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.
• 
  
• 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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What Is Image Consulting? Career Prospects & Courses.

It is a normal human tendency to form an image of a person when we meet them for the first time. The image that we have about an individual is influenced by a number of factors. Things like how the person dresses up, their body language, command over a language and other factors have a role to play here. Often it is seen that people who are competent in their work are not even considered capable because of the poor image that they carry of themselves. As unfair as these sounds, the fact is that this is how the world works. If we want to create a name for ourselves, we will have to transform the image that we carry. While this is definitely not as easy as it sounds, it is not entirely impossible either. This is where the role of image consultants comes into the picture. What Is Image Consulting? These people are responsible for grooming their clients in such a way that there is a complete transformation of their overall personality and image. Read on to know how you can make a successful career in image consultation. · Job Duties The main job role of an image consultant is to work in close association with individual clients or groups and come up with innovative measures to transform their personality as a whole. This will include making subsequent changes to the client's clothing, social etiquette and public speaking after taking into consideration all other factors (like the client's age, social background, expectations level, etc.) The clients may approach them to make them fit for better professional roles. It is the duty of the image consultant to come up with customised plans for the upliftment of each of their individual clients. · Educational Qualification There is no one prerequisite degree that one needs to have completed in order to become an image consultation expert. You just need to be good at what you are doing. From an educational point of view, a mere graduation degree will suffice. However, it is advisable for you to have a decent knowledge of fashion, hair and beauty therapy, consultancy human resource management, public relations and communication. If you feel that you are not confident about any of the aforementioned skill set, you can go ahead and obtain a diploma or certification, online or offline, in the same. · Skills Required In order to influence people to become what you want them to be, the first and foremost step would be to instil in them a sense of confidence in you. Your clients and students should be able to have faith in your abilities. For this, it is important that you develop a fine aesthetic sense yourself and that you dress up well. Try to connect with people. Be a good listener and pay attention to details. In order to get clients, it is important for you to be dedicated to what you are doing and have an optimistic approach to life. · Type Of Job All of us can guess that the private sector is the area that is more concerned about things like looks and exterior presentations. Hence, needless to say, most of the jobs in this sector are that of the private field. Most organisations have public relations teams that hire image consultants to train their receptionists, representative agents and others about how to look and behave in public. Fashion designing is another area where the services of these people are required in large volumes. The human resource management sector of organisations also requires the expert advice of image consultants in order to frame their policies and plans. Other than this, these days a number of top schools and colleges hire image consultants to train and groom their students to make themselves stand out in the job world. Image consultants can either choose to associate themselves with a particular firm or organisation or they may want to freelance with a number of them. Well-known image consultants can also choose to be self-employed wherein they set up their own consultancy firm and clients approach them directly. · Nature Of Work The best thing about this job is the fact that you will not be asked to work at odd hours or in shifts. Rarely will there be any work on the weekends. Moreover, there is a lot of opportunity for displaying your aesthetic abilities and every day is a new challenge here. Thus, if you have a good understanding of how to convince people about what you want, then this job role will be the most perfect one for you. Depending on the firm or organisation that you are working with, this profession may require you to travel places. · Salary In this field, the salary you make will depend on the quality of work that you produce. The number of people you interact with, the city that you are based in and the number of hours that you are putting into the training all have a role to play here. To improve your chances, you may consider coming up with some innovative training techniques. That will help you get a better name in the market, which will in turn increase your chances of getting a better pay. The average salary here is about Rs 4 lakhs.

Read more at: https://www.careerindia.com/tips/what-is-image-consulting-career-prospects-and-courses-023325.html

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What are Northern Lights?

Northern Lights

  

What are Northern Lights?

            The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south..

            Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.

What causes the Northern Lights?

            The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.

            The connection between the Northern Lights and sunspot activity has been suspected since about 1880. Thanks to research conducted since the 1950's, we now know that electrons and protons from the sun are blown towards the earth on the 'solar wind'. (Note: 1957-58 was International Geophysical Year and the atmosphere was studied extensively with balloons, radar, rockets and satellites. Rocket research is still conducted by scientists at Poker Flats, a facility under the direction of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks - see web page http://www.gi.alaska.edu/

              The temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees Celsius. At this temperature, collisions between gas molecules are frequent and explosive. Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun's atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the magnetic field. Blown towards the earth by the solar wind, the charged particles are largely deflected by the earth's magnetic field. However, the earth's magnetic field is weaker at either pole and therefore some particles enter the earth's atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light that we perceive as the dancing lights of the north (and the south).

            The lights of the Aurora generally extend from 80 kilometres (50 miles) to as high as 640 kilometres (400 miles) above the earth's surface.

Where is the best place to watch the Northern Lights?

             Northern Lights can be seen in the northern or southern hemisphere, in an irregularly shaped oval centred over each magnetic pole. The lights are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south. Scientists have learned that in most instances northern and southern auroras are mirror-like images that occur at the same time, with similar shapes and colors.

           Because the phenomena occurs near the magnetic poles, northern lights have been seen as far south as New Orleans in the western hemisphere, while similar locations in the east never experience the mysterious lights. However the best places to watch the lights (in North America) are in the northwestern parts of Canada, particularly the Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Alaska. Auroral displays can also be seen over the southern tip of Greenland and Iceland, the northern coast of Norway and over the coastal waters north of Siberia. Southern auroras are not often seen as they are concentrated in a ring around Antarctica and the southern Indian Ocean.

          Areas that are not subject to 'light pollution' are the best places to watch for the lights. Areas in the north, in smaller communities, tend to be best.

When is the best time to watch for auroral displays?

            Researchers have also discovered that auroral activity is cyclic, peaking roughly every 11 years. The next peak period is 2013.
Winter in the north is generally a good season to view lights. The long periods of darkness and the frequency of clear nights provide many good opportunities to watch the auroral displays. Usually the best time of night (on clear nights) to watch for auroral displays is local midnight (adjust for differences caused by daylight savings time). http://www.gi.alaska.edu/

Legends of the Lights

     'Aurora borealis', the lights of the northern hemisphere, means 'dawn of the north'. 'Aurora australis' means 'dawn of the south'. In Roman myths, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn. \par Many cultural groups have legends about the lights. In medieval times, the occurrences of auroral displays were seen as harbingers of war or famine. The Maori of New Zealand shared a belief with many northern people of Europe and North America that the lights were reflections from torches or campfires.

          The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin believed that the lights indicated the location of manabai'wok (giants) who were the spirits of great hunters and fishermen. The Inuit of Alaska believed that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted: the seals, salmon, deer and beluga whales. Other aboriginal peoples believed that the lights were the spirits of their people.

Courtesy : http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html

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PAN Card and its uses

In this post, you will know about

• What is PAN & PAN Structure
• Why PAN is required
• Where PAN needs to be quoted mandatory
• Who can apply for PAN
• Exceptions to PAN requirements
• Consequences for not having PAN
• Other Notes

1.  What is PAN

PAN is short form of "Permanent Account Number" . It is a 10 digit alpha-numeric unique number allotted by Indian Income Tax Department. It is issued in the form of a laminated card.

The PAN is unique, national, and permanent. It is unaffected by a change of address, even between states.

1a. PAN Structure

PAN structure is as follows: ABCPG9999K:

First five characters are letters, next 4 numerals, last character letter

• First 3 characters - are running series - AAA to ZZZ
• Fourth character - depends on catergory og PAN owner

• C — Company
• P — Person
• H — HUF(Hindu Undivided Family)
• F — Firm
• A — Association of Persons (AOP)
• T — AOP (Trust)
• B — Body of Individuals (BOI)
• L — Local Authority
• J — Artificial Juridical Person
• G — Govt

• Fifth character - Surname initial . for e.g  G for Gupta
• 6th - 9th character - running series
• 10th character - checksum

2.  Why PAN is required

PAN was initially introduced to facilitates linking of various documents related to a particular person - like tax payments, TDS credits, tax demands, arrears.  Is is also used to facilitate easy retrieval & matching of information related to investments, loans and other financial activities for detecting & combating tax evasion.

Now, PAN is almost mandatory for financial transactions such as opening a bank account, receiving taxable salary or professional fees, sale or purchase of assets above specified limits.

It is also being used as a valid ID Proof.

3.  PAN number to be quoted mandatory

It is mandatory to quote PAN on return of income, all correspondence with any income tax authority. .  It is also compulsory to quote PAN in all documents pertaining to the following financial transactions :-

• (a) sale or purchase of any immovable property valued at five lakh rupees or more;
• (b) sale or purchase of a motor vehicle or vehicle, (not two wheeled vehicles)
• (c) a time deposit, exceeding Rs 50000, with a banking company ;
• (d) a deposit, exceeding Rs 50000 , in any account with Post Office Savings Bank;
• (e) a contract of a value exceeding Rs 1 lac for sale or purchase of securities;
• (f) opening a bank account;
• (g) making an application for installation of a telephone connection (including a cellular telephone connection);
• (h) payment to hotels and restaurants against their bills for an amount exceeding
• Rs 25000 at any one time ;
• (i) payment in cash for purchase of bank drafts/ pay orders / banker’s cheques for
• an amount aggregating Rs 5000 or more during any one day;
• (j) deposit in cash aggregating Rs 50000 or more with a bank during any one day;
• (k) payment in cash in connection with travel to any foreign country of an amount exceeding Rs 25000 at any one time.

4. Who should apply for PAN

• All taxpayers or persons who are required to submit income tax return must obtain PAN.
• Any person carrying on any business or profession whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts are or is likely to exceed Rs 5 lacs in any previous year;
• Any person, who intends to enter into financial transaction where quoting PAN is  mandatory, must also obtain PAN. (See Point 3)

Anyone can apply for a PAN Card. There is no eligibility criteria to apply for a PAN card. You need not have an income, or be a taxpayer to be eligible to submit an application for PAN card. There is no restriction by age.

5. Exceptions to PAN Requirements

While the PAN is asked for in almost all financial transactions, it is possible to conduct some transactions without it if you provide Form 60 or Form 61 (for agriculturists).  A declaration in Form 60 will have to be issued to the registering authority for purchase and sale of immovable property or motor vehicles, or to the bank, broker, telephone provider, hotel or travel agent wherever necessary.

6. Consequences of not having PAN

If you don't have PAN, you might face difficulties in entering transactions mentioned in Point 3 above.  Banks may deduct higher TDS on your Interest Income, if you have not furnished PAN. As a employee or service provider, you should have PAN, so that TDS deducted by employer can be deposited under your PAN Account.

7. Other Important Notes

Obtaining or possessing more than one PAN is against the law, for which penalty of Rs.10,000/- may be imposed.

 
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