Udemy & Code School

Buying a Udemy course was a purchase that made me feel old. Not aged, but like I'd made one of those Old People on The Internet mistakes. I bought it through Stack Social, which is a pretty sketchyy site I'd never heard of, but I had heard of Stack Exchange, a much better and more trustworthy site, and I just made an Old People mistake.

I only learned I'd be taking it through a third party when I went to redeem my purchase. In firm words under the course links, Stack Social reminded me "no refunds," because that was a question I was thinking about at that point.

Previously, I'd taken a course at Code School. I found the simple art style and music they employed to frame the teaching a bit cloying and clichéd at first, but the instruction was straightforward. I really enjoyed it, but it didn't have any classes in Java and it was a $30 monthly fee instead of the one-time $40 I paid for Udemy (Given my satisfaction with Udemy, that's probably a one time fee with a giant, hanging asterisk).

Just a little side-by-side:

Code School

• Slick presentation
• Integrated exercises that flow seamlessly from and into the lectures
• Variable-speed lessons
• A top-down lesson plan; you know what to expect across the site
• I don't care about the presenter's history; he's just the friendly mouth for a lesson plan
• Editing

Udemy

• A guy with a webcam - Seriously, that's it - I can hear him swallowing
• "I set up this environment on this web page. It'll probably be up when you take this lesson in a few years."
• One speed; frustratingly glacial
• The next course is done by a completely different person
• I know entirely too much about this guy
• Cold stops in the videos