从一开始，我就一直是For Dummies(For Dummies)系列书籍的忠实粉丝。我很欣赏他们对严肃话题的轻松态度，以及他们的作者用我们其他人可以理解的简单术语解释困难概念的能力。因此(Thus)，我很高兴听到有一个在线课程以傻瓜式(For Dummies)的方式介绍 Windows 8。由于许多人在看到它是如何完成时发现新概念更容易理解，这看起来是学习Windows 8的一个不错的选择，而且我绝对是这个操作系统(operating system)的初学者。课程达到我的期望了吗？让我们(Let)看看我发现了什么。
入门
Windows 8 For Dummies 在线视频培训课程可在一家名为(The Windows 8 For Dummies Online Video Training Course)Udemy的公司的网站上找到，该公司专门提供各种在线课程。他们有很多选择，他们邀请您浏览他们的目录以查看您可能感兴趣的内容。如果您像我一样，这很容易占用一个下午的大部分时间，因此如果您想查看它，我建议您直接参加Windows 8 For Dummies课程。(Windows 8 For Dummies)当您转到其页面时，您会看到三个非常重要的功能。首先(First)，课程费用为 25美元(USD)（大多数Windows 8书籍的费用都差不多），正如您在页面下方看到的那样，该价格包括终身访问和 30 天退款保证。
该页面上也列出了课程内容，但这不适合屏幕截图（我在另一个屏幕截图中显示了其中的一部分）。您可以向下滚动页面以查看部分和主题，并在注册之前查看为您准备的内容。如果您确实喜欢它，您可以随时返回来重新审视这些概念，如果您不喜欢它，Udemy会退还您的钱。你有什么损失呢？
注意：(NOTE:)注册后，您可能需要稍微调整一下设置。Udemy的人非常友好，他们有很多话要说，所以他们默认为您注册所有电子邮件通知。如果您不想看到这么多电子邮件，请务必取消选中您不想要的电子邮件，或者告诉他们您根本不想要任何电子邮件。不过，我认为至少注册他们的优惠是值得的，因为他们提供的其中一件事是未来课程的优惠折扣。
要更改您的设置，请转到您的姓名所在的(name and click)左上角(left corner)，然后单击箭头。
该网站说它适用于所有浏览器，所以我在Internet Explorer 9和 10、Firefox、Chrome 和 Safari(Chrome and Safari)上进行了尝试，它的工作原理与宣传的一样。但是，我的主计算机（我在 2009 年构建的运行Windows 7(Windows 7)的中型 PC ）有时无法跟上，尤其是在我整天打开和关闭程序的当天晚些时候。我确定这是因为我仍在使用主板内置的视频（请注意，不要再廉价和懒惰，去买一个真正的视频卡(video card)！）这不是课程的错。在我最近安装了Windows 8(Windows 8)的上网本上稍微流畅一些但仍然没有应有的流畅，因为，嗯，它是一个上网本——所以最后我在我一岁的Mac Mini上运行了课程。为了研究，我在Mac上使用(Mac)Safari进行了尝试，但我在Chrome上运行了它，这是我的首选浏览器。因此，您可以看到您不必实际安装Windows 8即可查看课程。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，我想提一下您应该查看的另一组设置：您的隐私(Privacy)设置。默认情况下，您的个人资料以及您正在学习的课程会显示给搜索引擎。如果您希望此信息保持私密，请不要犹豫，将相应的开关设置为OFF。
课程
您可以将Facebook 帐户(Facebook account)用作Udemy 帐户(Udemy account)，也可以根据您的电子邮件地址(email address)创建一个新帐户。在网站上注册后，登录很容易。
如果您已退出登录，返回时会有些混乱，因为登录链接隐藏在“(login)注册(Register)”窗口的底部。
然后，您会看到一个屏幕，显示您在课程中的位置。这是我刚开始时做的截图。我已经完成了前两节课，现在它问我是否想玩下一节课。
讲座
个别视频被称为讲座，这是有充分理由的。这不是一门交互式课程，您应该在进行下一个概念之前练习所有内容。(practice everything)你看着别人做示范。这不是批评——我只是想提一下，以防(case one)你们中的一个人期望获得全面的互动体验。当我听旁白时，我很高兴听到熟悉的轻松处理主题的方法，这是For Dummies的一个突出特点(For Dummies)图书。这使得讲座既有趣又内容丰富。大多数情况下，讲座都很短，大约两到五分钟，尽管随着课程的进行，有几个会更长。较短的讲座使他们很容易适应忙碌的一天，因此您可以在有时间的情况下吸收尽可能多的信息。
即使是本课程最长的讲座也只有 12 分钟。我喜欢这种方法。当然，您可以随时返回并重温任何讲座。讲座从基础开始慢慢开始，然后转向更复杂的主题。每一个都是一步一步解释的。这些部分按逻辑顺序排列，个别讲座非常顺利地从一个概念转移到另一个概念。
在查看窗口(viewing window)的底部，您会看到一个标记为Next Lecture的按钮。除此之外是一个非常小的指示器，表明自动播放(Autoplay)已打开(ON)（默认情况下已打开）。这意味着每节课都会在上一节课结束后自动播放。如果您不想这样做，请单击此处关闭自动播放(Autoplay OFF)。我发现，当课程尝试播放序列中的下一个讲座时，有时我会收到“找不到文件”("file not found")错误，但在大多数情况下，它运行得非常顺利。
在每次讲座开始时，我确实有点厌倦了相同的介绍性音乐(introductory music)，但这只是一个小问题。涵盖了初学者需要了解的有关Windows 8的所有内容，从开始屏幕(Start Screen)的第一个视图到管理媒体和浏览 Internet。最后甚至还有一个“十(Part of Tens)之分”部分，就像在大多数For Dummies书籍中一样，它和印刷版的书一样有趣。
结论
我非常喜欢通过讲座。旁白很容易听，图形很吸引人，一切都用易于理解的术语解释，每个概念都在屏幕上演示。For Dummies的编辑们显然可以毫无问题地将书籍转换为视频。整个课程只需要大约三个半小时，时间很短，所以几乎任何人都可以抽出时间来完成它。
判决
作为Windows 8的新手，我发现每堂课都有一些内容可以帮助我更好地理解操作系统(operating system)。这些讲座很吸引人，并且是由知道自己在做什么的人清楚地构建的。我遇到的唯一问题是我自己的硬件缺陷造成的，它提醒我，我需要更好的视频卡(video card)已经太久了。并且凭借合理的价格、终身使用权和退款(access and money)保证，我认为您在注册时不会出错。所以继续尝试吧：Windows 8 For Dummies 在线视频培训课程(Windows 8 For Dummies Online Video Training Course)。For Dummies的人很友善地提供了一个52% off discount to all our readers。在注册之前，请使用此优惠券代码(coupon code)：FDW818。请注意，代码的3/31/12 expiration date为 2012 年 3 月 31 日，所以如果您对本课程感兴趣，请抓紧时间。
Course Review - Windows 8 For Dummies Video Training
І have been a big fan of the For Dummies series of books since pretty much the beginning. I appreciate their lighthearted approach to serious topics, and their authors' ability to explain difficult concepts in simple terms the rest of us can understand. Thus, I was very interested to hear that there is an online course that introduces Windows 8 in a For Dummies fashion. Since many people find it easier to understand new concepts when they see how it's done, this looked like a good bet for learning Windows 8, and I am definitely a beginner when it comes to this operating system. Did the course live up to my expectations? Let's see what I found.
Getting started
The Windows 8 For Dummies Online Video Training Course is found on the web site of a company called Udemy, that specializes in all kinds of online courses. They have a huge selection, and they invite you to browse their catalog to see what might interest you. If you're like me, that could easily take up most of an afternoon, so I'd suggest going straight to the Windows 8 For Dummies course if you'd like to check it out. When you go to its page you'll see three very important features. First of all, the course costs $25 USD (most Windows 8 books have a similar cost) and that price, as you can see on the lower part of the page, includes lifetime access and a 30-day money back guarantee.
The course contents is also listed on that page, but that wouldn't fit in a screenshot (I show part of it in another screenshot a little farther on). You can scroll down the page to check out the sections and topics and see what's in store for you before you sign up. If you do like it, you can go back as often as you want to revisit the concepts, and if you don't like it, Udemy will give you your money back. What have you got to lose?
NOTE: Once you've signed up, you'll probably want to tweak your settings a bit. The folks at Udemy are very friendly and they have a lot to talk about, so they sign you up for all their email notifications by default. If you'd rather not see so much email, be sure to uncheck the ones you don't want, or tell them you want no emails at all. I think it's worth at least staying signed up for their offers though, because one of the things they offer is nice discounts on future courses.
To change your settings, go to the upper left corner where you see your name and click on the arrow.
The site says it works with all browsers, so I tried it with Internet Explorer 9 and 10, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and it works as advertised. However, my main computer, a middle-of-the-road PC that I built in 2009, running Windows 7, sometimes couldn't keep up, especially late in the day when I'd had programs opened and closed all day long. I'm sure this is because I'm still using the video built into the motherboard (note to self, quit being cheap and lazy and go get a real video card!) and it is not the fault of the course. It was somewhat smoother on the netbook on which I recently installed Windows 8 but still not as smooth as it should be, because, well, it's a netbook—so in the end I ran the course on my one-year-old Mac Mini. I tried it with Safari on the Mac for the sake of research, but I ran it on Chrome, which is my preferred browser. So you can see you don't have to actually have Windows 8 installed to view the course. Last but not least, I would like to mention another set of settings you should look at: your Privacy settings. By default, your profile is shown to search engines, as well as the courses you are taking. If you would like this information to remain private, don't hesitate to set the appropriate switches to OFF.
The course
You can use your Facebook account as your Udemy account, or you can create a new account based on your email address. Once you've registered with the site, signing in is easy.
It's a little confusing to come back to, if you've signed out, because the login link is buried at the bottom of the Register window.
Then, you see a screen showing you where you are in the course. Here's a screenshot I did when I had just begun. I had finished the first two lectures and now it's asking me if I want to play the next one.
The lectures
The individual videos are called lectures, for a very good reason. This is not an interactive course where you're supposed to practice everything before moving on to the next concept. You watch as someone else does a demonstration. This is not a criticism—I just wanted to mention this in case one of you expects a full-on interactive experience. As I listened to the narration, I was happy to hear the familiar light-hearted approach to the subject that's a standout feature of the For Dummies books. This made the lectures both entertaining and informative. For the most part, the lectures are fairly short, roughly two to five minutes, although as the course progresses there are several that are longer. The shorter lectures make it easy to fit them into a busy day, so you can take in as much information as you have time for.
Even the longest lecture in this course is only 12 minutes long. I liked this approach. And of course you can go back and revisit any lecture at any time. The lectures start out slowly, with the basics, and then move on to more complex topics. Each is explained step by step. The sections are arranged in a logical sequence and the individual lectures move from one concept to another very smoothly.
At the bottom of the viewing window you'll see a button labeled Next Lecture. Beside that is a very small indicator that Autoplay is ON (it's on by default). This means that each lecture will play automatically once the previous one is done. If you don't want to do this, click here to turn Autoplay OFF. I found that sometimes I'd get a "file not found" error when the course was attempting to play the next lecture in the sequence, but for the most part it worked very smoothly.
I did get a little tired of the same introductory music at the start of each lecture, but that's just a minor quibble. Everything a beginner would need to know about Windows 8 is covered, from the very first view of the Start Screen to managing media and exploring the internet. There's even a Part of Tens section at the end, just as there is in most For Dummies books, and it's every bit as interesting as its printed counterparts.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed making my way through the lectures. The narrator is easy to listen to, the graphics are appealing, and everything is explained in easy to understand terms, with demonstrations of each concept on screen. The For Dummies editors clearly had no problem transferring the books to video. The whole course takes only about three and a half hours, in short segments, so nearly anyone can find time to go through it.
Verdict
As a newcomer to Windows 8 I found each lecture had something in it that helped me understand the operating system better. The lectures are appealingly presented and were clearly constructed by people who knew what they were doing. The only problems I encountered were the result of my own hardware's shortcomings, and it served as a useful reminder that I've needed a better video card for far too long. And with the reasonable price, lifetime access and money back guarantee, I don't think you can go wrong in signing up. So go ahead and try it out: Windows 8 For Dummies Online Video Training Course. The folks from For Dummies have been kind enough to offer a 52% off discount to all our readers. Before signing up, apply this coupon code: FDW818. Please note that the code has a 3/31/12 expiration date, so hurry up if you are interested in this course.
