In 2020, I decided to take a few months and update my skills with some online courses from Coursera, Udemy, EdX, etc. I started with Coursera but quickly ended up finishing 35+ courses in about 5 months, mostly Udemy courses. I quickly discovered that I was repeating myself when writing course reviews and decided to formalize it a bit.
Update 2022-12-21 (2): In Nov/Dec 2022 I started a new batch of Udemy courses. I’ll have finished 22 new courses, complete with certificates of completion, when I complete this batch. I’ll have finished over 50 courses when done with this round.
Update 2022-12-21 (1): Changed bullet point checklist to an easier to read text format that looks more like a checklist
Here’s my online course checklist. I hope it helps somebody in picking quality courses and in writing their own helpful reviews.
Overall [ ] Good [ ] Okay [ ] Needs improvement 1080p Videos [ ] Good - Has 1080p videos [ ] Improve - Include 1080p or higher videos Volume Levels [ ] Good - Consistent volume levels [ ] Improve - Inconsistent volume levels Audio Quality [ ] Good - Clear audio quality [ ] Improve - Inconsistent audio quality Video Length [ ] Good - Convenient listening times (5-10 minutes) [ ] Improve - Shorten or lengthen video times (5-10 minutes) Vocal Speed [ ] Good - Vocal speed fast enough at 2x [ ] Improve - Vocal speed at 1x is too slow resulting in 2x being too slow Has Transcripts [ ] Good - Has transripts [ ] Improve - Include transcripts Has Captions [ ] Good - Has captions [ ] Improve - Include captions Has single PDF of course notes slides [ ] Good - Has single PDF of course notes slides [ ] Improve - Include single PDF of course notes slides Has single zip download of all resources [ ] Good - Has single zip download of all resources [ ] Improve - Include single zip download of all resources Quiz Pacing [ ] Good - Quizzes paced nicely [ ] Improve - Quizzes somtimes too frequent [ ] Improve - Quizzes sometimes too spread out Quiz Length [ ] Good - Well sized quizzes [ ] Improve - Quizzes sometimes too short (recommend 5-10 questions) [ ] Improve - Quizzes sometimes too long (recommend 5-10 questions) Quiz Explanations [ ] Good - Explanations are given for the correct answer [ ] Improve - Add explanations for right/wrong answers Minimal distracting visual or audio effects [ ] Good - Minimal visual/audio distracting gimmicks [ ] Improve - Reduce visual/audio distracting gimmicks Minimal reading material - Should be in video format for flow [ ] Good - Minimal reading material (uses video to cover most topics) [ ] Improve - Reduce reading material (use video to cover most topics) Minimal intros/outros to reduce time waste [ ] Good - Minimal intros/outros to reduce time waste [ ] Improve - Reduce intros/outros to reduce time waste Intros/Outros Lack Substance/Value [ ] Good - Intros/Outros provide just enough substance/value [ ] Improve - Intros/Outros do not provide enough substance/value
I simply copy&paste this whenever I want to create my course reviews.
Course authors may find this list helpful as a checklist of what to look for in their courses and what to include or not include when planning out courses.
PS. If Udemy happens to read this, the Rating descriptions provided are confusing. For example, “Good / Amazing” is confusing. Something might be “good” but far from “amazing”. Many times I chose “Good / What I expected”, instead. This kind of confusion and non-objective descriptions may be hurting your ratings system.
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