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Best Paid/Free Courses you've taken

What are some of the best courses you've taken (paid / not paid)?

2 I am considering now:

Masterclass.com (assorted/hobby knowledge?) -- has anyone tried it? How do you like it?
Goodui.org (UI/design) -- I like their content, think it might be worth it to take a deeper look.


Demandcurve.com (growth/marketing) -- I just signed up for their self-service course ($499/month, but they had 50% off for the first month) -- will test it out for a month and see how the value is. $499/month is pretty steep, but I've used the julian.com website quite a bit in the past, and have gotten good value out of their newsletter tips.

I thought $249 to see how it is for a month is fair, and even if it isn't, I won't feel too bad.


Here are some of my recommendations.

I've really liked:

rallycoding.com (node/react/graphql)
$10 per course, great value, good teacher with project-based courses to learn node/react/graphql. Not sure if they're still up to date, but a great way to learn IME. I'm not a huge fan of udemy, but some of their courses are really great value.

https://www.hackingwithswift.com/ (Swift)
Good way to learn swift.

https://www.udemy.com/share/101WsWCEMceVxVQw==/ (iOS/Swift)
This Udemy course was also really good, but you could just follow the Stanford iOS classes on iTunes U or whatever it was called (does it still exist?). I think I paid $13 for it, which is amazing value imo.

refactoringUI.com (UI/Design)
Not a course, but a book. Well worth the price, IMO. Lots of small tips and examples that really clarify your UI design. Wasn't going to buy the book, but I've been using tailwindCSS and really like their free material, so thought it was fair.

Color palettes are great, components are passable. Haven't watched the videos.


Good, but might not recommend:

coursera.org (Deep Learning)
Pretty good course, a little dry and I don't think I learned a whole lot (a lot of memory stuff that was tested in the quizzes/projects -- but I guess it's more of a primer than an in-depth course). You could definitely implement existing deep learning algorithms using this course, but I don't know if it would be all that useful on it's own.

I've heard good things about fast.ai, but maybe it's the same?

Udacity free courses
Their free courses can be pretty good. Hit and miss, IME.


Not a huge fan of:

Udacity Paid Courses
I find most of the paid courses are not that well designed. I think I've started 3 and ended up using different websites to learn the material instead.

on November 21, 2019
  1. 3

    Wes Bos courses (html/css/js)
    John Calhoun (Go) https://www.calhoun.io/courses
    Egghead (mainly frontend/js) https://egghead.io/
    Realpython (python/django) https://realpython.com/

    Oreilly/Safari has hundreds of courses and books, usually 400$/y but you can get discounted memberships for 200$/y

    1. 1

      Are the Oreilly/safari courses good?

      I like most of the egghead courses I’ve done, but I’ve never done the paid ones.

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        Safari catalog is really huge, they sell courses and books from packt, manning, pragprog and many, many others, so you'll find very good ones among them.
        They recently bought a company to integrate a coding environnment to perform live coding while you folllow the tutorials, but I never tried it.

        I like Egghead ones because they're short and focused.

  2. 2

    These courses helped me a lot to switch mindset when creating new landing pages/ads/content in general:

    Modern Copywriting by Evan Kimbrell https://www.udemy.com/course/modern-copywriting-writing-copy-that-sells-in-2018/learn/lecture/8783824

    Landing Page Design by Isaac Rudansky https://www.udemy.com/course/landing-page-design-best-practices/learn/lecture/6254596

    Adwords Training Course by Isaac Rudansky was a killer after 50%. At first, I thought it's so dull, but the second part was eye-opening of how many wrong ideas I had upon Adwords https://www.udemy.com/course/the-ultimate-google-adwords-training-course/learn/lecture/12312608

    I think all solo-founders must understand how to format content and where to put focus (like benefits vs. features).

  3. 2

    I'm surprised no one has mentioned Stephen Grider. His React/React Native courses are pure gold: https://www.udemy.com/user/sgslo/

    1. 1

      Hi @shawnjavadi 👋

      Would you give some Kudos to Stephen Grider over on Course Kudos, an independent review platform for online courses that I launched recently? This way many more people can learn from him in the future.

      Thx a lot!

      Nick

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      In my original post! Rallycoding.com is his site.

      100% agree

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    You should take Masterclass for entertainment only. Their classes are like an extended TED talk.

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      I figured as much; did you like them?

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        I watched Economics and Society from Krugman, which targeting audience without econ background, so I got bored fast. The Gladwell writing course and Gaiman storytelling one were ok but without too much deep practical insightes.

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          Ah, doesn’t sound good!

          I guess I’ll pass, thanks for sharing

  5. 2

    Love this question! As I'm gearing up to launch my course (nocodemvp.com) - I would be interested to hear how you judge a course before you buy? thanks1

    1. 2

      The key for me always seems to be really good free content and a good stylistic match. I don’t really like over the top style that’s common in youtubers , but I have to admit that there is something energizing about it. Finding that right balance is important.

      I really like learning through examples and being able to see the finished product.

      With no code, that would mean being able to use the live versions of what I would build.

      1. 2

        thanks for your reply!

  6. 2

    Anything by Wes Bos. He teaches coding.

    1. 1

      Hi @harrydry 👋

      I love Wes' content as well, especially his podcast called Syntax.

      Would you give some Kudos to Wes Bos over on Course Kudos, an independent review platform for online courses that I launched recently? This way many more people can find him and learn from him in the future.

      Thx a lot!

      Nick

      1. 1

        Sure Nick. Cool platform. Just done

    2. 1

      Yeah, I like Wes a lot too. Totally forgot about him!

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    For hobby/music stuff:

    • Truefire.com: fantastic courses if you play guitars. They also have courses for other instruments.
    • Jamtrackcentral.com: some of them are pretty good.
      Design/UX:
    • A Book Apart: High quality books written by experts.
    • Every-layout.dev: Advanced layout techniques. It's super practical and clever.
    • Inclusive Components (published by Smashing Magazine): written by the same author behind Every-layout. One of the best front-end book I've read.
    • ReactoringUI: awesome.
    • Better Web Typography: everyone should get this book. It's a must-read.
    • The science of character animation by Markus Magnusson and Motion Design School. This course lives up to the hype.
    • Anything by Wes Bos.

    I signed up for a few courses on Udemy and I have the same conclusion: they're very shallow, full of errors. I would spend money and time elsewhere.

    1. 1

      Hi @mintran 👋

      I agree that Udemy courses can be disappointing, but courses by independent creators can be so hard to find. That's one of the reasons why I started Course Kudos, an independent review platform for online courses.

      Would you give some Kudos to your favorite books and courses over there? This way many more people can find him and learn from him in the future.

      Thx a lot!

      Nick

    2. 1

      Unfortunately I am musically... handicapped? But my dad is trying to learn guitar, maybe I'll get him a course from truefire. Have you done any of the beginner ones?

      Checking out better web typography now, thanks for the recommendations!

      1. 2

        I haven't checked out any beginner courses (I played for 5 years before discovered truefire), but I suggest to find a local teacher for the first 1-3 months.

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    This comment was deleted 6 years ago.

    1. 1

      Thanks, good to know

      Past that point now, but definitely useful to know when I’m talking to others.

      Are you using deep learning in your work/projects now?

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        This comment was deleted 6 years ago.

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          Awesome, all sounds super interesting. Animal actions sounds tricky, how much data do you have for that and is it supervised learning?

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            This comment was deleted 6 years ago.

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