This article is a comprehensive guide to the free side of Udemy – we’ll walk through the reasons why there are free courses on Udemy, some pros and cons for taking free courses, how you can find them on Udemy’s platform and choose the right course for you.
In later articles we’ll evaluate free courses on other platforms, as well as look at things from the instructor side – stay tuned!
Intro to Udemy
Udemy is one of the most popular online learning platforms in the world. They offer over 150,000 courses in all manner of subjects, from coding to baking to writing and more. These courses are priced anywhere from free to $200, and, importantly, are asynchronous – learners can complete courses in their own time at their own speed, and don’t have to take part in scheduled lessons. This can take as long as you like – once you enrol in a Udemy course, you have access to it forever.
The key Unique Selling Point (USP) for Udemy is its marketplace model. Unlike platforms like EdX and Coursera, which predominantly offer courses from recognised educational institutions, an instructor on Udemy can be anyone (even you – stay tuned for a blog on how to become a Udemy instructor!). Udemy prides itself on ‘democratising education’ – anyone can provide a course, and offer it for whatever price they like. It is then up to the learner to decide which course they want to enrol in.
Why would instructors offer free courses?
The most successful courses on Udemy are principally paid courses, and are often long, in-depth programmes in things like web development, data science and even photography.
This fact can rightly make people question the legitimacy of free courses – why would instructors, and Udemy, offer courses for free, when paid courses are the successful ones? Surely there is a hidden catch, that will only become apparent once you sign up?
Actually, there is no catch. A free course on Udemy is just that – free. It works in exactly the same way as any paid course, except you don’t have to pay to sign up.
So why would anyone offer courses for free?
Advertising/teasing a more in-depth course
Some instructors offer ‘intro’ or ‘taster’ courses for free, in order to advertise a paid course they offer.
For instance, if I teach JavaScript, I may have two courses – one longer paid one that goes into a lot of depth, and a short free intro one covering the basics of the language. I could then showcase my teaching skills and some of my learning materials in the free course, and signpost people to explore the concepts in more depth in my paid course.
Branding and publicity
Some instructors offer free courses for branding and publicity purposes. This could be for the instructor themselves (for instance, advertising their own educational website or blog), a cause or movement they want to highlight and publicise, or an organisation or company they want to advertise.
Making a free course can be a cost-effective way of reaching new people interested in your subject area.
Getting people using the platform
From Udemy’s perspective, offering free courses makes commercial sense to them. People who may initially be unwilling to pay for a course might take a free course, realise they like the platform, and come back and pay for a paid course.
Having more people use the platform will always make Udemy more valuable as a company.
People like teaching for free
For some people, sharing their knowledge and expertise with a wide community of people is enough of a reward to make a course on Udemy.
Some people just want to teach for the sake of teaching, and aren’t interested in making money from it.
In general, free courses on Udemy are well subscribed. As we have seen above, there can be many reasons why instructors and Udemy would want people to enrol in free courses – there is no specific catch to the learner. Free courses are just free courses!
The question now is, are free Udemy courses actually worth it? Let’s look at some of the main pros and cons.
One caveat before reading the below – there are a huge variety of free courses on Udemy. We cover the general case here, but there are always exceptions. For instance, there are some very long and very in-depth free courses, but they are few and far between!
Pros of Free Udemy courses
They’re free
Possibly the most obvious one, but worth acknowledging! When you enrol in a free Udemy course, there’s no investment required on your part (other than your time). This makes it pretty risk-free, and means you can try a lot of different courses at no cost to yourself, to find the best one for you.
They can be a great way to explore a new area without much commitment
As the courses are free, you have nothing to lose – you don’t need to know in advance whether you are absolutely certain you want to learn what the course is offering. For instance, if you want to learn coding but don’t know what language, you can try a free course in a few different languages to see which one is best for you before committing to a full paid course.
There’s plenty of variety
Even though most of the courses on Udemy are paid, there is still a good amount of free courses out there – enough for most general subject areas. We’ll look into how you can access free courses in below, but it’s good to know that if you want to learn something for free, you can more likely than not find a free course on it on the Udemy platform.
They’re often short, meaning little time commitment
Udemy has a new policy that requires all their free courses to be under 2 hours long. This means you can complete the majority of new courses, and guarantee some learning, in a short time frame or even one sitting.
They’re often standalone, meaning little prerequisite knowledge is required
Most free courses are beginner level, and offer a complete (albeit limited) learning experience. This means you can get started straight away, without having to worry about having the right level of knowledge to start.
Cons of free Udemy courses
They can lack depth
Because the courses are often so short, many of the free courses on Udemy are on basic topics. If you are looking to really understand the ins and outs of a certain topic, free courses probably won’t provide it.
They’re not recognised
Udemy courses themselves offer little external recognition – they are not held in the same regard as, for instance, degrees or professional qualifications. Free courses are especially guilty of this, not even offering certificates of completion on the Udemy platform. If you’re interested in getting a qualification you can use, free courses wouldn’t be for you.
They often lack continuity
The flip-side of being standalone, free courses often give you little direction and structure. Once you complete one course, it can be hard to know where to go next to progress your understanding (unless you want to pay). That’s why we think free courses are better suited for explorations, rather than deep dives.
Quality can vary
When instructors offer free courses, there is little accountability to them for the quality of the course (as they aren’t being paid for it). For Udemy too, their business priority is advertising and tracking paid courses. This means free courses can kind of float without being attended to or evaluated properly, and their quality can be low.
Support will likely be low
Similar to the above point, Udemy is not a platform that prioritises free courses. So if you’re experiencing issues with the course, or are struggling with the content, it’ll be harder for you to get the support you need to resolve your issue.
How to find and choose free courses
Once you create a Udemy account, it’s pretty easy to find prospective free courses in your area of interest. Simply search for what you’re interested in using the search bar, and then filter for ‘Free’ courses on the left hand side.
It then becomes a case of choosing the right course. A note of caution in this area – ratings can be misleading. There are people out there offering services to rate your course highly, so it entices more learners in. As a result, ratings might not be the best way to determine whether you should take a course.
We recommend looking into prospective courses a bit more deeply – read some of the reviews from people who have completed the course to get a more complete picture. Check what the instructor is actually planning to teach you in ‘What you’ll learn’ and ‘Course content’, and even check the instructor’s profile page to better understand who they are and why they’re teaching on Udemy.
Conclusion
Hopefully you now understand a bit more about free Udemy courses, and whether they’re right for you. To sum up, we’ve created this handy infographic to highlight what free courses on Udemy are good and not so good for:
We’ll review the free courses on Skillshare, Coursera, Khan Academy and more soon, as well as provide reviews from an instructor perspective – so stay tuned!
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