Is there any difference between courses on Udemy vs on the Tech Explorations website?
Yes, there is.
Any courses released since January 2018 come in two editions. Lite and Full.
Lite courses are published on Udemy and have limited support. For example, ESP32 for Arduino Makers is a lite version of ESP32 for Busy People.
Full courses are only published on the Tech Explorations website and have full fanatical support.
Lite courses contain a subset of the content of the Full course. Entire sections, plus other individual lectures are missing from the Lite version of a course.
A Lite course is still designed to deliver high-quality training, however it concentrates on a smaller set of outcomes. It is more appropriate for people that want to learn the basics, and don't need much (or any) interaction with the instructor.
When we publish a Lite course on Udemy, we do not, under any circumstances, withhold any lectures that are necessary for a student to learn.
Doing so would be unethical.
Yes, we are a small company, and we need to make a profit to continue to operate.
But above all, we are educators, and we will not compromise our primary objective.
A Full course simply contains more content. This content helps the student to extent their knowledge with less effort. For example, in ESP32 for Busy People, we include lectures that will show the student how to do things like use an external clock interrupt, and additional BLE projects which are not included in ESP32 for Arduino Makers. Students in ESP32 for Arduino Makers will still learn how to use the ESP32 in their projects.
Apart from the content, an important difference between the Lite and Full course versions is support. At Udemy, support is typically done by our Teaching Assistants a couple of times per week. Peter only checks private messages on Udemy a couple of times a month.
On the Tech Explorations website, support is continuous and fast, via Forums, Direct Messages and the help desk. Peter does this himself, daily (including weekends, although he's not supposed to), with support from the team.
If you want someone to ask, and know that you will get an answer to your question, then you should choose a Full version of our courses.
Due to Udemy's pricing structure vs pricing on the Tech Explorations website, regular prices for the Lite and Full version of the course can't be directly compared. A Lite course on Udemy can have a sticker price of $110. The Full version of the same course on the Tech Explorations website is $50.
As you know, Udemy regularly discounts courses to $9.99 - $15.99 depending on where you are in the world. This is great for Udemy, but not for us. We can not deliver the kind of Education we want to deliver at that price level and without controlling our delivery platform and our prices.
At Tech Explorations, we usually launch our courses at $25 (this may change in the future), and discount rarely.
We believe that the difference in price between the Lite version and the Full version of our courses is reasonable, when you consider the additional content and fanatical support we offer.
- Would you like to upgrade your course from "Lite" (Udemy) to "Full" (Tech Explorations)? Please open a request.
- If you want to discuss pricing or anything in relation to this FAQ, please contact us via the Help Desk.
- Would you like to purchase one of our courses on Udemy? This page contains links that give you the lowest price that is currently available.