[IMPORTANT] Udemy New Terms

[watchthebirdie]

I'm sure they changed the preview function because it allowed a back door way to hack the courses. Hence the last couple offerings by people in this forum and others for software that allows them to download the programs. That stopped when they eliminated previews.

[Citadel]

The one thing I resent the most is they didn't speak to the instructors or get their feedback. And, they don't seem to realize, we are in a capitalistic society where the market determines the price. If the market doesn't like the class or believe it's too much - they won't buy.

It's not about what the instructor or Udemy believes it's value is, it's about what the consumer or student believes it's worth.

Udemy spends way too much time worrying about audio and video quality. They expect professional quality from instructors who are expert in their field but not in video production. Yes, the student should have a good experience. But the fact, there's a bit of an echo or there's a bit of blurriness shouldn't matter.

People are paying $500 for a webinar using Google Hangouts, for chrissake! lol

It's more about the quality of the content and whether the instructor is good at conveying their message.

I think that's where Udemy should be focusing it's efforts.

But it's their sandbox and until instructors can find a better one, we're all stuck with the Udemy's decisions.

I'll be adding only preview content from now on. As someone mentioned, a full course, at $50 simply isn't worth the time. So I'll go to 30 minute previews. I also won't be doing any support of the students at $50. Again, not worth my time.

Not my fault. Complain to Udemy. It's their sandbox and their rules.

[leolo]

Please dont take this personally, but your message is making me think about the instructors complain about the prices when they themselves were not selling enough when their courses were at the price they chose. A LOT of instructors made the vast majority of their $ through the 10$ or so specials, without these they had no living. And these same instructors priced their courses KNOWing they would be selling most at majorly discounted prices and many of these are being TOTAL hypocrites today saying they wont sell their courses at those prices hehehe. But that was all UDEMY, they imposed these repetitive sales and that also helped many AND hurt many.

Two business models are fighting, among others : 1- lower prices have more students 2- higher prices less students. I HATE THE 2ND ONE. The majority of people in great need of knowledge, skill, education is exactly the one the second model pushes out. Many instructors have proven that they can provide adequate support to 1000s of students al the while making their money with 10$ a pop. And they are there to stay.

I wish for all who struggle through these changes to not give up. Udemy is not completely wrong in this.

These are big changes for everyone. It kicks out a lot of people in many different ways, that is what bothers me also like you :( BUT new opportunities for many also, whoever has the means to adapt, the less fortunate always bites the dust ; just like you say, video quality above instruction quality... they control what they can control, and with so many courses...

Personally, I hope these are just the first of many big changes...

peace all

[Mahab]

My two cents:

I laugh at these instructors who think their content is so great that "they're going to take their ball and go home" if they can merely snooker students for $50 a course. Chances are that your courses are rubbish!

And I've got news for ya--I ain't ever buying a course for more than $10! If you're one of the 0.001% of Udemy instructors producing high quality content--like a Percival, Alicea, Hussey or Eduonix--you'll be a rich and happy instructor selling $10 courses. And your students will be quite happy too.

But the competition is far too great for Udemy to keep trying to push the price-point above $10. For example, for just $25 a month, I can get unlimited access to courses at Treehouse. One of their instructors is Zac Gordon who teaches about 20 courses on WordPress development and he blows out of the water anything similar on Udemy. And I can also get unlimited access to other high-quality courses there on Ruby, PHP, Node, Angular, etc.

I can also get unlimited courses per month at Code Academy, more advanced ones at Pluralsight, Skillshare (which are mostly the crappy courses from Udemy), Lynda, and Packt Publishing (books and courses)--each for around $12-$25 per month.

That's not to mention the fantastic (((FREE))) courses provided by Udacity, Coursera, iTunesU, and others.

So Udemy and their instructors had better take note, or it may very well be us--the students--who take OUR ball and go elsewhere.

[leolo]

OH yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !

[strada]

Let udemy play their own game, they lose nothing.

Teachers will lose, not them. there are so many other platforms with better deals on selling courses and you can build your own site and drive traffic there while you put your course on these other platforms for extra cash.

Udemy is cool but you don't even control your own email list, udemy's many competitors are hoping to blow them out of the water soon.


[quote='EuroTrader' pid='1646011' dateline='1458817551']
Udemy shooting itself in the foot . . .

Course quality will go down, pretty fast.

Better instructors won't even bother.

For example, why should I create a trading course when the most I can charge is $50?

Not even worth 15-minutes of my time.
[/quote]