Our customers tell us about so many reasons why our virtual courses are better than the traditional option. Here are some of our favourites:
Books are great for reference, but not so good for self-paced learning. Countless studies have shown that there are three aspects to learning - what you see, what you hear and what you do. Books only provide you with one of these; we bring all three together, to ensure that you can get the knowledge you're looking for quickly and with the least effort possible.
Many of our customers want to be really confident on the subject they're learning about so that they can use it to apply for their next job. We understand this, and that's why we focus our courses on exactly what you need to know. Books have to fill a certain number of pages and are often padded out with useless "filler" material.
Our "virtual" courses are made up of training videos that you watch, together with practical exercises that you do. You can play the videos again and again. Each course has been carefully written by top trainers and subject matter experts to give you what you need to know, in a way that is fast, effective, friendly and easy to use.
In our videos, you will be working alongside an experienced developer (your "virtual pair programmer") to build real software from scratch. We don't miss out any of the steps, and you can clearly see the tutor's screen at all times, so that you'll see exactly what they have typed in.
You learn more when you are hands-on, so we also provide practical work with our videos for you to try - think of it as homework but with no scary teacher waiting to give you a bad mark!
All of our courses have videos that you can preview - these are the FULL CHAPTERS of the course
We offer a 7 day free trial to help you decide if our courses are right for you. During this first 7 days, you can watch up to 15 hours of any of our videos, and you can also download the practical files. We need you to provide payment details when you sign up, but if you cancel within the first 7 days you won't be charged. Click here for more information about the free trial options.
We want all our customers to be happy. If you have any queries before you buy, you are welcome to contact us for advice or further information.
With our great value monthly subscription there's no minimum term - you can cancel your subscription at any time if the course isn't right for you.
We have split each course into a series of chapters and you can watch each chapter individually at any time. You can watch any of our course chapters as many times as you like, as long as your membership subscription is valid.
If you have taken our membership subscription, then you do need to be online to watch the courses. We suggest you try watching some preview chapters before you sign-up to ensure that your internet connection is good enough to watch them.
No - each sign-on is user specific. We do not allow you to share your logon, and have automatic checks to prevent abuse of this, which may result in your account being suspended. For teams of 5 or more users, we have preferential pricing available - click here for details.
Definitely. We wanted the courses to be as a close as possible to our live courses. We aim to make our courses as good as - if not better than - live classroom training. We feel that practical work is the most important aspect of good learning, and so our video courses will always feature a lot of practical work.
Our parent company is a training company that has worked with many projects across the world. The courses are adapted from our long established training material and is all written in house.
Yes, and there are indeed a lot of good quality books on the market - and we always have book recommendations at the end of the course. But books do need a lot of study, and it is easy with books just to read them and not to put the theory into practice. With a video course, you can actually see and feel how to do the work. But books will always have an important place, we're not trying to replace them.
This is easily the most frequently asked question! We take great pride in the quality and content of our courses, which means that they take some considerable time to produce. This does unfortunately mean that we can only release a limited number of courses a year. We let our customers know what's coming up each month through Facebook and our regular email newsletters.
The videos are streamed through our website. The technology we use means that all our courses can be viewed on any modern computer, tablet or smart phone.
All courses are watchable on an iPad 2 or above, or an Android tablet running Android 4.1 (Jellybean) or later. (Please note that for full screen playback, you need Android 4.4 or higher, earlier versions will display errors when you resize).
No - the videos are watched directly in your browser.
Some PC configurations can handle full screen, but on some systems, or if you have a slow connection, the display will be too blocky to be usable. In these cases, leaving the video player at its standard size is the best approach.
You must be online and signed-in to your Virtual Pair Programmers' account to watch the courses.
As long as you can run Java and a modern IDE such as Eclipse (eclipse.org), you'll be fine. The main requirement is RAM, you'll need at least 1Gb to be comfortable.
We accept payment by credit card and PayPal. Paying by these methods provides instant access to your course.
If you are a company wishing to pay with company cheque or BACS payment / interbank transfer, we accept payment by Purchase Order. If you are purchasing for 5 or more users, we have preferential pricing available.
If you sign up for a free trial, we'll ask you to enter your payment details, and choose how often you'd like to be billed when the free trial ends. If you cancel your account within the first 7 days after sign-up, you won't then be charged.
After 7 days, we'll atomatically upgrade you to a full subscription and bill your card. You can optionally upgrade earlier if you wish.
We take security very seriously. Our site uses 256 bit encryption for every page, and we will never sell nor give away your data to any third parties. You can opt out of receiving our news (using the link at the bottom of every news email, or by sending us a message) and we don't store your credit card details.
All of our prices include VAT where it is applicable. The price you see is the price you pay.
Depending on your location, the place of supply is either the UK or your country, and your country may impose VAT on your purchases. All customers within the UK will be charged VAT at the rate in force in the UK. VAT registered UK companies can reclaim this VAT. All individuals and non-VAT registered customers within the EU are liable to VAT and the rate applicable in your country of residence will apply.
Following the completion of your transaction you will receive an invoice with any VAT clearly identified. This will normally be downloadable from the My Account page within 3 working days.
VAT registered companies within the UK are eligible to claim back their VAT through their VAT return.
Registered companies within the EU who purchase a course, subscription, or who take a team licence, have the option to provide their EU VAT Number, and if provided, no VAT will be charged. It will be your responsibility to determine if any VAT is due in your country and to pay the required taxes.
All EU customers who do not provide an EU vat number will be charged VAT at the rate applicable in your country, and a VAT receipt will be available to download within a few days of receiving your payment.