Udemy is a very popular eLearning platform with courses covering a huge range of subjects.
In fact, at last count, the site boasts over 70,000 courses, many of which are taught by professionals with careers on the subject in question.
This makes Udemy a valuable yet very cost-effective way for individuals to enhance their learning in order to boost their careers.
First, let’s have a look at the benefits of choosing Udemy for your eLearning experience.
Table of Contents
Benefits of using Udemy
Flexibility
First and foremost is the flexible nature of a Udemy course. Once you have signed up you will have access to all course materials and videos and will be able to progress through the course at your own pace.
This is excellent for anyone with a full-time job and or family. In fact, being able to choose your own learning hours is beneficial to anyone.
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Helps you be proactive during lockdown
The last year has been very difficult for a lot of us. However, during the Covid lockdown record number of people have been taking eLearning courses on Udemy and similar platforms.
You can progress through the courses using just a mobile phone if you wish (although a laptop is definitely recommended).
Time spent at home has been spent in the most proactive way possible by learning a new skill.
Affordability
Udemy provides some of the cheapest courses online due to their regular flash sales. This means you can pick up a course for as little as $9.99 in many cases.
The result of these low prices means that finances are not a constraint. The courses are open to all.
The huge range of courses
As one of the largest eLearning platforms around the choice that you get with Udemy is simply outstanding.
If you are looking to boost your career, there are a ton of work-focused courses to dig into. Wich to move into a technology orientated position, there are countless coding, cybersecurity, and IT certifications available.
General business, marketing, and web development courses are covered too. Outside of these are foreign language courses and others focused on the humanities; history, art, and music.
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Using Udemy to help your career
Successfully completing a course will obviously add to your skillset. However, how do you best leverage Udemy so that the results of the course can help your career in a practical sense?
It goes without saying that a 10 dollars online course will not necessarily open up the doors to more interviews. However, they can put you in good stead.
For instance, if your boss or prospective employer requires proof you have training in a particular area, many of the Udemy courses provide downloadable certificates of completion.
Say you are interested in an analytics role that requires advanced Excel skills. Completing one of the expert Excel training courses on Udemy would not only ensure that you are competent enough, but the certificate will also demonstrate that you have undergone the training.
The same can be applied across all manner of skills that might help you advance in your career.
All that being said, you will need to ensure that the course that you take meets the standards required. With the thousands available, how can you do that?
How to choose the best course for your needs?
The answer is to do your due diligence.
Although Udemy must approve all classes before they are made available to users, they still vary in quality and of course, the level of student they are aimed at.
Here are some things to look at before you invest time and money taking a udemy course.
Pay close attention to course content details
This is the single most important part of ensuring that you get the right course to advance your career. It needs to cover areas that will give you the skills you are looking for (or at least provide a step towards them).
Udemy course pages will go through everything step by step to show the prospective student what’s on offer. Look at the number of video hours and extra resources that are made available on the course.
If you are taking something that purports to take you from beginner to expert, you will expect more than 3 hours of video tuition.
The same course page will provide details of the tutor. Look into their background, are they working professionals? Do they have accreditations that fill you with confidence?
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Watch the preview videos
The course sales page will also have an introduction video and often some snippets of actual lesson videos.
Watch these as they will give you an insight into the teaching style of the tutor. It will also give you an idea of the overall production quality.
If you feel comfortable with these, and the course covers the material you need, you are moving in the right direction.
However, before filling in your payment details there are other things to check.
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User reviews
User reviews are the backbone of eCommerce. They provide a great way of letting you know the pros and cons of a product and in this scenario a course.
What has past learners had to say about the course.
All Udemy courses will state how many have taken the course and the average score given out of 5 stars.
Clearly, a course with several thousand previous students with a 4 star and above rating, has been well received and will be a safe buy.
Reviews such as the ones that we provide are also useful. We have covered a number of Udemy courses on Vault50 now, rating specific subject areas with what we believe are the best 10 courses to take.
These are also rated along with their appropriateness to specific students’ needs, and will certainly help you in your research.
Is there are sale?
If you have time, it is worth waiting for Udemy to hold one of their flash sales. They occur a few times a month and can see some course prices slashed from around $150 to as little as $10.
Don’t purchase until you are ready to take the course
Finally, you should hold off buying the course until you are ready to take it (unless you are keen to take advantage of a sale).
The reason for this is that the 30-day refund scheme starts upon the purchase date. If you begin several weeks after buying the course and feel it is not for you, the refund scheme may have expired.
Downloading the entire course at once may also make the refund scheme void.
