Improved Tutorials

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Over the past 5 years, we've learned what works well in our videos and what doesn't. In many instances, we discovered that video was an imperfect tool.

So we put our thinking caps on. We combined our considerable Drupal experience, a few whiteboards, and lots of meetings. In the end, we created a new way to present the educational content on our site

Introducing: Improved Tutorials

Starting today, a tutorial on our site may consist of 1 or more embedded videos, in-line code samples, step-by-step instructions, images, and/or written explanations. We’ll combine and order these components strategically to help you learn a particular concept or perform a specific task.

We created the ultimate tutorial architecture wherein we have the flexibility to present information in whatever way makes the most sense. Everything is on 1 page. It's easy to find, and it gives you the option to learn however you learn best.

Video is a great tool for demonstrating complex visual information. But complex code samples are often easier to digest in written form. And step-by-step instructions facilitate quick scanning.

Maybe the first time you learned to add an asset library in Drupal 8, you read our whole tutorial, watched the video, and examined the code samples. But now you just need a quick refresher. Our new tutorials let you review important concepts without necessarily having to watch a video again.

Here are a few more reasons why you’re going to love our improved tutorials:

• We can publish new tutorials faster. We already spend many hours researching and writing scripts for our videos. The ephemera produced in this process is valuable learning material that can be published long before we record, edit, review, and post the final video.
• We can keep code samples up-to-date. It's surprisingly hard to patch code that we reference in a video. Some of our older videos end up with an addendum that explains how the API changed over time. Or it explains that we made a typo on line 32 of hello_world.module at 3:53 in the 2nd video of the series. Our improved tutorials will now have canonical code samples that are always up-to-date.
• We can combine existing content in new ways. Perhaps you want to create a photo gallery? We can now combine existing tutorials—path auto and views tutorials, for example—in new ways to solve these specific problems. Our improved tutorials will facilitate more personalized learning.
• You can copy/paste the code. Copying someone's code example and modifying it to fit your needs is a great way to learn. Our new tutorials have in-line code samples that you can easily copy/paste and adapt for your own projects.

Ready to see it in action? Here’s a sample tutorial we created: Use a Drupalize.Me Tutorial