I enjoy teaching computer science and programming to beginners, career changers, and people learning for personal reasons. My own path was unconventional: I studied veterinary medicine for four years, switched to computer science in 2022, and eventually became a developer. Although I attended college for a diploma, most of what I actually learned came from studying online, and I want to teach programming in a more useful and understandable way than I experienced myself.
I have created a few programming courses and uploaded them to an online course platform, while also publishing the opening sections on a video channel. However, something seems to be missing. The videos are not attracting much attention, and I am unsure whether the problem is discoverability, the presentation, or the teaching approach itself. My goal is to help people build a deeper understanding of how programming works, rather than only follow shallow tutorials.
How can I make this kind of educational content more valuable and appealing to beginners? Am I approaching the lesson format, topics, titles, or overall strategy incorrectly?
4 Answers
Programming education is a very crowded space, so having a good teaching method is not always enough by itself. You need to make it immediately clear why someone should choose your material over hundreds of established options. Your story and focus on understanding could become a real differentiator, but it needs to be visible in the topic, title, and opening of each lesson.
Long videos are difficult to use as the main learning format. A three- or four-hour lesson encourages people to watch passively, skip practice, or leave it playing in the background. Try dividing the material into shorter sections of around 20–30 minutes, then follow each section with an exercise, quiz, or small project. Tell learners exactly when to pause and apply the idea instead of expecting them to create their own structure.
Video is useful for demonstrations and explanations, but programming is learned by writing and debugging code. The more often learners have to make a decision or produce something themselves, the more likely the material is to stick.
The teaching may be fine, but generic titles and thumbnails make it difficult for people to discover or choose your videos. Instead of broad topics like learning a whole language, focus on one specific problem and solve it from beginning to end. Your background could help a lot here—for example, building a small tool related to veterinary studies or explaining programming through a career-change perspective. That gives people a concrete reason to click and makes the content feel more personal.
A lot of learners are attracted by the idea of becoming programmers, but lose motivation when they realize how much repetition and problem-solving it requires. There is no way to remove all of that work, though you can make the path feel more rewarding by giving learners small projects and visible milestones. Your own transition from another field is a strong part of your story, so use it to set realistic expectations while showing beginners that progress is possible.
I agree that learning programming takes sustained effort. Still, if better explanations and structure can help someone reach the same understanding in one year instead of two, I would consider that a worthwhile result. I may need to communicate that practical benefit more clearly.
That makes sense. I have mostly focused on explaining concepts, but I may need to connect them to more specific problems and present them with clearer titles. I was also considering relying less on AI-generated thumbnails and titles so the presentation feels more authentic.