What is Udemy

Udemy is an American online learning platform aimed at professional adults and students, developed in May 2010. As of Jan 2020, the platform has more than 50 million students and 57,000 instructors teaching courses in over 65 languages. There have been over 295 million course enrollments. Students and instructors come from 190+ countries and 2/3 of students are located outside of the U.S. Udemy also has over 5,000 enterprise customers and 80% of Fortune 100 companies use Udemy for employee upskilling.

Students take courses largely as a means of improving job-related skills.Some courses generate credit toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their company. As of 2020, there are more than 150,000 courses on the website.

The headquarters of Udemy is located in San Francisco, CA with satellite offices in Denver, CO; Dublin, IR; Ankara, TR; Sao Paulo, BR; and Gurgaon, IN.

History

In 2007, Udemy (you-de-mee, portmanteau of you + academy) founder Eren Bali built software for a live virtual classroom while living in Turkey. He saw potential in making the product free for everyone, and moved to Silicon Valley to found a company two years later. The site was launched by Bali, Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani in early 2010.

In February 2010, the founders tried to raise venture capital funding, but the idea failed to impress investors and they were rejected 30 times, according to Gagan Biyani. In response to this, they bootstrapped the development of the product and launched Udemy—"The Academy of You"—in May 2010.

Within a few months, 1,000 instructors had created about 2,000 courses, and Udemy had nearly 10,000 registered users. Based on this favorable market reaction, they decided to attempt another round of financing, and raised $1 million in venture funding by August.

In October 2011, the company raised an additional $3 million in Series A funding led by Groupon investors Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, as well as 500 Startups and MHS Capital.

In December 2012, the company raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, as well as Lightbank Capital, MHS Capital and Learn Capital, bringing Udemy's total funding to $16 million.

On April 22, 2014, the Wall Street Journal's Digital edition reported that Dennis Yang, Chief Operating Officer of Udemy was named CEO, replacing Eren Bali.

In May 2014, Udemy raised another $32 million in a Series C funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners, as well as Insight Venture Partners and MHS Capital.

In June 2015, Udemy raised a $65 million Series D financing round, led by Stripes Group. Now Udemy joined another online learning house Skillsdox Inc of Canada to open up School of Skills in India.

In June 2016, Udemy raised $60 million from Naspers Ventures as a follow-up to the $65 million Series D round of financing from June 2015.

On February 5, 2019, Udemy announced that the board of the company appointed Gregg Coccari as its new chief executive officer.

Source :>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udemy

Key Features of Udemy Courses

Individual courses share a number of common characteristics:

• Wide Range of Course Offerings. Udemy currently offers 15 major categories of courses ranging from software development to music, with up to 15 subcategories under each main category. For example, in the “Instruments” subcategory of “Music,” there are at least 30 separate courses for piano students, a similar number for guitar players, 5 courses for beginners who want to play the harmonica, and multiple courses on how to play the drums, saxophone, flute, banjo, and autoharp.

• No Prequalification Necessary to Take Any Course. Students can take any course that might interest them.
• Viewable on All Internet-Connected Devices. Courses can be viewed on desktop and portable computers, as well as tablets and smartphones.
• Free or Low-Cost Tuition. An estimated 10% of courses offered by Udemy are free, while the remainder are generally priced under $200. There are exceptions, with some courses costing up to $1,000, but these are relatively rare.
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• 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. If students determine that they do not wish to pursue a course for any reason during the first 30 days following enrollment, Udemy returns 100% of the tuition fees.
• Immediate Access. Upon enrollment, students have instant access to the courses they have chosen, since all course materials – PDFs, financial templates, guidelines, and checklists – are prerecorded and electronically available for easy download to any electronic device.
• Lifetime Access to the Enrolled Course. Courses, or any portion of a course, can be retaken or reviewed a limitless number of times without additional cost. This access ensures that students have every opportunity to master the material regardless of their personal schedules or interruptions.
• Self-Paced. Each course consists of video lectures in lengths ranging from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. When watching the lectures, students can stop and replay all or part as many times as they want. Courses generally include a series of interim quizzes so that students can gauge their mastery of the materials.
• Access to Prior Student Reviews and Ratings. Potential purchasers of any course can easily read past student reviews and ratings for a hopefully unbiased opinion of its value. In addition, many courses feature previews of their lessons so you can evaluate the style and quality of each instructor.
• Instructors Have Practical, Professional Knowledge. Instructors are generally business people with actual experience in the subjects they teach, rather than academics. They have “been there and done that,” and are able to impart lessons from their time in the field. For the most part, lessons are presented in simple English with easily understood examples and applications in actual business environments.
• Certificate of Completion. Many courses award certificates of completion. Since there is no independent verification of subject mastery, it’s important to note that the value of a certificate may be questioned by people unfamiliar with you or Udemy. While some courses have been approved for professional continuing education credits, interested students should verify the status of such credits before purchasing a course.

Advantages

For Instructors and Course Creators

The advantages for potential Udemy course creators include the following:

• Aggressive Revenue Sharing of Tuition Fees. Instructors set the retail price of each course and typically receive revenues from two sources: sales to new Udemy customers made by the instructor earn 100% of the tuition fee, and sales to the existing Udemy customer base earn 50% of the tuition fee.
• Creator Pricing Control. Course creators set the market price for the courses they offer. Udemy recommends $10 to $30 per hour of content. For example, a four-hour course would sell between $40 and $120 under this formula.
• Proprietary Technology for Publishing. Udemy offers a one-stop shop for potential instructors to plan, create, publish, and promote their course offerings. A series of videos provides step-by-step instruction to create a course for any subject. Support is provided 24-7 with a full library of informational articles and examples. All Udemy services are provided free to potential instructors.
• Opt-In Participation in Special Udemy Marketing Promotions. From time to time, Udemy runs special promotional programs designed to attract new customers. The option to participate is decided solely by the instructor.
• Access to an Established Customer Base. All of Udemy’s four million users are potential purchasers of any course. However, course creators must be prepared to pursue an aggressive marketing strategy with their own contacts to ensure sales success, not unlike self-published authors who must create “buzz” for their literary works.
• Brand Building and Tie-Ins. Experts can use their Udemy courses to promote the sale of other services or products, thus building the value of their brand. For example, Angela R. Loeb, a “self-development consultant,” offers a free course titled “Your Job Search Is a Spiritual Journey.” It is likely that some of the course’s 3,471 enrollees have sought to engage Ms. Loeb for additional services. Every student of a course is a potential customer of the instructor’s.

For Students

A potential Udemy student can benefit from the following features:

• Discounts and Low-Cost Courses. Udemy estimates that a significant number of its courses are free, though the majority are priced between $29 and $99. The company aggressively seeks to build its customer base with widely distributed discount coupons and promotional periods where students can try courses for free or for 50% or more off the listed price.
• Extensive Course Offerings Dwarf Competition. There are more than 100 categories and subcategories of courses on Udemy, ranging from web development to photography to foreign languages. Udemy’s library of courses dwarfs any of its video learning competitors.
• Instructor and Student Feedback. Courses generally have an accompanying discussion board that allows students to post comments, questions, or problems where the instructor and other students can see and respond to them directly online.
• Tie-Ins With Instructors’ External Services. Many course creators use their instructional videos to promote proprietary products like books or consulting services. In many cases, enrollment in a course may entitle students to special promotions and price discounts.
• Ability to Test-Drive. Not only do many courses offer a free preview of one lesson, but if students wish to “return” purchased courses for any reason within 30 days, they may do so, no questions asked. This makes it easier to try one or more courses risk-free if you’re not entirely sure they will suit you.

Conclusions

An online learning platform aimed at teaching and educating a mass of different people from all around the world is a noble cause. Whenever such sites have good intentions and are focused on their actual goals and visions, they are always welcomed by the community at large.

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