Udemy: New Resource with High-Quality Content That Makes Learning Enjoyable

Posted on April 27, 2021 at 6:00 am

BY STACEY GODDARD

I don’t usually “geek out” about a new library resource. But I have to confess that I was having geek-out levels of excitement when I heard the library would be getting Udemy.

Here are the reasons why I’m so excited:

• You can take Udemy courses whenever it is convenient for you.
• There are (literally) thousands of courses you can take, so you can do a deep dive within a topic if you want.
• Learning is organized within categories and sub-categories. Here are just a handful of them: Leadership & Management, Cloud Computing, Game Design, Social Media Marketing, and Stress Management.
• Courses are taught by industry experts, so you know you’re getting quality information.
• You can pause and rewind course videos (because sometimes the dog needs to go outside, or your best friend needs to talk to you right now!)
• You can stop watching a course and try another course if the first one isn’t what you were expecting.

Another reason I’m so excited about Udemy is the wide range of business and entrepreneur courses they offer. My team works with people who are starting (or thinking about starting) businesses, or who have an idea for a product or service but aren’t sure where to begin.

Udemy courses can help!

GETTING STARTED

To get started, you need your library card and PIN to access Udemy. Once you’re on the Gale presents Udemy website, you’ll need a Google or Microsoft account to create a profile and continue on to the courses. Gale is working on changing these requirements for Udemy in the future, but for now this helps track your courses and progress.

If you need help setting up your Udemy account, we can assist you with a Book-a-Librarian appointment.

Once you’ve linked your Google or Microsoft account to Udemy, you’ll be asked a few questions about your interests. Your responses help Udemy give you focused recommendations for courses based on your preferences, but don’t worry, you won’t be stuck to those recommended courses. You can browse the entire Udemy catalog to find what interests you.

As you decide which course to take first, you can click on a class for more information. Each class lists any requirements (such as a willingness practice for a coding class, for example) and the total length of the course. You can also read the instructor’s biography, look at the course outline, and even read reviews from others who have taken the class.

MY EXPERIENCE TAKING A UDEMY COURSE

Recently, I took the course called “Intro to Entrepreneurship: Get Started as an Entrepreneur.” The instructor, Evan Kimbrell, has years of experience as an entrepreneur, and the course has consistently high reviews. There was also a note in the Overview section that said the class was last updated in March of 2021—so the information is current and relevant (as of the writing of this blog post).

This is a useful tool for learning: Each section of the course I took had a downloadable PDF filled with important concepts, which can be reviewed offline when it’s convenient.

There were a number of handouts and other resources to download as well. There are quizzes (which you can skip!) at the end of each section if you want to test your newly acquired knowledge.

Udemy gives you options to speed up or slow down the playback speed of the videos. I found this very helpful as I need to slow the speed down a bit for some of the concepts the instructor discussed. Kimbrell is a bit of a fast talker!

I’ll admit that the 14.5-hour total course length was a bit daunting at first, but when I looked at the outline, I could see the reason for the length. Kimbrell’s course covers every aspect of entrepreneurship. This course is a great resource for people wanting to know exactly what becoming an entrepreneur takes in terms of time, money, and effort. It’s also a good tool for someone who may have started the process of becoming an entrepreneur but still has some questions.

For example, the course section titled “The different paths you can take” describes four different types or categories of entrepreneurs: lifestyle entrepreneurs, side businesses, startup founders, and social entrepreneurs. Individuals considering becoming an entrepreneur might want to view the entire section so they can decide which type best suits them based on the amount of time, effort, and risk they’re willing to devote to the endeavor.

I had never heard of a lifestyle entrepreneur before, and if you had asked me to guess I would have thought it was something similar to a social media influencer.

However, it turns out that a lifestyle entrepreneur is somebody whose primary goal for starting a business is to make a certain amount of money—an amount that will let them live a particular lifestyle and maintain a certain quality of life. They want to spend as little time as possible making as much as possible. Now I know!

One of the longer sections in the course explains the various fundraising avenues available to entrepreneurs. I skipped the parts I knew (bootstrapping, equity & debt, loans) to focus on the options I was less familiar with (FFF & Angels, incubators).

Another aspect of this particular course that I like is that Kimbrell includes several sections that guide you from the idea creation process all the way through evaluating and testing your product or service. He includes relevant examples of successful businesses to illustrate his points, and he doesn’t sugar coat how difficult the work will be.

While I don’t see myself becoming an entrepreneur anytime soon, I feel that taking this course put me in an even better position to be able to help library customers who are hoping to launch their business idea.

I’m looking forward to starting my next Udemy course: Write Better Emails: Tactics for Smarter Team Communication.

I hope you are inspired to explore Udemy and find a course that interests you!

Tags: business, classes, computer coding, courses, digital library, digital resource, Gale, leadership, leading, lifelong learning, online, personal development, professional, training, Udemy, writing