I've been in that situation (or I'm still there, LOL), where you don't have all the money you need to buy an online course and you have to settle for watching tutorials on youtube. Don't be sad, eventually by putting in the hardwork to learn, you'll get to the point when you'll look back and know that all your struggles were worth it.
But while you're still here, in this article, I will give you some survival tips, to use youtube and still enjoy the perks of taking courses online.
But first I'll try to tell you what courses tend to give you and how you miss out on these benefits when you just use normal youtube tutorials.
Paid Courses VS YouTube tutorials
One of the major advantage of taking a paid course is Organised learning
Organised Learning
Well, here's how I would explain what this means. It means taking you gradually through understanding a larger concept by first tackling the smaller concepts which serve as building blocks for doing the larger thing. In organised learning, new concepts are introduced to you when you con actually learn them (I hope this makes sense)...
So in many paid courses, there's probably a scheme being followed while introducing new concepts. This means that you're being guided by a professional on what to learn next. Let's admit it, this type of learning is really cool beacuse you're not left to figure out what to learn next.
In watching YouTube videos, learning is not organised. And this often leave many people trying to learn a new technology fustrated (Imagine trying so hard to read when you don't know a, b, c, d). So let's face facts, except some YouTube programming channels that try to release full courses from time to time, many YouTube tutorials are usually random: how to create a navbar, CSS variables etc. This is a problem. I've seen many people who learn solely from watching YouTube videos who don't have understanding of many fundamental concepts. The large reason behind this is that "the newbie doesn't know what to learn".
I'll show you a practical way you can use Youtube for your tutorials and at the same time enjoy the perks of buying a course.
Structured YouTube
Here's how I found out I could organise my learning while still following YouTube tutorials:
- Get a free PDF book on the technology you want to start learning ( there are free pdf books available for almost everything you want to learn, just do a google search ).
- Now go to the book's
table of content, there you'll find what you'll be learning in an ordered format. - Pick each topic in that order and search for a corresponding video on YouTube which explains that topic ( I usually read the book too becausas books tend to give more examples sometimes because they aren't trying to save time).
It's this simple. By doing this, you get to understand the building blocks first before approaching the building. By having an arranged scheme you now know for sure what you're meant to learn next.
Well, this has been working for me, I hope it works for you too. Tell me if it helps.
Tip: Read the documentation
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