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Is the online course market not over saturated with LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight etc

regressiveparty 5y ago
Everyone in the space has a different take on the best way to present online courses. Udemy is the wild west market approach. They let anyone make a course, and let the algorithm sort out whats worthwhile and what's not. That means you get A LOT of terrible stuff, but absolutely some insane deals from genuinely talented instructors.
forkLding 5y ago
I just bought 300 dollars worth of courses couple days ago on Udemy, I've used all these companies and I have to say Udemy is better than them. There is definitely a market based on teaching quality difference and the teaching tools provided.
- afs27 5y ago
  I noticed a lot of the courses I was looking at on Coursera seemed to be from universities and the ones on Udemy looked like they were more from companies (Google, etc.) or professionals from different organizations. Is that a fair assessment?
  - abhi_arora 5y ago
    I'm in Tech Consulting with a background in Computer Science (specifically Data Science) and I'd have to say that the courses on Udemy are much more aligned with how things are done in the industry. And yes, most of the courses that I have taken there are taught by professionals with industry experience.
  - arnvald 5y ago
    Coursera also has a number of courses provided by companies, even by Google (https://www.coursera.org/google-career-certificates https://www.coursera.org/google-career-certificates). You're right that Coursera has content from universities, on the other hand Udemy has individual instructors (and anyone can become an instructor). Also Coursera has a lot of free content - not sure if 100%, but a large number of courses offers the content for free, you only need to pay if you want to do assignments and get a certificate. Oh, and Coursera does not have 90% off promos every other week, unlike Udemy
    - afs27 5y ago
      Thanks for the response, this is helpful because I’m trying to find a good online writing course and haven’t landed on anything solid, so that’s why I was looking between these two. I’ll have to look at the free options in Coursera a little closer.
tylfin 5y ago
This is actually something they address in the Risk Factors section (here: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607939/000119312521291460/d163445ds1.htm#toc163445_2 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607939/000119312521...) if you're curious about what they have to say.
- duxup 5y ago
  I'm impressed how much "plain English" there is there.
baron_harkonnen 5y ago
I don't think that's as relevant as the current demand for VCs to unload their investments as fast as possible before the next major economic catastrophe. It boggles my mind that we're set to nearly double the record number of IPOs this year, and last year was the highest number since 1999, yet in general no one finds this at all interesting or alarming.
- ch4s3 5y ago
  I don't think I have any special insight here, but it seems like a lot of the companies this time have actual products, revenue, and a plausible path forward. I've also read that during the period from 2008 until about 2019 there was an unusually low number of IPOs.
  - duxup 5y ago
    Yeah Udemy does a thing. Profitable and at what scale? I don't know, but it's hardly some weird pump and dump style IPO you see from time to time.
- duxup 5y ago
  >as fast as possible before the next major economic catastrophe I'm trying to think of a time where this wasn't being predicted ... I'm not sure it really makes a lot of sense.
open-source-ux 5y ago
Is the online course market not over saturated with LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight etc The market is saturated with computing-related courses aimed mostly at beginners (programming languages, software tools etc). Despite that, there is still space for well-structured, well-narrated (scripted or semi-scripted) courses with clear instruction aimed at beginners, intermediate and advanced users. An expert in a subject is not necessary a good teacher. This is why the course quality on Udemy varies enormously. It's also why, for example, so many programming courses follow the bullet-point slides and voiceover template. There are so many more imaginative ways to teach online - but that takes more time and effort. Udemy also encourages long courses because it gives users the impression of depth or breadth of content (and thus better value-for-money). This is why so many courses are 10, 20, and even 30+ hours - even though length is not a marker of quality. I'm sure many readers on Hacker News have already seen the link below which is a parody of programming tutorials. (And which applies equally to free and paid tutorials.) Every programming tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlSjtxy5ak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlSjtxy5ak
omarhaneef 5y ago
That is a great question. I mean in the physical world, we have lots of schools because we were constrained by distance. But we don't consider all the schools interchangeable. A farm kid from Iowa would happily travel to Georgia to study at Georgia Tech because it was recognized that the experience was superior even if they had the same materials and curriculum. So I think there is a role for different versions of the same class. Some people may even mix and match: multi variate calculus from Coursera, machine learning from Udacity, presentations from linkedin and Angular from pluralsight or whatever.

Everyone in the space has a different take on the best way to present online courses. Udemy is the wild west market approach. They let anyone make a course, and let the algorithm sort out whats worthwhile and what's not. That means you get A LOT of terrible stuff, but absolutely some insane deals from genuinely talented instructors.

forkLding 5y ago

I just bought 300 dollars worth of courses couple days ago on Udemy, I've used all these companies and I have to say Udemy is better than them. There is definitely a market based on teaching quality difference and the teaching tools provided.

afs27 5y ago
I noticed a lot of the courses I was looking at on Coursera seemed to be from universities and the ones on Udemy looked like they were more from companies (Google, etc.) or professionals from different organizations. Is that a fair assessment?
- abhi_arora 5y ago
  I'm in Tech Consulting with a background in Computer Science (specifically Data Science) and I'd have to say that the courses on Udemy are much more aligned with how things are done in the industry. And yes, most of the courses that I have taken there are taught by professionals with industry experience.
- arnvald 5y ago
  Coursera also has a number of courses provided by companies, even by Google (https://www.coursera.org/google-career-certificates https://www.coursera.org/google-career-certificates). You're right that Coursera has content from universities, on the other hand Udemy has individual instructors (and anyone can become an instructor). Also Coursera has a lot of free content - not sure if 100%, but a large number of courses offers the content for free, you only need to pay if you want to do assignments and get a certificate. Oh, and Coursera does not have 90% off promos every other week, unlike Udemy
  - afs27 5y ago
    Thanks for the response, this is helpful because I’m trying to find a good online writing course and haven’t landed on anything solid, so that’s why I was looking between these two. I’ll have to look at the free options in Coursera a little closer.

tylfin 5y ago

This is actually something they address in the Risk Factors section (here: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607939/000119312521291460/d163445ds1.htm#toc163445_2 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607939/000119312521...) if you're curious about what they have to say.

duxup 5y ago
I'm impressed how much "plain English" there is there.

baron_harkonnen 5y ago

I don't think that's as relevant as the current demand for VCs to unload their investments as fast as possible before the next major economic catastrophe. It boggles my mind that we're set to nearly double the record number of IPOs this year, and last year was the highest number since 1999, yet in general no one finds this at all interesting or alarming.

ch4s3 5y ago
I don't think I have any special insight here, but it seems like a lot of the companies this time have actual products, revenue, and a plausible path forward. I've also read that during the period from 2008 until about 2019 there was an unusually low number of IPOs.
- duxup 5y ago
  Yeah Udemy does a thing. Profitable and at what scale? I don't know, but it's hardly some weird pump and dump style IPO you see from time to time.
duxup 5y ago
>as fast as possible before the next major economic catastrophe I'm trying to think of a time where this wasn't being predicted ... I'm not sure it really makes a lot of sense.

open-source-ux 5y ago

Is the online course market not over saturated with LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight etc The market is saturated with computing-related courses aimed mostly at beginners (programming languages, software tools etc). Despite that, there is still space for well-structured, well-narrated (scripted or semi-scripted) courses with clear instruction aimed at beginners, intermediate and advanced users. An expert in a subject is not necessary a good teacher. This is why the course quality on Udemy varies enormously. It's also why, for example, so many programming courses follow the bullet-point slides and voiceover template. There are so many more imaginative ways to teach online - but that takes more time and effort. Udemy also encourages long courses because it gives users the impression of depth or breadth of content (and thus better value-for-money). This is why so many courses are 10, 20, and even 30+ hours - even though length is not a marker of quality. I'm sure many readers on Hacker News have already seen the link below which is a parody of programming tutorials. (And which applies equally to free and paid tutorials.) Every programming tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlSjtxy5ak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlSjtxy5ak

omarhaneef 5y ago

That is a great question. I mean in the physical world, we have lots of schools because we were constrained by distance. But we don't consider all the schools interchangeable. A farm kid from Iowa would happily travel to Georgia to study at Georgia Tech because it was recognized that the experience was superior even if they had the same materials and curriculum. So I think there is a role for different versions of the same class. Some people may even mix and match: multi variate calculus from Coursera, machine learning from Udacity, presentations from linkedin and Angular from pluralsight or whatever.