advice on creating useful tutorials

General Discussions
#1

i have some experience developing games and have my own game framework ported to at least 5 programming languages (java included).

i want to pass my knowledge in an effective and fast way (so i can produce more content in less time).

i think video tutorials with a combo of tutorial articles will be effective (plus github).

the problem is that i didnt find any resource teaching how to do it effectively (“how to create programming tut”). so im stuck with a slow and probably noneffective creation process .

i know there are people who can create a few minutes video tut very fast. and in a way people will like it.

i do my video and audio editing, i also record the screen and write my script (its hard for me to talk and code at the same time).

i think my voice is monotone and that not alot of people will understand my explanations . also the process is slow.

if anyone has any advice on how to improve all of that it will be great.

what do you think is better screen shot slides or screen recording? screen recording is heavier and harder to edit and convert.
do people want to see me type everything or would they prefer a code walkthrough?
one thing i already know is that you need to show people the end result at the start and give a brief preview on what you will be teaching.

#2

You didn’t find a “how to create tutorials” tutorial because there isn’t one single way to do it. Different teachers teach with different styles, and different students learn with different styles.

Like many things in programming, the best advice I can give you is: practice makes perfect. Your content, and your ability to create that content, will get better with time.

I’ve been putting together tutorials for a few years now, and I still find it a pretty slow and tedious process. The best advice I can give you (which is the same advice I give to people asking how to program) is to work in small, shippable chunks. What is the smallest thing you can create a tutorial for? Do that. Get that out the door and published before you start creating the next one. This is especially difficult for “series tutorials” where you’re constantly rearranging how things should fit together. But again, practice makes perfect.

You also might be curious to check out a very new Stack Exchange site called Computer Science Educators.

#3

i will chack that stack exchange.

also i realy liked your website and tutorials. i might create one myself.

not getting easier you say. i had a feeling that is the case. im not very good at it now i hope i will get better and be able to create tutorials faster.

i already created a small tool to help me generate html code for tutorials, that shod make the written ones be made faster.

thank you your website is an inspiration.

#4

Have you heard of Jekyll? It allows you to write in markdown that then gets converted to HTML. Works seamlessly with GitHub Pages. That’s what I use.

Aw shucks. That’s nice to hear. ;D

#5

yes i have but as a web developer i write my own code so i didnt see where it will be useful for me or my clients.
i see potential in github pages, but never figured how to use it , or seen a need i use web servers and wordpress for clients.

i would of never have guessed your site was made with Jekyll+github pages.

now im going to look into it and learn how to use those tools. i thoght you have a server and domain (and was wondering if you pay 50$ every two years for it).

very nice thank you.

#6

Well, different tools for different jobs. Jekyll is super useful for what I do. Wordpress would be overkill for what I need, plus I just don’t like using it. Who are your clients?

Can I ask why not? GitHub pages is basically just a webhost. Jekyll is basically just a template engine and markdown parser.

I write the tutorials in markdown. I write the rest of the site in plain old HTML and JavaScript. I use Jekyll to tie it all together and output the final html files, and I use GitHub pages for hosting.

I have a domain, I think it costs like 10 bucks a year. I don’t need a server, just a webhost.

#7

current clients? some guy that needs theme translation passed to child theme and someone that want ads from one website to run on all his websites, one is new the other is return client. and i still dont make a living off it. dont have more then 5 projects a year.

wordpress for a programmer? too slow . its good your using tools like Jekyll and html css js.

GitHub pages = free hosting (for static website).nice.

where did you get a domain for 10$ ? the min i found on google(for .io) is 35$ for two years. a 10$ domain a year will be a huge help in creating a tut website.

#8

try https://www.namecheap.com for that

#9

nice thanks

#10

Yeah I just used namecheap. Also note that with GitHub Pages you get a free subdomain like:

YourWebsiteName.github.io

If 35 bucks for 2 years is out of your price range, you should really consider the free alternatives. You can always change it later.

#11

i have created a tool (softwere) to help me create and edit html files faster, i may turn it into a full website maker in the future. but its very helpful as it is.

#12

https://www.namesilo.com/index.php
Also very cheap