Teaching Materials: Video Courses
Real Python offers you different kinds of learning resources and teaching materials, such as video courses, text-based tutorials, and interactive quizzes. In this video you’ll see how to watch video courses and screencasts on the Real Python learning platform.
You’ll learn where to find members-only Python video courses on the realpython.com website, how to bookmark your favorite lessons, how to track your learning progress, and more.
00:00 Let’s take a look at the different teaching materials and types of content you’ll find on Real Python. At Real Python, you can learn using hands-on video courses, text-based and very detailed tutorials, and interactive quizzes.
00:14 Now we’re going to take a look at each of these content types one by one, starting with video courses. There are different ways you can find and access teaching materials on the realpython.com website.
00:25 A good way to start is by clicking on the main navigation and selecting the Learn Python menu. In the menu that unfolds, you can find the different types of teaching materials and different types of content listed here.
00:38 I’m going to start out by selecting Video Courses in the Learn Python menu.
00:43 Here’s the Video Courses overview page. It lists all of our latest video courses in chronological order, so you can always see the stuff that’s new and the courses that just came out.
00:54 Of course, you can also go down that list and work your way through all of the courses that we’ve published so far. For each course, you get some information about the instructor, the different topics and categories that course is filed under, how long it is, and how many lessons are in the course. Now, how do you watch a course?
01:13 Simply click on the course card here in the overview—so, I’m going to go with this course on the Bokeh library—
01:20 and once the overview page loads up, you get a little bit more information about what you’re going to learn in this course and what the key points are. And once again, you know, we’re listing for you all the information that you need at this point to decide whether or not that course is right for you.
01:33 We’re also showing you your progress here—in this case, I haven’t started this course—so by clicking on the Watch Now button, I can immediately kick things off with the first lesson.
01:42 I could also jump directly to a particular lesson within the course—and that’s the individual videos in the course—and they’re also broken down by section.
01:53 We do that for larger courses to make it easier for you to break things down into manageable chunks. When you scroll all the way to the end of the course page, you can learn more about the course instructor who’s teaching this course—in this case, Chris Bailey. Now, Chris is the main instructor on this course, but each tutorial at Real Python is actually created by a team of developers so that we can make sure we’re teaching you actual best practices and the latest standards. So you can see here, this is the full team that worked on this tutorial: reviewing it, improving it, and finally releasing it on the website.
02:28 Now, let’s kick off the course. I’m just going to go and click the Watch Now link. This is the first lesson in the course. Up here, we have the video player area, so you can jump around to different parts of the video and, of course, control things like volume, and play and pause the video.
02:45 Then further down, we’re showing you a couple more control buttons. Here, you can mark a lesson as completed or you can also mark the lesson as incomplete again if you wanted to rewatch it.
02:55 There’s also a bookmark button that you can use to add a specific lesson in a course to your bookmarks list in case you wanted to go back and review it later on. A very important button is the Supporting Material button.
03:08 When I click this button, it takes me to an additional text-based tutorial that covers additional Bokeh topics, and is a great way for you to review your learning progress.
03:17 So, if you ever need to look up information on a topic instead of rewatching a course, you could also use the written tutorial that accompanies most courses to get the information that you want. Another button is the Give Feedback button, where you can give anonymous and private feedback on a specific course lesson.
03:36 Below that, you find a quick description of the course lesson, and then the comments section where you can comment publicly and interact with other students or the instructor if you have questions about a particular lesson. On the right-hand side, you see your progress bar that signifies the progress that you’ve made so far in this course. Because I just started out, I’m at 0%. And then further down, you see the course lesson playlist, where I can jump to individual lessons in the course.
04:05 After completing a lesson, by watching it all the way to the end, the course player will automatically mark that lesson complete for you and it will then move on to the next lesson. If there’s code snippets that might be useful we usually place them here in the description, so you can easily take them and use them in your own programs, and this is absolutely encouraged.
04:27 If you can cheat a little bit and make your life easier by taking our code examples and then using them in your own programs, by all means, go for it.
04:37 Now, as I make my way through the course, more and more lessons here will be marked as complete and once I’m all the way at the end of the course, the course is actually going to be marked complete, and it’s going to be displayed in a different section: here, in the video courses overview list. So right now, it’s still in progress.
04:55 We’re about 7% complete here. And once I fully complete the course, which I can also do manually…
05:08 I know when I’ve completed that course, and when I go back to the course overview page that course is now listed all the way at the bottom in my completed courses list, so it moves out of the way. You can manage that list above so that it actually shows the content that you’re interested in and that you want to watch at some point in the future.
Jayson Ramos on March 27, 2020
Thanks Dan.
Akshay on March 27, 2020
Hey Dan! I just started learning python, I am a 16 y/o and i know the basics of programming in many languages. For Python, I am learning the basics on youtube from a youtuber named mosh hamedani. The content is python 3 but i just don’t know if i am learning whats up to date or some bunch of old stuff that isn’t being used anymore?
merkava234 on July 31, 2020
print("Great Course")
penuja101 on Aug. 21, 2020
print("you are the best")
Guntbert Reiter on Feb. 19, 2021
My first question: where do I find the keyboard shortcuts to interact with the video player?
Dan Bader RP Team on Feb. 19, 2021
Hi Guntbert, the keyboard shortcuts are documented here: support.realpython.com/article/32-lesson-player-keyboard-shortcuts
Guntbert Reiter on Feb. 19, 2021
Thx Dan - btw I like the style of your videos :-))
suggestion: it would be nice to have additional shortcuts for
- volume
- playback speed (I know how to change it, and thx to the helpful tip also found the preference…, but I’d still prefer to be able to quickly adjust the speed)
Dan Bader RP Team on Feb. 20, 2021
Cheers, good idea. I’ve just added shortcuts for adjusting the playback speed and documented the shortcuts for changing the player volume :)
Guntbert Reiter on Feb. 20, 2021
Hey, that’s a fast reaction - works perfectly 👍
Bijal Thanawala on Oct. 23, 2022
Hi Dan,
Enjoying learning intermediate/advanced topics in Python here. PyScript is also covered here! That is catching up really fast with the new developments. Kudos.
One question: The “Course Overview” page demonstrated in this video is a valuable progress indicator for a learner. It appears, however, that it is no longer accessible from the main top menu. Has it moved ?
One can bookmark the ‘courses’ link as a work-around, but having easy access from the top-menu would be useful.
Thanks to you and the team once again for the great content.
Martin Breuss RP Team on Oct. 24, 2022
Hi Bijal Thanawala glad you like our content :)
You can access the “Course Overview” page by clicking on the name of the course, right underneath then name of the current video lesson. Hope this helps!
msaipulrx on Feb. 25, 2023
Hi all, i can’t watch this video. Display error Error 400 Bad Request
anyone can help me ?
Martin Breuss RP Team on Feb. 27, 2023
@msaipulrx it’s working for me. Maybe your browser is blocking something? Did you try with a different browser? Maybe turn off your ad blocker? Or avoid using a VPN if you are?
michaelmarkaritzer on Feb. 28, 2023
as of today the menu behind “Learn Python” looks quite different. No entries any more for quick access…
luizfpp on Sept. 25, 2023
Hi, how can I remove a course that now apear in my in-progress list? Thanks.
Bartosz Zaczyński RP Team on Sept. 26, 2023
@luizfpp Yes, please follow these two steps:
- On the course overview page, click the button to mark the course as completed.
- On the same page, click the button to reset the course progress.
Hope this helps!
luizfpp on Sept. 26, 2023
Thanks, it worked for a course! But for an article I can’t find a similar way. Is it also possible?
Bartosz Zaczyński RP Team on Sept. 27, 2023
@luizfpp Sure, you’ll also find the Mark as Completed button just below the miniature table of contents hovering on the right on each written tutorial.
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Sandhya on Jan. 4, 2020
Thanks Dan!! your Course is really helpful.