Udemy Review – What Is Udemy? Get all the Facts (Udemy Courses Review)

Udemy Reviews: Get all the Facts Before Signing Up for Udemy Courses

Intro: If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of Udemy. Students, job applicants, businesses, teachers, skilled professionals, passionate hobbyists, kids, and anyone who wants to learn something new might all perk up at Udemy’s name.

But you are also probably asking what is Udemy that it can reach so many people?

What Is Udemy?

Udemy is a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform that offers free or low-cost courses to everyone about virtually anything. They were founded in 2010 and worked up from a risky dream and a tiny number of courses to a dazzling selection of over 40,000 courses and currently serve 11 million students. Udemy’s core vision is democratizing skills-based education and life-long learning. They want everyone to have access to skill-strengthening information as well as opportunities to share their skills with others.

Image Source: Udemy

What Is a Udemy Course Like?

You can find Udemy courses on virtually anything. Their main categories range from web development to business to health and fitness to lifestyle courses to test preparation. Udemy courses can be as short as 30 minutes or up to many hours of content, depending on the instructor’s preference. They are designed to be used on your desktop or mobile devices at your own pace, indefinitely.

A regulatory Udemy courses review system checks to ensure that all courses meet certain requirements:

They are at least 30 minutes long.
Each one must contain a minimum 60% video content.
Courses are “well-structured” to deliver content.
They have audio that is clear and easy-to-understand.
The video is well-lit and in high-definition.

Image Source: Udemy

Udemy Pricing

One of your main questions is probably, “What is Udemy pricing like?” We think about education online and imagine shelling out big bucks, but Udemy’s pricing is amazing. For starters, they offer a wide range of free courses. Then, all other courses range from $20 – $50. It gets even better, though, because they run frequent discounts that can take these costs down 10 – 30% and sometimes even 50%.

Pros for Students Based on Udemy Reviews

Udemy is specifically designed to provide customers certain unique benefits:

Udemy provides convenient pricing, particularly if you want a light “course-load.”
The variety of courses is truly amazing.
Customers learn at their own pace.
The use of a wide range of devices let customers study any time and anywhere it is convenient.
Customers can preview the courses before purchasing (simply click on “Start free preview”).
Select “lectures” are available for viewing before purchasing.
Courses remain open for customers indefinitely.

Here is an excellent Udemy review found under the course, “Startup How-To: 7 Steps to Creating a Successful Product”:

“This workshop has taken me from a vague and wobbly gut feeling about who my various customers could be, to one, laser-sharp picture of *the* customer type I now believe I should serve first. This in itself is immense progress as it has drawn a sense of purpose, order and drive from the dreamy chaos that had been on my mind. Can’t wait for the next workshops! UPDATE: Just FAB!!!!”

Image Source: Udemy

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Cons for Students Based on Udemy Reviews

There are a few cons in UdemyLand:

Udemy courses are not a substitute for a college education.
Instructors don’t have to be qualified experts to create a course.
The instructor’s teaching style, voice, etc. may not work for you.
The great prices are not so great when you want to take many courses (You may get a better deal by paying more at one time for programs elsewhere).

Here are two Udemy reviews from customers on the Udemy website that demonstrate the ups and downs:

“There are so many trash-level courses, this one is the first one which I’ll rate for 5 stars.” and “Course is very short and does not go into depth how to use mindmaps beneficially.”

The Smartest Way to Select Udemy Courses

Because Udemy does not promise to be an accredited university or even hold its instructors to any requirements on their credentials, you probably don’t want to go blindly buying courses. Thankfully, Udemy gives you plenty of ways to explore a course before purchasing, include Udemy.com course reviews, course previews, and lecture previews.

Tips for increasing your chances of success with Udemy courses:

Start with some of their free courses (That’s what they are there for: to let people get to know instructors and to answer the question, “What is Udemy?” firsthand).
Try the course previews.
Preview all available lectures in the course.
Look for clues in the lectures that the course may or may not answer your particular questions.
Consider how many people have taken a course you are interested in.
Check out Udemy course reviews before you buy.
Read what the instructor says about themselves.
Pay attention to clues in their course description that they may not be as professional as you’d like or may not teach in a style you would enjoy.
Run a search on Google for courses on the same topic elsewhere that may be cheaper, better, or free (It could happen).
Don’t forget about refunds. If you buy it and don’t like it within 30 days, you can usually get your money back.

All of that being said, Udemy.com reviews of their courses look much better than some people (like the person above talking about the trash courses) make it sound. In fact, it is rather hard to find any 1 or 2 star ratings of courses on the site. Here is an example of someone criticizing a lack of depth in their Udemy course review, and a couple of reviews complaining that someone used too many textbook quotes and didn’t engage readers.

Pros for Instructors Based on Udemy Promises and Features

What is Udemy good for as far as instructors are concerned?:

Creating a course is free.
Instructors never have to pay maintenance fees.
Udemy makes creating a course easy, and even provides a free course of their own to teach you how.
Udemy reviews each course to make sure you created a quality course.
You benefit from Udemy’s popularity and advertising to get your courses in front of large numbers of people.
You don’t have to perform any of the irritating tasks to start-up or maintain a site if you don’t want that responsibility.

Notice the title for this category is not the same as others. It’s hard to find positive Udemy reviews from instructors on the internet. Several instructors touted Udemy’s courses in response to this Quora question, and this Slate article tells the story of a freelance web developer who made $453,000 as an instructor on Udemy. Skilledup.com gives an in-depth look at the pros and cons of being an instructor on Udemy and concludes that Udemy may be a good option for supplementing your teaching business.

Cons for Instructors Based on Udemy Reviews

There are some important cons to being an instructor on Udemy:

While you keep 100% of the revenue from courses when you bring your own new students to the course, Udemy pays you only 50% of the revenue from all students who find your course through them, making 50% much more common.
Instructors who try to attract new students to their courses find it more difficult all of the time because Udemy already has so many students and continues to gain more.
Every student you bring to Udemy will then become one of those 50% students for your fellow instructors, leaving some instructors feeling like they are cheating their peers.
Udemy runs frequent deals, which are great for customers but lessen even that 50% revenue for instructors.
Between all of the deals, Udemy’s broad student base, and their policy about paying less revenue for students they brought to the site via coupons, instructors may also receive only $25.
If you’re planning to make a business from being an instructor, you don’t own the platform, brand, student information, or anything else to gives you control over a business.

Todd Charron says in a Udemy review article, “There used to be a clear incentive. If I want to get more, I try to market my course. But now I can do the exact same amount of marketing and not earn more. If I convince you and a friend, one of you might earn me 25%, and one of you might earn me 97%, and there’s nothing I can do to influence that outcome.”

Udemy for Business

Udemy is branching out and trying to get businesses in on the action by suggesting they provide training courses on the site. The idea is to provide current and potential employees with material to learn alone, at their own pace, where they aren’t overloading with a massive training session. Businesses get a well-trained workforce and employees feel empowered to truly absorb the material rather than be force-fed.

Inc.com shared a great Udemy review piece on Goldman Sachs’s use of the platform. They describe how Goldman Sachs employs massive numbers of people and usually runs them through a daunting campus setting. Udemy has helped them prepare candidates ahead of time so they arrive at the campus in a strong state-of-mind for learning.

Conclusion

Taking every kind of Udemy review into consideration, Udemy offers an enticing program that does offer real benefits if used wisely. Course reviews on the Udemy website show students are largely satisfied with the courses, and you can ensure you are one of them by doing thorough research before purchasing. Instructors benefit by using Udemy as a way to quickly learn how to create a great course and to get people interested in their information. Business owners also find Udemy to be a valuable training tool.

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