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Comment by netmau5 | Hacker News Reader

I'd -love- to take a Python course from Zed but this site makes me uneasy about following through. Not enough information and the site simply doesn't look professional enough to be sending in payments of $200+. The 404 on the follow up course is a big red flag too.

-- "Find courses you're interested in from our course list. After you've selected a course, we'll send you more information about our Web-based learning system. "

I kinda want to know before signing up, selecting, and/or paying what your Web-based learning system is about. From what I can see on the site, there will be some directed readings, evaluated assignments, and a place to do Q&A. Those are nice benefits but I'm looking for a quality teacher to pay that premium. I'd like to know if there is audio/video lectures, what the required texts are, etc. Unfortunately there is no FAQ and the only obvious way to ask is the "Contact Us" link which takes you to a generic feedback page.

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Some of our courses include pre-recorded screencast videos. I am teaching the CodeLesson PHP course right now and I use a few videos in my course. I don't know if Zed is planning on using any in his course but I don't think so. If we ever offer Introduction to Oil Painting we'll probably do a lot more videos for that course.

Philosophically, we are avoiding the notion of live video formats for a couple of reasons. First, there are products that exist to do live video today (Skype, etc.). But more importantly, the big benefit of an online course is that because the course has no set meeting time, students and instructors can time-shift (this is the same benefit of email versus talking on the phone). With live video, you lose that. That isn't to say that live interactions in our courses aren't an option (you're still free to pick up the phone), they just aren't a differentiator for us.

Because our courses are instructor-led, you're going to get answers to your questions, which is something that pre-recorded videos can't really provide.

Thanks for the reply. I'll follow-up later to see what Zed's plans are. I agree that getting instructor Q&A is valuable and that live video is tricky to schedule. I'd be happy with screencasts since there is an opportunity for Q&A later.

It might be a personal thing, but I learn much better when I can see the teacher and follow along with them. My best teachers have always been my most passionate teachers, and I think many of us either know of Zed's reputation or have had first-hand experience with it.

Zed giving readings, assignments, and feedback: worth the money. Zed getting all up in your business, taking you down a notch or two, and building you back up again: priceless.

There is a FAQ, actually:

http://codelesson.com/faq

No audio/video lectures or screencasts?

It's unclear from FAQ what's "instructor-led" actually means.

Sorry, I responded to your question in the wrong point in the thread. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724883

You're right and I did see it, so I shouldn't have said there wasn't one. I was looking at the course page and desperately wanting some questions answered so I threw my hands up and said "where's the FAQ!". I would have preferred a bit more info in the Site FAQ, but it definitely did answer a handful of my questions.

Anyways, now that you're here, do you guys do video lectures/interaction of any sort? I think that would persuade me to follow through~

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