand bible
• Craft a personalized resume highlighting past projects

• Create the foundation of growing a professional social

media network
• Develop a complete profile including a profile description,
profile picture and highlighted and targeted interests
Building a • Design social media posts on a social media site that
LESSON THREE Professional Social highlights professional achievements and communicate
Media Presence targeted interests
• Initiate and engage in connecting with fellow social media
participants to market their freelance business
• Craft professional responses to social media messages
and comments

• Explain how to design and develop a website targeted to

client acquisition
• Describe the components of a personal website to highlight
Developing Your
LESSON FOUR personal projects to potential clients
Website
• Synthesize the benefits of self-marketing via a
personal website
• Develop the prototype of the landing page

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Course 2: Managing Freelancing Projects
This course covers the freelancing project journey end-to-end, starting with how and where to find clients,
and ending with the process of closing out a project with a client. It covers best practices for each stage in
a freelancing project as well as bootstrapping a freelancing career. This course draws on learnings from
practical experience and considers a variety of real-life scenarios and strategies that freelancers are likely
to navigate.

In this project, students will have the opportunity to

demonstrate the skills they’ve learned in the course by working
Course Project : with a mock client to practice the initial communication stages,
Working with a utilizing the project management process through a tool called
Mock Client Trello and invoicing their clients. Doing this project will get the
students comfortable interacting with clients and going through
different project stages including initial communication and
final payment.

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 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Utilize freelancing platforms to find new clients

• Create a profile on a freelancing platform
Creating a Process
LESSON ONE • Send an initial expression of interest (EOI) to requests
to Source Clients
from clients by using strategies to increase your chances
of getting hired

• Work with the client to create a project scope by applying

Negotiate a freelancing best practices
Project Scope • Determine a pricing framework by deciding between fixed
LESSON TWO
and a Pricing cost or time and materials contract based on client needs
Framework • Formalize the initiation of the project including NDAs and
service agreements

• Use best practices and strategies to manage client

projects effectively
LESSON THREE Managing Projects
• Adopt effective communication strategies and tools to keep
the client on the same page while you work on their project

• Assess with the client that all client’s deliverables are met
Completing • Secure payments after the deliverables are complete
LESSON FOUR
Projects • Send invoices to clients with all necessary information
• Manage exceptions like a bad review from a client

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Our Classroom Experience
REAL-WORLD PROJECTS
Build your skills through industry-relevant projects. Get
personalized feedback from our network of 900+ project
reviewers. Our simple interface makes it easy to submit
your projects as often as you need and receive unlimited
feedback on your work.

KNOWLEDGE
Find answers to your questions with Knowledge, our
proprietary wiki. Search questions asked by other students,
connect with technical mentors, and discover in real-time
how to solve the challenges that you encounter.

WORKSPACES
See your code in action. Check the output and quality of
your code by running them on workspaces that are a part
of our classroom.

QUIZZES
Check your understanding of concepts learned in the
program by answering simple and auto-graded quizzes.
Easily go back to the lessons to brush up on concepts
anytime you get an answer wrong.

CUSTOM STUDY PLANS

Create a custom study plan to suit your personal needs
and use this plan to keep track of your progress toward
your goal.

PROGRESS TRACKER
Stay on track to complete your Nanodegree program with
useful milestone reminders.

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Learn with the Best

Melissa Hong Anupam Jain

F O U N D E R , O M G CO D E F O U N D E R , S A AT H I R E

Melissa is a Top Rated Plus Upwork Anupam runs a tech startup using data
Freelancer, Velo Certified Wix science to provide information about
Partner, entrepreneur and founder social impact organizations. He has hired
of tech company OMG Code. many freelancers for his organization. He
Melissa has attended UC Berkeley, holds an MS in Computer Science from
studied medicine (while learning University of Southern California and has
Spanish) in Guadalajara, and has spent more than a decade designing and
worked many places as a digital building technologies for underserved
nomad. She believes in never communities. He has served tech roles
giving up. at places like IBM and has been granted
6 patents at USPTO.

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All Our Nanodegree Programs Include:

EXPERIENCED PROJECT REVIEWERS

REVIEWER SERVICES

• Personalized feedback & line by line code reviews

• 1600+ Reviewers with a 4.85/5 average rating
• 3 hour average project review turnaround time
• Unlimited submissions and feedback loops
• Practical tips and industry best practices
• Additional suggested resources to improve

TECHNICAL MENTOR SUPPORT

MENTORSHIP SERVICES

• Questions answered quickly by our team of

technical mentors
• 1000+ Mentors with a 4.7/5 average rating
• Support for all your technical questions

PERSONAL CAREER SERVICES

C AREER SUPPORT

• Github portfolio review

• LinkedIn profile optimization

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Frequently Asked Questions
PROGR AM OVERVIE W

WHY SHOULD I ENROLL?

This program was designed to help you take advantage of the growing
need for digital freelancers. Prepare to meet the demand for qualified
professionals that can deliver great work.

WHAT JOBS WILL THIS PROGRAM PREPARE ME FOR?

The need for strong freelancers at enterprise organizatios is greater than
ever. The skills you will gain from this Nanodegree program will help you
land jobs in several industries as countless companies are trying to keep
up with digital transformation.

HOW DO I KNOW IF THIS PROGRAM IS RIGHT FOR ME?

The course is for individuals who are looking to advance their careers as
freelancers and need the tools to build a portfolio and market themselves.

ENROLLMENT AND ADMISSION

DO I NEED TO APPLY? WHAT ARE THE ADMISSION CRITERIA?

No. This Nanodegree program accepts all applicants regardless of
experience and specific background.

WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR ENROLLMENT?

No prior experience is required, but it is recommended that students are
comfortable with basic computer skills, such as:
• Managing files
• Using third-party online programs
• Navigating the internet through an online browser

IF I DO NOT MEET THE REQUIREMENTS TO ENROLL,

WHAT SHOULD I DO?
This is a beginner course that helps freelancers in any field build their
brand. If you have not figured out which career you would like to pursue,
we’d recommend browsing our catalogue for an intro program.

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FAQs Continued
TUITION AND TERM OF PROGR AM

HOW IS THIS NANODEGREE PROGRAM STRUCTURED?

The Digital Freelancer Nanodegree program is comprised of content and
curriculum to support 2 projects. We estimate that students can complete
the program in 1 month working 10 hours per week.

Each project will be reviewed by the Udacity reviewer network. Feedback

will be provided and if you do not pass the project, you will be asked to
resubmit the project until it passes.

HOW LONG IS THIS NANODEGREE PROGRAM?

Access to this Nanodegree program runs for the length of time specified
above. If you do not graduate within that time period, you will continue
learning with month to month payments. See the Terms of Use and
FAQs for other policies regarding the terms of access to our Nanodegree
programs.

CAN I SWITCH MY START DATE? CAN I GET A REFUND?

Please see the Udacity Nanodegree program FAQs for policies on
enrollment in our programs.

SOF T WARE AND HARDWARE

WHAT SOFTWARE AND VERSIONS WILL I NEED IN THIS PROGRAM?

There are no software and version requirements to complete this
Nanodegree program. All coursework and projects can be completed via
Student Workspaces in the Udacity online classroom.

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