Do you learn with video courses?

Last Update: 10.05.2017. By Jens in Developers Life | Learning

While researching alternatives to publishing books for programming related topics, I noticed that video courses get more and more common as the medium. I started wondering if works for coding related topics.

Do you use videos for learning coding techniques, new frameworks and alike?

What is your experience with it? Do you learn better than with written material?

I’ve been using video for learning quite some time now but mainly for conceptual stuff outside of developing and learning to draw. It helped me way better for getting better at drawing than all the books I’ve used before. To watch someone who can actually draw and explain why and how he/she is doing it this way is great. It’s a visual craft and supposedly watching it engages our brain more in learning; learning movements.

Same works, for me, with science experiments or topics like personal development. However, I tried it a few times with coding, and it was more like WTF - “stop the talking and show me the code. I am not stupid; I can make sense of it.” I couldn’t scan like in written content; I had to wait. Fast forwarding in a video didn’t work for me; it’s not like scanning an article or book.

Still, I am not sure if it was the medium or a problem that many of these video tuts are for beginners. Not only beginners in a particular technology but in generall. As an experienced developer you are probably used to learning new languages and frameworks, and just need to learn the base syntax and how to do things in this particular environment, etc. And video slows down.

Maybe it’s just my way of learning.

What do you think?

What’s your take on it?

I’d like to hear your opinion. So, please share it.