Lessons from Udemy

Udemy – An online platform where you can choose from over 180,000 courses in different languages and take courses remotely online udemy.com. Every month the list of suggestions is updated with new ones from experts from different countries. Lectures and other materials online schools are available after registration and purchase of the program. Students receive lifetime access to the materials and can study at their own pace.

The user gets access to the lessons after paying for them. In the e-mail the user receives a link to the program. You can also log in to your personal account and find materials through the “My Learning” page. There are no deadlines for starting and completing. Students can take classes at any time. If students don’t like the training, they can get a refund within a month. Refunds are available as long as the request complies with Udemy’s refund policy. For some purchases, only credit refunds are available.

The administration reserves the right, at its discretion, to limit or deny the request if it believes that the student is abusing the reimbursement. Such reasons for denial may include the following:

• Part of the course was downloaded by the student prior to the refund request.
• Multiple return requests in one program.
• Your account has been blocked or access has been disabled for violating the terms of use.

If the transaction is not eligible for a cash refund, the refund will be provided using Udemy credits. If the purchase is eligible for a credit refund only, information about this will be listed on the refund page. There are several types of purchases for which only credits are refunded:

• iOS: iOS payments are processed through Apple, not the learning platform, so the administration cannot offer refunds for purchases made through the App Store.
• Bank and cash transfers. For some methods, only credit reimbursement is available.
• Paid through Boleto Bancario and Pix.
• Made through Alfamart and Indomaret.

Course Search

The site has a search bar where you can enter the name of the topic of interest. There is also a “Categories” section where you can open one of the options and see all the suggestions. A separate page is available for each Udemy program, which has key information about the lessons. The following information is available in each section:

• What you will learn. A summary of the skills you can learn during the course.
• Requirements: mandatory knowledge or tools you may need to change course.
• Description: a detailed explanation of the topics.
• Feedback: comments from students who have already completed the training and their evaluation.
• Instructor: information about the expert, his experience and knowledge. By clicking on the instructor’s name, you can go to his profile page, where there is a list of all the courses he has recorded.
• Content: a list of all lectures and other program elements offered by the expert (quizzes, assignments, tests, etc.). The total time of the lectures is also indicated.

Lesson Format

Each Udemy program is owned by an expert who has recorded lessons on it. It is presented in the form of lectures in video format, text materials and slides. Teachers also prepare practical assignments that help consolidate the acquired knowledge.

Player Features

Lectures can be viewed in the Udemy player. After entering the course, the user will automatically go back to where they left off last time. All items are displayed on the right side of the player. If desired, you can navigate to the desired material by clicking on its title. A gear icon is available at the bottom, which opens the settings. There are tools such as:

• Adjusting video quality. The platform automatically optimizes the resolution depending on the speed of the user’s Internet connection. You can adjust the quality of lessons by selecting the available resolution.
• Autostart. The next lesson can be played automatically. The function can be disabled.
• Video Speed. Clips can be played back at different speeds.
• View in full screen mode.
• Hotkeys. A list of shortcuts that you can use to quickly adjust settings and add notes.

The platform has a “Notes” function that allows you to quickly mark interesting points in the lesson without leaving the player. To make a note, you have to:

• Press the “Notes” button below the screen or the note icon in full-screen mode at the desired location in the lesson.
• Enter up to 1000 characters of text or press “Enter” to save an empty note.

To open saved notes, select the tab with this name in the Udemy Player. You can filter your notes by lecture, course or date added. Clicking on a note will take you to the moment in the lecture when it was made. Also, the places where notes were left are marked with a yellow bar in the player. Moments where other students have taken notes are indicated in blue.

Teachers can also add subtitles to their lectures or use the platform’s automatically generated videos in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. If subtitles are available, you can turn them on and off or use the transcription feature to read what the instructor has said.

If subtitles are available for the lesson, there will be an icon in the bottom right corner of the player. By hovering your cursor over it, you can select the language. To disable them, press the “Off” button. You can adjust the font size and background transparency. If your Udemy account is set to any language other than English, subtitles will be displayed automatically. But if subtitles in the account language are not available, they will be displayed in English.

The transcript is a feature that allows you to read in text format what the expert is saying. It also allows you to quickly find the content you want by navigating through the text. The transcript can be opened by clicking its icon at the bottom of the player. The text will appear to the right of the screen. The transcript will be written in the same language that the student has selected for subtitles.

Often instructors add additional resources to the lectures, such as PDFs, design templates, and source code. These can be downloaded to your computer to study later. If the lesson has additional materials available, there will be a “Resources” icon on the right side of the player. By clicking on it, the student will see the names of files that can be downloaded.

By default, Udemy courses are not available for downloading. But the instructor, if desired, can enable the download feature so that the user can download a video to watch the lesson offline on a PC. To check if the service is available, hover over the words “Download Lesson” in the lower right corner of the player. If they are not grayed out, the video can be downloaded to your computer.

Platform functionality

The functionality of the platform depends on the device on which the student is studying. There are features that are available on both PCs and gadgets (in the mobile version of the site or app) for free and paid programs:

• Lectures in audio and video format.
• Text Materials.
• Quizzes to consolidate knowledge.
• Subtitles (if added to the course).
• View teacher reviews and announcements.
• A promotional video to familiarize you with the course materials.
• Search for an offer by category.

Coding exercises are available on the full PC version of the company’s site. Additional resources are offered on all platforms except the mobile version of Udemy’s site. You can download the certificate and write a message to the instructor only on the site. These features are only available to students who choose paid lessons. Reading and publishing feedback is offered only to those who have purchased the program, on any platform. You can post your feedback on the site or in the app on Android, this feature is not available on iOS.

Mobile application

By downloading the Udemy app for Android and iOS mobile devices, students can browse course materials on more than 3,400 topics. Reminders can be set up and a dark theme can be selected. The app features offline viewing, picture-in-picture mode, and support for AirPlay, Chromecast. Some courses can be listened to as podcasts.

Free Preview

In order to compare several courses and see if one of them fits the user’s needs, the user can take advantage of a free preview. Each platform offering has several lessons that the instructor selects for this preview. It allows the user to become familiar with the program’s content and the expert’s teaching style. To start the free preview, you must follow these steps:

• Click on the icon or course title to go to the description page.
• Click the “Preview” button on the right side of the page.
• Study the lectures the instructor has chosen.

Obtaining a certificate

After viewing all the lectures and mastering new topics, you can download the certificate in .png or .jpg format to share with your friends and employer. You can also share the document on social networks directly from your account on the school’s website. You can get it only when you take a paid course at Udemy.