The field of technology education has seen substantial growth, with online platforms providing learners worldwide the opportunity to explore diverse topics in electronics, programming, and open-source hardware. As more people turn to the internet for self-paced learning, there is a demand for hands-on, practical courses that engage students through real-world applications. This trend has led to the rise of companies that focus on creating specialized educational content, especially in areas like Arduino, microcontrollers, and STEM education.
One such company, Tech Explorations, has carved out a niche in delivering high-quality technology education. Founded with a focus on electronics and open-source hardware, it offers a range of courses and resources designed to help individuals of all ages develop technical skills. Through engaging video tutorials and a collaborative online community, Tech Explorations empowers learners to take on projects, from building drones to creating electronics, at their own pace. The company's commitment to providing well-researched, structured content has made it a trusted platform in the field of technology education.
Peter Dalmaris, the Founder of Tech Explorations, has a rich background in both academia and practical engineering. After spending years as a university lecturer, he transitioned to online education, driven by his passion for teaching and his desire for more creative freedom. His approach to course development, which includes practical experiments and a community-oriented learning environment, has resonated with learners worldwide. With a focus on transparency, accessibility, and continuous improvement, Peter has built a platform that supports students in their journey to mastering technology.
From Academia to Tech Explorations
Before establishing Tech Explorations, Peter dedicated 15 years to academia as a university lecturer. His academic journey also spanned 15 years, progressing through both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. During this time, he balanced the roles of lecturer and PhD student, combining an entrepreneurial mindset with a hands-on engineering approach to both learning and teaching.
Despite his deep commitment to education, Peter often found the academic environment restrictive. The conflicting priorities between institutional management and the realities of teaching presented ongoing difficulties. A significant portion of his time was spent addressing the financial pressures of the university, managing a demanding teaching schedule, and complying with regulatory and administrative requirements. Decision-making processes were often bureaucratic, making it difficult to implement meaningful change.
Although teaching and student engagement remained the most fulfilling aspects of his career, he recognized that academia was not a sustainable long-term path for him. Years of growing dissatisfaction led him to make a decisive move—leaving the university to re-invent himself as an online educator.
With Tech Explorations, Peter gained the freedom to teach on his own terms. He returned to his engineering and electronics roots, focusing on the expanding field of open-source hardware, particularly the Arduino prototyping platform. This transition coincided with the rise of online video platforms and the increasing accessibility of digital learning. As people embraced new technologies and recognized the potential of online education, the demand for specialized knowledge grew.
Peter's initial focus on electronics and Arduino was a natural choice, driven by his own curiosity and desire to master these technologies. Although he had an academic background in electronics engineering, Arduino was still a new concept to most learners. His enthusiasm for learning and teaching became the foundation of Tech Explorations, which has since progressed into a trusted platform for technology education.
A Structured Approach to Creating Engaging Technology Courses
Peter's core process of course development has remained largely unchanged over the years, though it has grown in scale and complexity. It begins with selecting a topic, which is often inspired by the community, exposure to new technologies, and daily interactions with industry professionals and relevant sources.
With a vast range of topics available, the most difficult step is deciding which one to pursue. The selection criteria are based on two key factors: personal interest in teaching the subject and its potential reception among existing students. A strong interest in the topic is essential, as effective teaching requires genuine enthusiasm. At the same time, a topic that does not resonate with students may result in financial loss for the company.
Fortunately, the broad scope of technological exploration makes it easier to find topics that align with both personal interests and the preferences of the community. However, there are instances where Peter puts the second criterion aside, which leads him to develop focused courses for a niche audience, that are irresistibly interesting to people with genuine curiosity about such topics.
Once a topic is selected, extensive research begins. It is rare to be fully prepared to start the production process immediately. As a "maker," learning involves practical application through hands-on projects. Research includes reading books and papers, watching videos, and, most importantly, working on projects. This involves writing code, building circuits, experimenting, testing, documenting, fixing bugs, and making continuous improvements.
After gaining confidence in the subject, a detailed curriculum is created to guide the production phase. The production process includes:
Video recording and editing, often requiring multiple takes of screen recordings, electronics workbench demonstrations, and direct-to-camera explanations.
Developing supporting materials, such as PDF guides, slides, cheat sheets, wiring diagrams, and external resource links.
Sharing code via GitHub to provide students with structured examples.
Building an online course framework, which involves uploading materials to the Tech Explorations website and preparing an interactive community space for students.
The final result is a structured video course, complemented by additional resources, designed to systematically guide students through the subject matter.
?Enhancing Learning Through Unscripted, Hands-On Experimentation
Maintaining a personal and conversational approach during production presents a significant challenge. Most video content is unscripted, relying on a structured plan rather than a word-for-word script. This approach is particularly important during workbench or simulator experiments, where recordings are conducted as live lectures, even though there is no real-time audience.
An added advantage of this method is the ability to capture unexpected moments—such as a capacitor failure, an unseen code bug, or incorrect wiring. These occurrences enhance the authenticity of the learning experience, making the content more engaging and practical.
Both successful and failed experiments contribute valuable insights, reinforcing the learning process. Recording in this manner allows for the inclusion of unplanned yet valuable lessons that might otherwise be overlooked. This method ensures that students gain a realistic understanding of troubleshooting and problem-solving, skills that are essential in practical applications.
Building a Collaborative Learning Community for Technology Enthusiasts
Courses are published across various platforms, but the primary community engagement happens within the Makers Club and dedicated course spaces, both hosted on the company's website.
The Makers Club serves as an open forum where members can share projects, ask questions, and offer assistance. It functions much like a communal gathering space, welcoming all participants regardless of their enrolled course or membership tier. Similar to a university cafeteria, it fosters informal discussions and knowledge exchange among like-minded individuals.
For more focused discussions, each course features designated spaces where students can engage in topic-specific conversations, seek clarifications, and discuss individual lectures.
Interactive engagement plays a crucial role in online learning, preventing it from becoming an isolated experience. A strong community fosters collaboration, enabling students to connect over shared interests and, at times, assist one another even without prior acquaintance.
A dedicated effort is made to engage with students daily, typically in the morning. Beyond being an essential aspect of providing quality service, these interactions reinforce the fundamental purpose of Tech Explorations—delivering high-quality technology education in a setting that values peer-to-peer learning and community support.
Adapting Teaching Methods to Meet Learner Needs
In the early months of Tech Explorations, feedback from a student provided a significant turning point in refining course content. After publishing new lectures for the first Arduino course, a student remarked that the material was too detailed—comparable to what one might find at an elite university. While the content delved deeply into the science behind temperature sensors, including material composition and electrical properties, the student clarified that their goal was simply to learn enough to build DIY electronics projects.
Similar feedback came from STEM educators who struggled to engage students in engineering, especially during the initial learning phase when concepts can be difficult to grasp. These interactions proved invaluable in shaping the teaching approach, ensuring content remained practical, engaging, and suited to the needs of learners.
In an academic setting, the primary responsibility was to prepare students for exams. However, in the current role, the goal is much broader—helping learners of all ages, from children to seniors, acquire knowledge for diverse purposes. Some seek skills for career advancement, while others pursue learning for personal projects, school programs, or specialized applications like drone-building.
Over the years, there have been many moments of realization, but this particular feedback had the greatest impact, leading to a more learner-centric approach that balances depth with accessibility.
Building Trust Through Transparency and Focused Learning
Tech Explorations maintains a strong focus on its content and prioritizes transparency with its students. The approach to sales is straightforward, ensuring that courses are represented honestly without exaggeration. The company does not engage in deceptive practices or attempt to secure quick sales. Sales pages and email announcements accurately describe each course, which has helped build a trust-based relationship with students, many of whom have been loyal for over a decade.
The goal is to provide high-value knowledge through both paid courses and free, regularly updated content. The value offered is always greater than the price charged for paid courses.
Tech Explorations has created an environment that is calm, respectful, and conducive to learning, catering to individuals from across the globe who are interested in technology. The company does not rely on exaggerated claims or aggressive sales tactics.
The focus is not on becoming the largest technology education platform but rather on publishing carefully selected courses—primarily the founder's own, along with a few from trusted instructors. Tech Explorations has deliberately avoided the approach of "stocking up" the catalog with random courses merely to create a facade of size.
Navigating operational hurdles and strategic direction
One of the biggest challenges faced in delivering online courses is the constant lack of time to accomplish all the desired tasks. While the Tech Explorations team manages many operational aspects of the business, the responsibility for key functions—particularly the identification and selection of course topics and strategic decisions on navigating the evolving educational and technological landscape—rests solely with the founder. This will not change. However, as this landscape is becoming more complicated to navigate, the challenge shifts to ensure that Tech Explorations continues to listen to its community and respond to its needs.
Another challenge revolves around the reliance on third-party platforms. Although these platforms were instrumental in the early growth of the business and evolved into important partnerships, they carry considerable risks. Business decisions made by these platforms have a sudden and (usually) negative impact. Not having control over our presence and content on the web poses a significant risk, but even worse, it makes it impossible to develop a platform tailored to our specific technology education philosophy. In response, the decision was made to invest in building a custom platform. Though costly both financially and in terms of diverting focus away from the core mission of education, this move helps mitigate the risks associated with external platform dependencies.
Balancing Content Creation and Ongoing Development
The bulk of my workload is divided between creating new content and updating and maintaining existing content.
In addition to this, time is spent exploring new technologies, reading, learning, and staying connected with industry developments. The professional network and community also play a crucial role by highlighting important updates or topics that may have been overlooked.
Another key aspect of staying informed is maintaining a blog. The blog features product reviews and small project write-ups, which require minimal time to create but provide an opportunity to explore new and exciting topics on a regular basis.
The community aspect of Tech Explorations is another key feature, as learners connect, share their achievements, and collaborate on projects. This sense of belonging is invaluable, particularly for self-taught individuals seeking to expand their knowledge.
The Tech Explorations team works hard to offer high-quality courses, hands-on projects, and a supportive community, empowering students of all ages and backgrounds to achieve personal and professional goals, whether it's building drones, teaching others, or working on complex electronics projects.
Future Plans for Course Expansion and STEM Educator Collaboration
The roadmap for Tech Explorations includes the development of new courses and books, with a renewed focus on STEM teachers and collaboration with other technology educators to create new content. In the near future, the plan is to revise the book Maker Education Revolution to rethink the "how" and "why" of Maker Education, considering recent developments such as AI and the latest education research.
Additionally, a "back to basics" series of courses will address fundamental topics in electronics that have been overshadowed by newer trends like IoT, MCU, and AI technologies. Efforts will also be made to ensure STEM teachers globally can benefit from the content, including offering special Educator Bundles with quizzes and projects to reinforce learning.
Furthermore, the fine-tuned course creation process developed will be utilized in collaborative projects with technology educators. These partnerships will combine expertise in specific topics with experience in course creation, leading to the production of innovative technology courses on topics beyond the current scope of expertise.
