How do VIP courses work?

In this article, I will explain how VIP courses work.

Note that how they work has changed slightly over the years. I will try to cover all relevant variations.

 

Idiot-Proof Guide to VIP Courses

Originally, this page was created as a guide for students who purchased a course and wanted to upgrade to the VIP version.

Recently, I’ve noticed some students are coming here looking to understand what a “VIP course” is in the first place.

If you don’t yet know this and you’re not yet a student of mine, ready only this section. There is no need to read further (it’ll just be very confusing).

What is a “VIP Version” of a course?

Consider a fast food restaurant like McDonalds where you can buy a burger by itself, or a combo (burger + fries + drink).

  • Burger = regular “non-VIP” version of a course
  • Combo (burger, fries, drink) = “VIP version” of a course

In case it wasn’t obvious, “VIP version” means you get more content (I just call it the “VIP content”).

> How do I know if I’m getting the VIP version of a course?

The idiot-proof way to get the VIP version of a course is to purchase it from deeplearningcourses.com (DLC), which always contains more content than other platforms.

My courses appear on multiple different platforms, but only DLC courses are guaranteed to be a superset of all other versions.

Only if you’ve purchased some course on a different platform do you need to read below.

Furthermore, a really simple way to not confuse yourself is to just read the course description and curriculum (lecture titles) for each course. If a course covers the topics you want, great! Get that course. If the course doesn’t cover what you want, ask me if there’s a different course that covers it.

> How do I know the difference between the VIP version and non-VIP version?

Easy!

Again, it just comes down to reading the course descriptions and curriculums.

The lecture titles you see will tell you the lectures that you will watch if you buy the course.

The course description will list precisely what’s covered in the course.

It is just as simple as that.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program… (remember, this page was designed for students who are interested in obtaining the VIP version of a course after having purchased the non-VIP version, or are simply unsure which version they have).

If all you wanted to know is “what is a VIP course?”, there is no need to read further.

 

Simple Version (if you want the VIP version of a course)

This has become quite a mess over the years so if you are here because you want to know how to get the same course on deeplearningcourses.com that you initially purchased somewhere else (e.g. Udemy) then reading this section only will suffice.

For any course you wish to transfer, you’ll need to provide proof-of-purchase which includes the following info:

  • Your name as it appears on Udemy
  • The date you signed up for each course you want to transfer (must be 31 days or more at the time of your request)

Please do not make a request before the 31-day period as these emails get buried quickly. I always “mean to” get back to old emails but in reality it is always delayed, so plan accordingly. The last time I cleared my inbox, I was clearing emails from over 3 years ago!

Scenario 1) If you purchased any of the following courses:

  • PyTorch: Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • Financial Engineering and Artificial Intelligence in Python
  • Time Series Analysis, Forecasting, and Machine Learning
  • Data Science: Transformers for Natural Language Processing

Then you are most likely eligible to receive access on DLC for free. The caveat is that if the course ended up costing less than the equivalent USD amount on the day you purchased it, you will then be eligible to receive a coupon discounting the amount already paid.

Scenario 2) If you purchased any of the following courses during the “VIP period”:

  • Tensorflow 2.0: Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence (before approx. Nov 27, 2019)
  • Machine Learning: Natural Language Processing in Python (V2) (before approx. Jan 20, 2022)
  • Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python (after approx. May 16, 2021)

Then you are most likely eligible to receive access on DLC for free. Same caveat as above applies.

If you purchased the course outside of the VIP period, you can upgrade to the VIP version on DLC. You’ll receive a $10 discount if you already own the non-VIP version of the course elsewhere.

Scenario 3) If you purchased any of the following courses for $29.99 (USD) or more (i.e. not discounted):

  • Cluster Analysis and Unsupervised Machine Learning in Python
  • Unsupervised Deep Learning in Python
  • Unsupervised Machine Learning Hidden Markov Models in Python
  • Data Science: Supervised Machine Learning in Python
  • Ensemble Machine Learning in Python: Random Forest, AdaBoost
  • Advanced AI: Deep Reinforcement Learning in Python
  • Deep Learning: GANs and Variational Autoencoders
  • Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning in Python

Then you are most likely eligible to receive access on DLC for free. Same caveat as above applies.

If you purchased the course for a lower price, you can upgrade to the VIP version on DLC. You’ll receive a $10 discount if you already own the non-VIP version of the course elsewhere.

Scenario 4) All other courses

If you purchased the course for a lower price than what appears on DLC, you can upgrade to the VIP version on DLC. You’ll receive a $10 discount if you already own the course elsewhere.

Other guidelines / rules:

  • Due to the work involved in granting access to DLC, you can do this for a maximum of 2 courses per year
  • For users of Stackskills, StackSocial, Skillshare, TutorialsPoint, Packt, and Teachable, you may transfer a maximum of 1 course

 

What is a VIP Version of a course?

The VIP version of a course is a course that contains extra content.

Sometimes, it can be a new code sample, or it can be an entire section of content, sometimes even multiple sections.

Examples:

  • Advanced Computer Vision
    • Code examples for super-resolution and fast-style transfer (along with some explanatory documentation)
    • Access to legacy materials
  • Advanced NLP and RNNs
    • Code example and PDF document for speech recognition
    • Extra section on stock predictions
  • Tensorflow 2.0
    • Additional exercises and datasets
    • How to make predictions with a trained NLP model
    • How to make predictions with a trained recommender model
    • DeepDream section
    • Object localization section
  • Financial Engineering
    • Algorithmic Trading section
    • Reinforcement Learning crash course
    • Reinforcement Learning Trader section
    • Statistical Factor Models section
    • Regime Detection with HMMs section
  • Time Series Analysis
    • GARCH section
    • AWS Forecast section
    • Facebook Prophet section

 

How can I get the VIP Version of a course?

My courses generally exist in 2 places (there are more, but this covers a majority of students):

  1. Udemy
  2. DeepLearningCourses.com

For courses released some time ago (before Sept 2019), the VIP Versions of those courses can be found on DeepLearningCourses.com.

If you would like to purchase one of those courses, you can do so at any time at DeepLearningCourses.com.

Most courses fall into the above category.

The corresponding non-VIP versions can be found on Udemy.

For some courses (released after Sept 2019 and before Jan 2022), the VIP versions were released on Udemy exclusively, and only the VIP version can be purchased. That is, if you don’t see the course on deeplearningcourses.com, then there is no non-VIP version.

In the future, those VIP courses may be “split up” into 2 parts:

-VIP portion hosted on DeepLearningCourses.com

-main portion (non-VIP parts) hosted on Udemy

Alternatively, I may release the whole VIP course (instead of just the VIP parts) on DeepLearningCourses.com (see below).

Update 2022: all of these courses are now available on deeplearningcourses.com. Going forward, all VIP courses will be released on both platforms.

 

How does the VIP Version work?

After a VIP course has existed for some time on Udemy, I may decide to make the course “non-VIP”.

This lowers the price and removes the VIP content, making it accessible to the “general public”.

All students who purchased the VIP version of the course will retain access to the VIP content.

In order to do so, they simply need to email me (using the “Contact” form above).

Those who purchased the VIP version will be granted access to the VIP content on DeepLearningCourses.com.

Please note: there is no need to email me about this if I have not announced anything about the VIP version ending.

Your email will just get buried by the time the VIP version actually ends (I get a lot of emails).

To reiterate in 3 easy steps:

STEP 1) I announce (via a Udemy announcement and via my newsletter) the VIP content is being moved, and the VIP period is ending.

STEP 2) You email me and let me know you want to retain access to the VIP content.

STEP 3) You get access to the VIP content on DeepLearningCourses.com.

Please note: you must email me promptly after my announcement. If you email me months or years later, it will take a very long time to get back to you as significant manual work must be done in order to track down your purchase details.

 

 

Is the VIP coupon expiring the same as the VIP period ending?

One point of confusion may be that if I announce that a discount coupon is expiring, that this means the VIP period is ending.

These are actually 2 separate things.

Coupons expire because Udemy places a 30-day time limit on all coupons.

The “VIP period” may be longer than that, in which case I simply create a new coupon the next month, after the existing coupon exires.

 

What if I purchased the non-VIP Version, and I want the VIP Version?

If you purchased the non-VIP version on Udemy, and you want to upgrade to the VIP version, email me using the “Contact” form above. You will be asked for proof of purchase. Once verified, you will get a coupon for $10 off the VIP version, to make up for the amount already paid.

The above only applies to the case where the full course is hosted on deeplearningcourses.com.

If the course was split into 2 parts (non-VIP main part on Udemy, and VIP contents on deeplearningcourses.com) then it’s even simpler. Just purchase the 2 parts separately.

 

How do I know if I got the VIP Version or not?

If you purchased the course on DeepLearningCourses.com, then you automatically have the VIP version.

If you purchased the course on Udemy via a link from an announcement I made, stating specifically that it was the VIP version, then you have the VIP version.

If you purchased the course on Udemy randomly (maybe through the search results) and you’re unsure, then check whether or not the course exists on DeepLearningCourses.com. If it is only on Udemy, then you have the VIP version. (Update: no longer applies since all courses on Udemy can also be found on DeepLearningCourses.com)

If you purchased the course on Udemy and you see sections / titles labeled as “VIP”, then you have the VIP version.

If you purchased the course on Udemy randomly (maybe through the search results) and you paid $29.99 USD or more (as of 2021), then you have the VIP version. If you want access to DeepLearningCourses.com too, just email me and you’ll get access for free* (since you already have the VIP version). Note that this can only be done 31 days after the original purchase date.

Otherwise, assume that you have the non-VIP version.

 

What should I do if I want the full VIP version, but I like viewing content on Udemy?

In this case, the best option for you is to initially purchase the course on Udemy (remember to use the discount links from this website!), so that you can view the main parts on your platform of choice. Then contact me about getting a $10 discount (or free* coupon, in the case where you paid $29.99 USD or more) to also get access to the VIP version on deeplearningcourses.com. Caveat: for those in different countries, due to the different pricing tiers, you may still need to pay the difference so that it’s fair for other students. Ultimately, you will end up paying the same price that you would have paid had you only purchased the course on deeplearningcourses.com.

This way, you’ll have access to the course on both platforms.

Unfortunately, the “most logical” way does not work: purchasing the full course on deeplearningcourses.com, and then asking for free access on Udemy. This is because the Udemy platform doesn’t allow me to do so.

 

Instructions to follow if you want access on deeplearningcourses.com

The following instructions are for students who purchased a course (or multiple courses) on Udemy and you want to access the full, VIP versions on deeplearningcourses.com.

Please note: if you do not provide all the following information, I may not follow up or respond. Due to a very hectic schedule, it is very difficult to find time to follow up about any missing information. Thus, it’s up to you to provide all I need to make the process as easy as possible.

Also note: there’s a 31-day “wait time” between when you purchased the course on Udemy to when you are able to gain access on deeplearningcourses.com.

1) Make a list of all courses you would like access to on deeplearningcourses.com

2) Provide your name as it appears on Udemy. I cannot look you up by email on Udemy, only by name.

3) Provide the original date of purchase for each course.

4) Bonus: Figure out whether you purchased the VIP version or not, for each course, and note that down in your email. Use the guidelines I provided above if you need help.

5) The above information should be provided via text only. It’s not necessary to send images, ZIP files, or PDF documents. I will not open these for security reasons.

 

Which courses were released after Sept 2019?

Earlier in this article, I made reference to “newer” courses, defining those to be courses which were released after 2019 (but before Jan 2022).

These are courses where the VIP version exists or existed solely on Udemy, and was only moved (or will be moved) to deeplearnincourses.com later.

2022 update: all of these courses are now available at deeplearningcourses.com.

  • Tensorflow 2.0: Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • PyTorch: Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • Financial Engineering and Artificial Intelligence in Python
  • Time Series Analysis, Forecasting, and Machine Learning
  • Machine Learning: Natural Language Processing in Python (V2)
  • Data Science: Transformers for Natural Language Processing

 

Policy for VIP transfer on deeplearningcourses.com

(*) “Free” transfers as described above have one caveat:

For those students who purchased the VIP version on Udemy and want to gain access to the same course on deeplearningcourses.com, this is totally doable.

For most US, Canadian, and EU users the transfer can be done at zero cost.

For other users, it is possible, due to Udemy’s price differentiation scheme, that you may be charged an amount equal to the amount you saved by purchasing the course on Udemy. This is to be fair to all students around the world.

As an example, a user living in Iran (fictitious example) may be charged the equivalent of $40 USD while the US price is $55 USD. In that case, a one-time coupon would be created for the user with the amount of $15 USD to gain access.

 

Policy for all transfers

There is a maximum of 2 courses per year that can be transferred, as it does take some manual labor to make the transfer. Choose wisely!

 

Policy for Stackskills / Stacksocial / TutorialsPoint / Packt / Teachable Students

If you purchased a course (or several courses) via Stackskills / Stacksocial / Teachable, you will receive access to ONE of the same course for free on deeplearningcourses.com. You may only take this action once.

This also applies to students from TutorialsPoint and Packt.

 

Policy for Skillshare

No courses acquired through Skillshare may be transferred to deeplearningcourses.com. This is because most of the “courses” on Skillshare are not full courses and payment on the platform does not go directly to instructors.

 

Other General Policies

Unfortunately it needs to be said: those who have displayed poor behavior or immature behavior in the past are not eligible.