Beginners that are Interested in Learning Electronics from the Ground Up :)

[AndreLaMothe]

Fellow Programs,

I wanted to announce my new course on Udemy. I worked on it for 18 months and tried to create something that would enable people to learn electronics and PCB design in a single course, have fun, and not be overwhelmed by math and too much theory. The course is massive, 135 lectures and 87 hours and basically is a distilled EE degree (as much as possible) in a single course. I took all the good stuff, theory, practical, design, bench work, and rolled it all up into the course as well as finishing the course off with a whole section (course within a course) on PCB design using Altium CircuitMaker. So, in essence if you want to learn electronics as well as practical product development and manufacturing, I think you will find the course right up your alley. I have attached some images showing various elements of the course; theory, projects, bench work, simulations, etc.

Here's the information, links, and discount code... Thanks for indulging my announcement

Crash Course Electronics and PCB Design @ Udemy -- 135 lectures, 87 hours. The course starts from "What's an electron?" and by the end of the course, you will be designing PCB projects! 50% Discount Code HAL9000

https://www.udemy.com/crash-course-electronics-and-pcb-design

Short URL - https://bit.ly/2LauZ8W

[Ranayna]

That sounds almost exactly like what I am currently looking for. 
I am not an english native speaker, and sometimes have trouble unterstanding spoken english. Do you by any chance have some sample videos available where it would be possible to listen to your voice? Does Udemy offer subtitles for the videos?

[AndreLaMothe]

Just go to the course - watch the promo video and 10 other free samples of the course.

https://www.udemy.com/crash-course-electronics-and-pcb-design

Andre'

[Ranayna]

Sometimes you can be blind, thank you

One thing is surprising though...
As a new customer, Udemy gives an extreme discount for the first purchase.
I'm not a new customer though, but i still got a really massive discount just now, even without your coupon code I only paid 14,99 Euro... At that price there was no question whether to buy the course or not
I'm curious though, I understand if you cannot or do not want to answer, do you still get the same compensation from Udemy?

Anyway, i'm looking forward to working through the course.

[AndreLaMothe]

@Raynayna -- Udemy runs constant 85-90% off sales -- it's very detrimental to the instructors income. But, Udemy makes more. So, instead of a "sale" being something that happens on a holiday, or special occasion, it's all the time -- so, most instructors complain that in 6 months with courses that range from $100-199, they have not received a sale of greater than $20. And from that Udemy takes 50%. I like the idea of sales, but not 7 days a week. I think there is a happy medium, where udemy could run sales once a month, but not every day. Then if someone REALLY wants the course or NEEDs it they will pay full price and the instructor can make a little money.

But, this is how things have changed in the publishing business. I have written a lot of books in my life, and they were all professionally edited, and peer reviewed. With online information now there is NO peer review, no editing, so people that have no business teaching are doing it anyway -- this has the effect of saturating markets with low grade information, but the customer doesn't really know this, or can't tell, so they buy the wrong stuff. And over time, customers have become used to paying practically nothing for both useless information, but also for very high quality information.

Anyway, that's the answer to your question The instructors are NOT getting rich, no where near

[EEVblog]

Sorry, not really related to your course, but I noticed that many other electronics courses are also heavily discounted 87%
If this the "normal"? i.e. does anyone ever actually pay $105?

[EEVblog]

@Raynayna -- Udemy runs constant 85-90% off sales -- it's very detrimental to the instructors income. But, Udemy makes more. So, instead of a "sale" being something that happens on a holiday, or special occasion, it's all the time -- so, most instructors complain that in 6 months with courses that range from $100-199, they have not received a sale of greater than $20. And from that Udemy takes 50%. I like the idea of sales, but not 7 days a week. I think there is a happy medium, where udemy could run sales once a month, but not every day. Then if someone REALLY wants the course or NEEDs it they will pay full price and the instructor can make a little money.

Wow, didn't see this before I made my post before, I thought it might be something like this.
I once thought about designing a Udemy course, but it seems I would be far better off just marketing directly to my own audience.

But, this is how things have changed in the publishing business. I have written a lot of books in my life, and they were all professionally edited, and peer reviewed. With online information now there is NO peer review, no editing, so people that have no business teaching are doing it anyway -- this has the effect of saturating markets with low grade information, but the customer doesn't really know this, or can't tell, so they buy the wrong stuff. And over time, customers have become used to paying practically nothing for both useless information, but also for very high quality information.

So course ever get marked down in the reviews? Or is it 5 star AAAAA++++++ ebay style ratings?

i.e. Is it possible for the good ones to rise up above the pack of mediocre ones?

[AndreLaMothe]

From what I understand Udemy has a fairly complex rating system that takes into consideration when a student bought a class, for how much, how far he has proceeded in it, etc. all this is taken into account in their rating system and their search system. So, its a "google" like algorithm, baby version. Thus, if free students take the course, their rating has a lower weight then someone that paid for it, and a person that paid for it has more weight than enough that has only watched one lecture.

So, I think the answer is yes. If people watch the course, give it good reviews it helps with search and placement, the more lectures they watch, the more weight these ratings have (similar to amazon's verified purchase).

But, as an author, I knew this going in about the sales 24/7, it's across the board, so I don't mind. But, as a mathematician, I wonder if they have done a proper statistical analysis that optimizes the expectation as a function of sale price and sale frequency. I find it hard to believe that having a sale 24/7 for $10 a course is the best answer. I KNOW for a fact selling video games for 20 years, that lower price works against perceived value, and in books I know that customers WILL pay higher prices for GOOD authors. At Sams, Pearson, and others I set prices for my books and my game dev series, and always charged a premium price and customers paid it. Therefore, I think Udemy could make MORE money and instructors would make MORE money if they didn't have this 24/7 80-90% discount policy.

On the other hand, maybe they DID do a study and found this algorithm to be the best. I can't imagine it's the best for instructors, but overall, it might be the best for Udemy, and it's their company

Another thing that muddies the waters is giving away 1000's of free coupons. These students didn't pay, have no skin in the game, and will never watch the whole course. It looks good at first glance, you see a course with 20,000 students, but if you watch a few videos, you quickly see how bad the course is or the language, audio, its impossible to understand. So, I am going to stick with real people, no freebees (maybe a nephew here and there), but I would rather have REAL customers, into the material, really interested in learning, rather than "collectors" that just like the idea of taking courses for free, and never actually take the course. But, maybe watch a single lecture, don't like it, then rate it down.



Andre'

[Discotech]

If it was at normal price I probably wouldn't have bought it, sale price though it's certainly worth the risk and no doubt I'll get at least £11 worth of education from it

It may be worth setting up a Patreon so those who think it's worth more than sale price (after doing the course) could top some extra money for your time as the 50% cut of Udemy does seem unfair for them basically just processing payment and hosting your knowledge

[rstofer]

I needed to find a comprehensive math program that would over all of the requirements for a college engineering curriculum.  There are many programs out there and Khan Academy is really good but I wanted something that was more 'classroom' oriented.  Whatever that means...

Calcworkshop.com is an annual (or monthly) subscription service covering math from "Intro to Algebra" up through "Differential Equations" and the topics are covered in DEPTH.  It's about the same as taking the semester courses in terms of hours of work.  There is no text...

The cost varies from $29 per month to $179 per year.  Considering my grandson just got an "A" in first semester Calculus, the cost is insignificant.  I'll gladly pay for as many years as are necessary.  It's also kind of fun to go back and review what I thought I learned in college.  Some of it I remember, some of it I'm sure I never learned.  What's amazing is how much I have forgotten!

The point is this:  Jenn (of CalcWorkshop) doesn't offer her program through Udemy or Patreon and she hosts it on her own site, no YouTube, no ads.  She controls access to her content and, hopefully, makes a bunch of money from it.  Fifteen years of teaching the subject ought to count for something!

There is a free demo series on Limits - well worth watching just to see her approach to teaching:
https://calcworkshop.com/online-limits-course/

Two reasons for the post:  First of all, CalcWorkshop is a great resource.  Second, at some point it is worth controlling your own destiny.  I don't know how much it is worth for a comprehensive electronics program.  Mine cost a dumpster load over a long period of time.  But I have some paper to hang on my ego wall (if I had one) and that seemed important to my employers.  Oddly, I was never impressed!

Then there is the free competition.  There are a large number of electronics programs on the Internet.  There are also a large number of math programs.  I don't know how it works out.

If I were going to produce 86 hours of video and I suspect it takes at least 2x to get it edited and ready to go, I would want to make 2 * 86 * 100 or $17,200 for the time.  Minimum!  At the price Udemy charges plus the percentage they pay out, it's going to take a while to earn that much money. 

Dave's model is better!  YouTube monetization seems to pay well (disclaimer, I have no idea how it works).  All in, I don't see where Udemy is worth the effort.

[mtdoc]

Thanks for the pointer Andre'

Several of the topics are ones I am yet to master.  I've done some free MOOC courses but this looks more complete and hands on. The few sample videos I watched look good.  $11 seems like a bargain.  I'll give it a go.  Even if I find just a fraction of it helpful it will be worth it.

[AndreLaMothe]

Thanks -- there are a lot of interesting lectures in there. I spent a lot of time really trying to make the more advanced circuit analysis lectures as clear as possible and attack from different angles -- And of course, if you haven't designed PCBs then the last section is 2x the size of most other electronics courses as a stand alone, so its a good set of tutorials on just where to even begin designing a PCB and laying it out, the parts, routing, etc.

Anyway, thanks and hope you like it --

Andre'

[Cliff Matthews]

I'm in - Thanks Andre!

[Mukrakiish]

It looks really promising, I've jumped in as well. There looks like a pile of stuff in there I can learn from. Thanks!