First course (web development)

[nestorllamas]

Hello,

I am going to make a course about web development in Spanish language (I am from Spain). I prefer doing it in Spanish as it's more easy and faster for me, rather than doing it in English. By the way, Spanish is also a widely used language, not only in Spain, but also mainly in South America. I plan to do a complete and modern course, full-stack web development mainly based on the MERN stack.

I have been learning and practicing 1.5 years so far till today, by my own online and now recently having finished academy about MERN stack. I don't have yet any official experience working in a company or as a freelancer for clients. But I did 2 or 3 full-stack web application projects. In this time I also learned how to configure a Linux virtual machine in an unmanaged web hosting.

The course is intended for beginner students, who are starting in web development just I was doing it when I started. Also I don't pretend to each much money from it, but if I earn money it is welcome.

My main intention with the course is for serving as another project in my professional portfolio. Also for reviewing what I learned so far until today, in a way that explaining to other beginner students will make me understand better all the concepts. I like being an online instructor on Udemy, as well as doing eLearning video lessons, so this will help me being a better instructor.

My worries are:

- I am "allowed" to do that course if I haven't worked yet inside a company or as a freelancer for clients? Or it is "bad" idea? Maybe it hurts me professionally because I want to publish that course when I am lacking of official experience?

- Should I make a one single full course, or should I make several individual and independent courses for each technology? For example, one course about JavaScript, another course about React, another course about Node.js and MongoDB, etc.

- Is it good to do it in Spanish? Or it would be better in English?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Regards,

Néstor Llamas

[CarstenMuessig]

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- I am "allowed" to do that course if I haven't worked yet inside a company or as a freelancer for clients? Or it is "bad" idea? Maybe it hurts me professionally because I want to publish that course when I am lacking of official experience?

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Yes, you are allowed to as Udemy doesn't have restrictions in relation to this. At the end of the day, only you can decide if it's the right time for you to publish a course.

- Should I make a one single full course, or should I make several individual and independent courses for each technology? For example, one course about JavaScript, another course about React, another course about Node.js and MongoDB, etc.

What do you prefer to do at the moment?

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- Is it good to do it in Spanish? Or it would be better in English?

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I would start with the language you feel most comfortable in. You can always do the other language later.

[Mayam]

Hi Néstor Llamas,

Congratulations on your first step towards sharing your knowledge with the world. 

Answering your questions,

1. You can publish a course even if you lack professional experience.

2. It is better to add more value to a single course. Since you're about to teach MERN stack, better go with it.

3. There are not a lot of courses for MERN stack in English language. Meanwhile, the same applies to Spanish as well. Do you own research at https://www.udemy.com/instructor/marketplace-insights/

The above tool will give you whether or not it's a good opportunity to focus on a specific topic. You have the ability to choose language as well, to see if there is potential.

The last time I checked, the topic 'MERN Stack' looks like a Great Opportunity in English Language and you might need a marketing strategy to succeed in Spanish.

Being a newcomer, i suggest you focus on creating quality content. Everybody agrees "Content is King"

Here are few suggestions:

• Go with English
• Provide value in each lecture
• Make the explanations of concepts clear
• Make it engaging by including practice activities
• Tell your students who the course is for, right off the bat

All the best.

[nestorllamas]

Hello, Mayam!

I really appreciate this useful message from you! It helped me a lot.

But regarding my first worry or question, I think you didn't get what I wanted to mean:

- I am "allowed" to do that course if I haven't worked yet inside a company or as a freelancer for clients? Or it is "bad" idea? Maybe it hurts me professionally because I want to publish that course when I am lacking of official experience?

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1. You can publish a course even if you lack professional experience.

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I know any instructor is allowed to publish any course here in this platform. What I wanted to ask is for personal opinion if that it's good or bad idea being an instructor maybe so soon in my professional career.

The course is for beginners, as I have a junior level yet as a web developer. But even in that case, maybe students are requiring someone more experienced in the industry with at least some official years of professional work having worked inside a company or as a freelancer for clients.

I don't know, I guess here there is some controversy about what I am saying. In my opinion "I am allowed" if I have good knowledge, I offer good content, and I explain best, modern and complete technologies, always focusing on beginner students, so marking it as a course with beginner level.

What is your own and particular opinion about this? Some people say me I must have some official professional experience (more than these 1.5 years of self-learning and academy), and some other people say me I just can do it without "restrictions".

Regards,

Néstor Llamas

[Mayam]

Hi Néstor,

You may have heard about "Curse of knowledge"

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias  that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand. This bias is also called by some authors the curse of expertise (From wikipedia)

Many experienced teachers struggle to explain fundamentals to absolute beginners due to this bias. How can we address this?

Just put yourself in your beginner students' shoes. However, teachers with a lot of experience just can't do it.

You, as a beginner can address this problem, since you know exactly what other beginners need to know. A student can explain a concept better than a teacher.

My opinion is to just start. Don't try to be a perfectionist. Meanwhile strive for good. I personally believe, years of experience is just an abstract number.

You may have your own way of teaching which may help potential students understand the concepts better.

Moreover, you understand it better when you teach others. So it's a win-win situation. The questions your students will be asking, will motivate you to study them even if you lack professional experience.

Your first course may not be perfect. You will make mistakes and you will learn from them. As you keep doing it, you will get better. The journey never ends, my friend.

Hope this helps. Thank you.

[nestorllamas]

Hello, Mayam!

Yeah, I also agree with you in all what you said. Others might thing we are both wrong. But if the course is good and has finally good content, and it's just intended for beginner students, for sure that they might be wrong in their opinions.

I've just seen that you have 1 course here on Udemy and with a lot of students. Can you tell me how did you obtain so many enrollments? Did you do an extensive marketing campaign (in this case, how?) or you just published the course there and waited for the results? I am very interested in that because this is the second step after you publish your course, maybe as important as the first step of creating the course itself.

Regards,

Néstor Llamas