When the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder set out to better prepare students for today’s digital-first business environment, it didn’t just update the syllabus — it reimagined how students learn to solve problems.
To better prepare its graduates for the careers of tomorrow, the school knew traditional coursework alone wouldn’t be enough. To really excel, students need exposure to and experience with the tools companies are actually using to build and automate business processes with speed and precision.
By partnering with Nintex, the school — and more specifically Matthew Brady, Founder & CEO of Volley and Instructor in the Organizational Leadership & Information Analytics (OLIA) department at the Leeds School of Business — crafted a hands-on, low-code course where students use real enterprise tools to build custom solutions inside Salesforce.
This partnership reflects a growing recognition that low-code and AI automation are no longer niche skills — they’re essential for preparing next-generation business and technology leaders.
“We’re not just teaching tools — we’re teaching students how to solve real problems with technology used to power business,” says Brady.
Turning students into solution builders
The university launched the course Low Code for Citizen Developers to “prepare students for success in the nexus of business and technology convergence,” the exact nexus where Brady thrives.
“These students are learning to get comfortable in a space that will become increasingly important to innovation in the future: The convergence of the theoretical and conceptual with the applied and practical,” he says.
The course examines the strategic context and competitive factors that influence design thinking approaches to integrate and orchestrate cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms, enabling organizations to achieve their goals. Through a series of agile sprints, the course transitions from theoretical to applied, empowering citizen developers to leverage leading low-code development tools to build and extend business applications.
Practically, the course focuses on low-code solution development by giving the students access to tools, including Nintex Apps and Nintex for Salesforce. “I want students to be familiar with tools relevant to soloprenuers and global corporations,” says Brady. He continued, “In growing students’ knowledge of software and application development, I selected a platform that allows them to design and build fully functional, custom digital solutions within the Salesforce secure environment and tackle real business problems through project-based learning. Nintex directly meets that need.”
From buzzword to business impact
Low Code for Citizen Developers provides not just theoretical understanding but tangible outcomes, such as:
- Deployable, portfolio-ready applications
- Exposure to AI-driven automation and low-code architecture
- Practical experience using leading enterprise-grade platforms
“This course gives students skills and deliverables to include on their LinkedIn profile,” Brady explained. “And it gives them more than just buzzword experience: Completing five sprints of increasingly difficult user stories also allows them to craft a personal narrative around what they learned. That means they can bring up their experience using platforms like Nintex in a job interview. I’ve known students to flip their laptops open and demo the application they built right then and there.”
Unlike traditional tech education, this course focuses on empowering students as creators — not just consumers — of mainstream and emerging technologies, including AI. With Nintex’s intuitive interface and powerful backend, students can rapidly prototype and iterate on their ideas without needing deep coding expertise.
By the end of the course, students had built production-grade applications and developed the confidence to take those skills into any business environment.
“I developed this course to show students they can rapidly build usable, scalable apps. The use of low-code platforms like Nintex empowers them to deliver production-grade solutions in weeks,” said Brady. “They leave the course with portfolio projects, new career paths, and confidence that they can drive impact in any industry.”
Bridging academia and industry
For Leeds, the initiative is about more than just digital literacy — it’s about ensuring graduates are prepared to lead transformation inside real companies and real communities.
“The future of business will be powered by tailored solutions designed to the specific needs of every organization using low code automation and agentic AI. The Low-Code for Citizen Developers course at Leeds is preparing next-generation business and technology leaders to drive widespread efficiency across their organizations,” said Niranjan Vijayaragavan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Nintex. “We’re excited to see students building meaningful, real-world solutions using our platform. It’s proof that low-code automation and AI are skillsets that belong in every business discipline and are critical to driving operational success.”
This comprehensive approach to citizen development education reflects a broader industry trend toward democratizing technology creation. As businesses increasingly rely on custom applications and automated workflows to maintain a competitive advantage, the ability to build and deploy these solutions becomes a critical skill across all departments. The program’s emphasis on practical, hands-on experience ensures that students not only understand theoretical concepts but can also implement solutions that drive real business value.
“This citizen development experience gives students a leg up after graduation, whether they’re looking for a technical role or a role where technical savvy is a differentiator, like finance, marketing, operations, or general management,” says Brady. “Every role, department, and organization will be impacted by technology advancement, and these are the future leaders who will lead that digital transformation.”
The future looks bright
Matthew Brady experienced this career progression personally. Classically trained in technology at the Polytechnique Institute at Purdue University and in business at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, he progressed through IT and business leadership ranks, including multiple C-suite executive roles.
“I want students to see themselves using technologies like Nintex in high-stakes environments, building apps and delivering value, impacting the world in a way they know (or may not yet know) they can,” said Brady.
The course Brady developed is a bridge to that future, establishing how to thoughtfully and efficiently apply technology solutions to meet organizational challenges. “In doing so, students become the conductor of a virtual orchestra, visually designing (or even speaking) solutions into existence. Gaining that experience in the classroom, along with a grasp of the responsible use of data assets and ethical use of artificial intelligence, equips our students to Be Boulder in pursuing and achieving their goals at a personal and organizational level,” added Brady.
