Introduction
Recently, I have just finished building the Lidemy Lithium Academy, an online programming course platform. Currently, the website is built on Teachable, a service that allows for quick and easy creation of course platforms.
In this post, I will discuss the background and philosophy behind Lidemy.
Origin
I have always been someone who enjoys teaching. From the physical courses I taught at my previous company, to the free programming tutorials I offered in Taipei, to the Introduction to Computer Science and Coding Magic for Beginners course I taught on Hahow, and most recently, the Frontend Intermediate Course.
You can read about my personal journey in full in My Programming Experience. Perhaps it is because of my diverse background that I have an advantage in teaching. Often, I can explain things in a way that is easier to understand and more accessible to my students.
Most of the courses I have taught have been free, both online and offline. The only paid course I offered was made free after the contract expired. The goal of all my courses has been the same: to help beginners enter the field of programming more smoothly.
I have always believed that teaching is a two-way street. Not only is giving instruction a two-way process, but the act of teaching itself is also a two-way process. In the process of teaching, the teacher is also a student, and the student is also a teacher. Both can learn something from each other.
I often see many beginners who think that programming is difficult and that they are too stupid to learn it, or they buy a course and find that they cannot understand what the teacher is saying. I want to tell you that this is not your fault, but rather the fault of the teacher who can teach better. I have always held myself to this standard. If a student cannot understand or learn, it is not their fault, it is mine. It is because I did not use simpler examples to help them understand, or did not design the course better or more suitable for beginners.
In addition to online courses, I have also written many articles related to beginners on my blog, such as Novice Programming Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Articles, Why You Should Start from Scratch to Learning Program, Experience: Ten Years of Programming Self-Study Road, Programming Course Like Ocean: CS50, and more.
In fact, I have always wanted to create my own online course platform. Before teaching on Hahow, I had already thought about it, and I had also thought about offering physical courses, but I never took action because I felt that my resources were not enough and that I needed more time to accumulate them.
Recently, one day, I wanted to search for an article using keywords such as “programming self-study,” “programming teaching,” and “programming introduction.” I found that the top three search results were my articles, and at the same time, I was teaching the Frontend Intermediate Course. I realized that I had taught many times and written many articles, and it seemed like it was time to organize my resources.
Therefore, Lidemy Lithium Academy was born.
Why is it called Lidemy?
Previously, someone wrote to me asking for cooperation and permission to repost an article on their blog, and requested a photo of a logo. At that time, I didn’t know what to put in the logo. I had been running this for so long and still didn’t have a logo. Later, I talked to a friend and he suggested using the image of my cup.
I bought this cup from Mr. Sai’s Science Factory. The moment I saw it, I decided to buy it. Li happens to be one of the characters in my name and also the name of a chemical element.
Later, when I had to name this new online programming course platform, I immediately thought of this character and logo. I even thought of the Chinese name, “Lithium Academy,” which sounds like “Science Academy.” Although programming is more like what an electrical and computer engineering school would do, it seems to be somewhat related to “science.”
Therefore, I quickly decided on the logo and Chinese name, and then only the English name was left.
I thought of the English name directly from the Chinese name. I checked the translation of “academy” and found that it could be called “college” or “faculty,” but I didn’t think they were suitable. I thought of Li Bootcamp or Li School, but they sounded a bit strange.
One day, I accidentally discovered that “Academy” also means “school,” so I decided on “Li Academy!”
After deciding, I immediately registered the domain name online and found that liacademy.com had already been taken, so I could only use liacademy.tw. However, I found that there was also the super powerful domain name li.academy that could be applied for, but it cost more than 6,000 Taiwanese dollars a year, more than ten times the cost of other domains.
At that time, I thought for a long time, should I really buy this domain name? And I’m not sure if only real educational institutions can purchase this domain name (I don’t think so, I’m just worried). In the process of thinking, I suddenly thought of combining these two words to become Lidemy. The advantage of this name is that it is easier to pronounce and the domain name is still available.
I asked my roommate about it, and he said, “But doesn’t it make people feel like it’s similar to Udemy?” Yes, that’s right, and Udemy’s logo is also a U, which feels quite similar. Later, because I couldn’t decide, I posted these two options on Facebook and let my friends vote, and Lidemy won overwhelmingly.
This is the story of how the name Lidemy was born.
Lidemy’s Philosophy
After deciding on the name and logo, the next big thing was the slogan. Almost every website has a slogan, a short sentence that explains what they are doing. We can refer to others:
- Hahow: The most interesting online course platform
- ALPHA Camp: Cultivating talents that global startups crave
- Hex School: Take you to learn online courses that you can do
- Udemy: Learn Anything, On Your Schedule
I remember that the first thing I thought of was: an online programming course platform specifically designed for beginners. I also thought of other things, such as an honest online programming course platform, committed to being the most honest online programming course platform, and so on.
In short, the term “Online Programming Course Platform” is fixed, and it depends on what comes before it.
In the end, the words above are too long, and although I really wanted to include the word “honest,” it just didn’t seem to fit. Therefore, I decided to shorten it to “An Online Programming Course Platform for Beginners.”
The concept of being born for beginners is easy to understand. I have mentioned it many times before. My teaching intention is to bring beginners into this field and let them know that programming is not difficult at all and is very interesting!
The reason I wanted to include the point of honesty is that I have always wanted to create a transparent platform. How transparent? First of all, in terms of courses, I hope to put good and bad reviews side by side so that everyone knows what students’ feedback is on this course, not just good reviews.
This may affect sales, but I don’t care. Rather than selling well, I hope that people who come to buy courses already know the pros and cons. I hope they purchase after fully understanding the evaluation and content of the course.
If possible, I also want to disclose how much revenue and expenses are involved in operating this platform, but that’s for later since there are no paid courses yet.
The Future of Lidemy
Currently, there is only one course on front-end programming, and the courses on Hahow will not be able to be transferred to my own platform and re-launched until more than a year later when the contract expires.
Therefore, I need to plan carefully what content will be on Lidemy in the future.
In the long-term, I want to make Lidemy a platform that has everything. You can find almost anything you want to learn, such as Android, iOS, web front-end and back-end, etc.
But in the short term, I should focus on the web design that I am more familiar with.
A friend asked me before, “There are already so many resources for web design. Why do you still want to do it?”
Because I want a beginner’s entry and strengthening to be on the same course platform. To create such a learning system, I must jump down and teach the most basic HTML/CSS/JS myself. Start from the basics and keep strengthening.
Below are several courses that I am currently planning. They are not completely confirmed yet, but if there is one that you really want to take, you can leave a message below, and it will increase the chances of this course being offered.
- Introduction to HTML/CSS
- Introduction to JavaScript
- Introduction to Git
- CS50 Guide
- Introduction to Scratch
- Introduction to React
Conclusion
If you are interested in this type of teaching, you can register on Lidemy Lithium Academy to get the latest information on new courses, or you can follow Lidemy’s Facebook fan page to be the first to know the latest news.
This concludes the introduction to Lidemy Lithium Academy. Thank you, everyone.
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