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Web Evaluation

Web Evaluation of Udemy.com

Teachers, you are brilliant, dedicated, and generous beyond measure. Why not get paid and appreciated for your heart and your smarts? Udemy.com is a web-based platform that allows anyone to design and teach courses for others to watch online. Offer your courses free or charge what you are really worth. Professional teachers can earn another source of income by doing what they do best.

Udemy.com advertises, "Teach the World Online. Inspire Millions. Share Your Knowledge. Monetize Your Expertise. Teach what you know, or teach what you love. Udemy is here to help you make it happen. Udemy gives you the tools to reach over 6 million students in 190 countries worldwide. Udemy's top 10 instructors have earned more than $17 to date teaching online." They also claim to have 14,000 instructors, and the average instructor earns about $7000 per year. So, Udemy is a teacher's dream. You already create lesson plans every day. Why not share them with others and get paid for doing it? Not only will you benefit financially, but also you will improve your practice and be a contribution to larger slice of the world. 

You may have already figured out that Udemy is a unique platform that allows for the creation and consumption of teachable content. We will look at both sides of the website by focusing on what it takes to be an instructor on the site. We will kick the tires and check under the hood to make sure there are no hidden costs or fine print that might end up wasting a teacher's valuable time.

To get us started, let's talk about the aesthetics and the user interface of the site. The site is super clean. The designers utilize space very well, take great care in building contrast for the important textual artifacts, and create just the right amount of space for a pop of color. You can see from the screenshot below the site looks very much like an app store, so there are many pictures, which support and facilitate in choosing which course might be best for a learner. The pictures also give a teacher the chance to sell his/her course. Each course gets its own "card" that is defined by the image and text and has both a hairline frame and a drop shadow that complete the distinction. In addition, each card is organized into an easy to read format that supports a highly efficient user interactivity. What you do not see in the screenshot is that the mouse rollover adds more information about the course including a photo of the instructor or instructors, the number of lectures, and the total time for the course. A secondary rollover allows the user to add the course to his /her wish list directly from the card. 

Once a user views a course, they are taken to a page with a comprehensive description that includes a video promo, course description, expectations, target audience, instructor biography, and full list of the sections and their lessons and the video duration for each. The bite-sized chunks of videos make learning more palatable for the students and likely add to the marketability of the courses.

Let's look closer at an example. Since I'm a science teacher by trade, you saw I did a search for a course in an area where I'm very fluent in the basics, astronomy.  There are four courses. One of the courses, called Backyard Astronomy, costs $12 and has 1241 students enrolled. That means the instructor is grossing $14,892 for teaching 24 lectures that total two hours of video content. This does not account for the money that goes to Udemy, we’ll take a look the fees in a little bit, and anyone who may have dropped the course for a full refund. While this is just one example, it shows that anyone with a passion in a topic could potentially be compensated well for sharing his or her experience. To be fair, the same instructor also has a level 2 course, where he charges $37. Like the introductory course, it also has twenty-four lectures, but this time has 3 hours of video content. This course only has 38 students enrolled, so he is grossing 1406 dollars. Unfortunately, there is no feedback that is given to help us understand why this course has fewer students enrolled.

We can guess it's because the cost is more, but there are processes going on behind the scenes at Udemy that may also contribute to the success of one class over another. Let us look at some of these. One of the issues is that there is no mention of course date on the course card, page, or in the video clips. This may be done purposefully to deter people from choosing based on the date of the material. I would like to see this label added in, so that the users would know how fresh the content is. In an area like basic astronomy, it will not be important to the content, but it is another matter (no pun intended) if we are talking about string theory or multiverse theory. Since the Udemy site was launched in May, 2010, it would be good to know dates of the courses offered.

This brings us to support, and for all users Udemy is truly amazing. In addition, they do it without having an online chat feature. The team, which consists of a very diverse 115 or so people, accomplish most everything in the getting started videos and articles as well as their specific targeting of FAQ's. In the screenshot below, you can see how they divide the FAQ page into 4 areas to help the students, teachers, or users get to the information easily. What is unique is the way the topics are then divided. Udemy has chunked the most popular topics into easily seen, well-spaced groups. Because the site is so well designed, all the necessary information is broken down into easily digestible pieces. It seems that they have added the next FAQ right into the text for another FAQ. Finding the information you need is easily searchable and the need for a coach is not there. If you do want to talk with someone, a contact form is used in conjunction with some drop down lists and pop out lists. These don't seem clunky and work really quickly. Even in the description of fees and the revenue reports, they do a wonderful breakdown contextually and graphically. There are even templates available in public google docs.

The last aspect to explore is how does the site is a benefit to learners. If you are using Udemy as a teaching making extra income, then it's on you to create content that both engages student interest and develops critical thinking skills. Udemy gives teachers the option to build quizzes into the courses, but it's not mandatory. While interactive, they are not like the Phet simulations that allow for adjusting variables or conditions to see the outcomes. The interface is still in it's infancy with interactivity, and I look forward to seeing how these tools will become available. One alternative would be to have students create a course of their own as a means of developing critical thinking skills, a sense of authorship, and a way to challenge learners and keep them focused for long periods.

I'm so impressed with the way the Udemy team has built this web site. It's such a wonderful way for teachers to build income, practice their craft, expand their target audience, and make a difference in the lives of students all over the planet. While there are some issues with the lack of dates on the courses, no online chat feature, and limited interactivity, the site is so well organized that teachers and students will be happy they chose to join.

Blended Learning

- Project Based Learning -

Digital Student Portfolios 

My dream is to create or work with a school that integrates project based learning with technology. More specifically I'd like to see many of the fundamentals taught and assessed with apps or online curriculum software that offers differentiated instruction/learning, standardized test prep/practice, and easy data management all in a game like atmosphere. This part of schooling is already happening, but there is the potential to lose interpersonal relationships in a fully tech learning environment. That's where P.roject B.ased L.earning or the maker movement (these methods go by many names) can make a big difference. Have a look at the essential elements of PBL in this video from BIE.org.

In this technology based skills setting I would like to see each class do cross-curricular projects that put these skills to use in a larger context. Projects designed by teachers and tuned by a vertical education team to engage students in a way that is interesting and relevant to learners and teachers. If teachers are trained to seek out ways students can develop and lead their own projects, a student could finish the year as a participant in the teacher lead projects, a leader in his/her own projects, and a contributor to other student projects.

Ongoing assessment for the projects is a must. Portfolios are flexible, easy to share with parents, easy to safely share students' best works with the public, and easy to pass on to next year's teacher (no matter where that teacher is). Organizing a digital portfolio with Evernote is an efficient way to get the most out of this method. See this video by Matt Renwick where he uses Kindergartner work in Evernote to begin to use and share a digital portfolio.
There are many great examples of how teachers are blending tech and pbl on sites like edutopia.org. This does not mean it is embraced as a well utilized form of education, and in fact most schools and districts don't have heavily tech integrated classrooms, nor do they utilize project based learning. Here is a good sample of how schools could blend tech and tactile learning. Please add other examples you find in the comments section.