Best Of
Re: New Month New Theme: Instructor Stories!
Thanks @RyanJaress for opportunity to participate.
I’ve always been interested in teaching. My academic path — an MBA, a master’s in finance, and a Ph.D. in management — was driven by the desire to build a career in education. I taught at a university for some time, but I felt limited in what I could create and the pace at which I could innovate. It was also frustrating to teach in an elite environment where many students were in class because they had to be there, not because they wanted to learn.
When COVID came, I lost my job. That was my reset moment. I started from zero and created my first courses on Udemy. Of course, I was unemployed and needed to rebuild my career, but it also felt like a chance to play what Simon Sinek calls “the infinite game” — a game with no winner or loser, where the goal is simply to keep playing with purpose.
Today, my “infinite game” is education. I want to bring business school knowledge to the largest possible audience — people who want to learn, not just those who can afford it. Offering knowledge that once cost $10,000+ for $9.99 or less is what motivates me. And when things get challenging on Udemy — lower revenue, tough reviews — I go back to that mission and remind myself why I started.
It has become my main source of income, so I don’t pretend I do this purely out of goodwill. But the mission stands next to the business: to educate driven learners everywhere and make high–quality education accessible to those who truly want it.
Re: Stop Complaining instructors!
You cannot tell people to calm down when your initial message was nothing but calm… You did not try to discuss solutions at all.. you just starting with a degrading tone and continued to blame people instead of understanding what the real issue here was… I cannot take anything you say seriously…
aaltug
Re: Stop Complaining instructors!
Can’t have a civil discussion when OP opens with “stop yapping” and LOLing at people whose livelihoods are being flushed down the toilet.
Re: Stop Complaining instructors!
Your observations are correct, but your conclusions are wrong. Udemy’s heavy discount strategy has impacted customers‘ willingness to pay long before ChatGPT even existed. They conditioned students to buy only during discount times, for discount prices. And THAT’S why there is no platform that successfully sells $100 courses. Yes, it is easy to sell a $12 course to 100 people but the long-term consequences should have been clear: people expect to get high-quality education for a low price, and that’s not ChatGPT‘s fault, because every person who has ever asked this tool a complex question knows that it does not substitute or replace a true subject matter expert’s explanation. It‘s Udemy‘s fault because they demonstrate to the audience that our knowledge is worth a few dollars, and then they put 90% of those few dollars into their own pockets. Please educate yourself on online teaching, Udemy, market dynamics, and the consequences of pricing strategies, before you share your bold takes, because your arguments don’t really add up.
Dr. Kat
