Thank you to everyone who joined last Friday’s fireside chat with Gregg. He had a great time meeting you and answering questions about Udemy’s business and future outlook. We hope you left the chat feeling as excited and motivated as we did!
There were some questions that Gregg wasn’t able to answer during the chat, so we’d like to answer them for you here.
Question
Is something being done to cater for greater negative reviews from UB viewers? I suspect it’s partly because they’re “forced” to take the content from their bosses? But perhaps there’s something that can be done?
Answer
As we noted in this post from @MichaelPog
, we do notice differences between certain learner groups when it comes to ratings, for example between learners in different countries, and between learners who choose a course vs. have it assigned to them. This is part of the reason we don't use a simple numerical average when calculating course ratings, because we want ratings to be as meaningful and accurate as possible for learners trying to understand how well a course might meet their learning needs. The calculation of course ratings does take into account some of those learner group differences, as well as giving more weight to students who consumed more, or left their rating more recently, or took the time to leave a detailed review. We monitor for changes in these group behaviors over time and make adjustments to the way course ratings are calculated.
Question
Pricing question- will the $9.99 discount price soon die due to inflation? Or is the psychological impact too big?
Answer
We don’t have any immediate plans to change the “price floor” of $9.99 in the US, but we’ve already done a lot of work to raise the average selling price (ASP) in the US and most other global markets through our work on differentiated pricing (using pricing data to generate appropriate price ranges for different courses based on their characteristics & performance in the market, instead of giving every course the same minimum and maximum price).
Question
Is cohort based learning real-time training, such as online coaching? How will this work with different time zones?
Answer
We are still very much learning and testing what cohort-based learning can look like on Udemy. We’ll pilot this within Udemy Business before considering rolling it out into the Udemy Marketplace.
With CorpU specifically, cohort-based learning is asynchronous. The learner is tasked with 30 minutes of formal learning each day. Some programs include a one hour live event via Zoom on the last day that is scheduled at a time that best suits the majority of participants.
Question
What will the impact of the CorpU acquisition be on the current leadership/management courses?
Answer
We don't expect CorpU to have any noticeable impact on enrollment in video-based leadership and management courses. Due to differences in structure, price point, and target audience, we think these offerings will ultimately appeal to two different types of customer.
Question:
Can you share an update on subscriptions?
Answer:
We received a few questions about subscriptions that we’d like to address. We’re very focused on building out subscriptions to compliment the a la carte course model. We believe that subscriptions will help Udemy and instructors reach new audiences who are interested in taking a series of courses that will help them reach their learning and professional goals. Subscriptions will also create sustainability for Udemy’s learning marketplace, as it will enable us to retain learners for longer periods of time. That said, we are still running tests to figure out what the best subscription model looks like for learners and instructors alike. You can expect a general update on subscriptions for all instructors within the next month or so.
Question:
When it comes to growth, does Udemy have any plans on creating partnerships with universities? Can we anticipate any other acquisitions in the coming months?
Answer:
Regarding partnerships, we are looking at all kinds of partnerships that create more opportunities for both learners and instructors. Our goal is to become the best place to teach and learn in the world, and we won’t get there without instructors like you. We will keep you updated as our our plans develop.