My review is for the original Spigot Course, that is the only course I have used. Matej is a charismatic speaker, who presents the material very well. Support documents were included for download as well as links to further reading. Although I had been using Java on and off for years, the Java course was enjoyable, not too basic. I liked that the videos had breaks or diversions if you will from the non-stop coding, to explain a topic in depth with metaphors (like the section on priorities with the trip downstream). This made some topics easy to remember as I would flash back in my mind to the image of the stream.

Also, if a producer of the video is bored, or uninterested in the topic it can make for a bad course – I have taken many coursera.org and edX.org courses — Matej truly seemed excited about the topics – and I think that transfers to the students. I would strongly recommend Matej as a speaker on any topics that interest you. I think the original Spigot Course was an excellent Java refresher – and still to this day – the best spigot course I have taken off Youtube or in a online classroom. Also, although I did not participate I remember Matej offered I think weekly conference calls to help with questions of his students – he truly seems concerned to see their success. (-: