Paid vs. Free Development Environments

[CharlesEBrown]

Here are some interesting questions:

When developing a programming course, has anyone used a minimally priced ($69) programming environment instead of one of the free ones? And, if so, did the students complain about that?

Also, if you gave the students a choice of development environments, did you use the paid or the free tool throughout the course?

Many thanks in advance,

Charles

[FrankKane]

Are you teaching a language supported by Udemy’s coding exercise feature? If so that would be best I think. Some are in corporate settings where they are not allowed to install their own software at all.

I always stick with free tools myself. Many Udemy learners are very price conscious. 

[CharlesEBrown]

Frank:

Thanks for your response. I decided that I am going to use the Udemy Coding Exercise feature in the early part of the course.