We’re excited to introduce Ranks to the Udemy community!

[RyanJaress]

Hello Instructors! 

As some of you may have noticed, we have just rolled out a new feature to the community. As of this morning, we have launched a new ranking system so you can see your progress as you engage with the community! In this post, I will go through the ranking system and show you how to navigate it.

Udemy Ranks

As you continue to post and engage with the instructor community, you will gain progress toward your ranks! These ranks help build your credibility and open the door for future opportunities and events within the community.

Here are the current ranks within the community:

• Rookie

• Observer

• Researcher

• Traveler

• Trailblazer

• Storyteller

• Specialist

• Mentor

• Visionary

• Role Model

What is my Rank?

When the system went live, your account was automatically ranked depending on your previous community engagement. Within your community profile, you can see your current rank next to your name or within your profile picture.

You can also see your displayed rank whenever you post on the community with the icon next to your username.

How do I rank up?

As you progress through the different ranks, the steps to achieve the next level will require more engagement through the community. 

Within your community profile, you will be able to see your current rank and your progress for your next rank!

This will give you a clear path on what you need to do within the community to get to the next rank.

Some actions that are required may include:

• Publishing a course on Udemy

• Visiting Pages

• Visiting different boards

• Give Kudos

• Be given kudos

• Start discussions

• Give replies

• Create accepted solutions

Thanks for taking some time to get to know our new ranking system! Want to learn more about the ranks? We have a post here to show more detail.

Sincerely,

Ryan 

[Bella]

Yay! It's so cool to see everyone with ranks now! And look at our visionary model @MichaelPog 😁

[MichaelPog]

Haha. Thanks @RyanJaress and @Bella 🙂

My "vision" is Udemy will disrupt not only online but conventional education and will continue to grow year after year.

What is a "board view", BTW?

[Bella]

Hi @MichaelPog, thanks for your question! 'Board views' refer to viewing our forum boards. Boards are the spaces within the community where you interact as you read and post messages, such as the Announcements board, Introductions, Marketing, Stories and Milestones, etc. 

I hope this helps! 😊

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community

[MichaelPog]

Thank you @Bella .

I actually couldn't find that many boards to view that I can read. I don't know as many languages as you do.

I wonder if there's any online learning platform where I can learn all those languages...hmmm:)

[Bella]

@MichaelPog each time you visit a board, this should account for the requirements to rank up, as we're looking at how many times you're viewing the boards rather than how many boards you're viewing. Sorry for not clarifying that earlier! 

I hope that all makes sense, but let me know if you have any other questions.

Let me know if you find that online learning platform! I'm looking for some Java courses 😁

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[MichaelPog]

@Bella thank you for the clarification. 

It said I needed 10 more Board Views to move from Visionary to Specialist.

After reaching that milestone, instead of being upgraded to a Specialist, I got downgraded to a Mentor, and now I have to reach 149 board views and Publish TKB: 1 (what is that?) to become a Visionary again.

 

[Bella]

Oops, sorry for the confusion, @MichaelPog! You were not downgraded. Our team has recently made a slight change in the order of the ranks. Now, the three top ranks are Mentor > Visionary > Role Model. This is why your next rank has been updated, but just know that your progress hasn't changed.

TKB refers to Tribal Knowledge Base, which is our internal community knowledge base, composed of the most helpful posts from instructors, as well as webinars and AMA recordings. Currently, the TKB is under construction, but our team is already adding posts to the library. To give you an idea of the types of posts we include in the TKB, check out this list - all posts from here are considered TKB articles. This is not retroactive, so we started to count the number of published TKBs after the new ranking system launch. 

I hope this clears things up! 🤓

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[MichaelPog]

LOL @Bella but if I was a Visionary 2 days ago, then I should be a Role Model now. Otherwise, by completing that milestone while the team was making that update, I went backward. Now I need to accomplish the above milestones just to get back to what I was 2 days ago.

Not that it matters to me that much.

But still, kind of hmmm:)

[LawrenceMMiller]

Are you sure this is a good idea? 

I would hope that a new instructor who contributes to the conversation will be respected and listened, not for some label they may or may not have, but for the quality of their ideas. I am coaching two new instructors. One is a professor of management/leadership at Columbia University and the author of seventeen books. The other is a true champion of human rights and highly recognized by Oprah, Newsweek, and given many awards for her work in her field of women's and refugee rights. I am confident that any contribution to this community that they may make tomorrow will be at least as valuable as my own. I fear this may discourage instructors like them. They are far beyond being motivated to earn "points" in this community. 

OK, so I have the label "Community Champion." I am not sure that any more weight should be placed on my contributions than that of the newest instructor. Do we really need to be ranked? It makes me uncomfortable, but I will go along with it.

[MichaelPog]

Maybe ranking is not the right word. That's all.

My guess is the community team wants to reward people who contribute to the community. Not to stack rank us based on who is more right or who's smarter based on the rank.

But I agree that would be pretty funny (and sad at the same time) to see an argument in a couple months where somebody says I'm right because I'm ranked visionary and you're just a mentor. LOL

[ChrystieV]

@LawrenceMMiller Appreciate your feedback here. We certainly strive to ensure that all instructors are respected and listened to in the community regardless of their rank. Those things will not change with our new ranking structure.

We have had ranks in place since the beginning of the Instructor Community. Prior to this latest iteration they were aptly named Level 1, Level 2 & Level 3. 😅

Our team decided to revitalize the ranking structure and align it with the journey that instructors experience when they join the Udemy platform. 

[ChrystieV]

@MichaelPog You are exactly correct. These rankings are based on the contributions that instructors make to this community. We have designed the ranking algorithm to include many factors, but they also include kudos received and accepted responses to ensure that those who are making a positive contribution are being rewarded.

[LawrenceMMiller]

@ChrystieV OK. 

[Bella]

Hi @MichaelPog thanks for your patience. I understand, it is kinda ''🤔'' but I'm happy to explain it! Previously, the top three ranks were Visionary (your rank) > Specialist > Role Model. Now it is Mentor (your rank) > Visionary > Role Model. As you can see, your position hasn't changed, only the order of the ranks.

Therefore, if you were close to becoming a Specialist prior to the update, that progress is recorded, but you may have to complete additional activities to go to the next level. I'm sorry about that! 😞 Please let me know if you have any other questions! It's all very recent, and we appreciate all the feedback you've given us.

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[MichaelPog]

@Bella so if I had done do anything 3 days ago then I would be moved from Visionary to Mentor regardless?

And everyone who was a Visionary 3 days ago is also a Mentor today?

[Bella]

That's correct @MichaelPog, only because there are new requirements to rank up. At the beginning of the implementation, the ranks were set up incorrectly, which is why the update was necessary. From now on, this is the correct order. Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience! 

[MichaelPog]

Got it.

Thank you @Bella 

[MelanieStevens183]

This looks great! It’s nice to feel like you’re becoming more involved and embedded in the community here, and seeing some recognition for your efforts ⭐️ 

[BrunoMattos889]

Great!!

[SHABAn]

Thank you so much for this motivation method and transparency 

[ScottDuffy]

I guess community champions don't have a rank? I don't see one beside my name.

But I did get an email earlier that said I was a rookie. I have an acrylic trophy that Udemy gave me calling me a guru a few years ago, so rookie is quite the downgrade from guru. Knocked all the way down the mountain.

[Dmitry]

I like the idea. 

[Michael_D_Nwaogu]

Hey @RyanJaress , thank you for your help. But "Board view" still not clear, please. I have viewed and viewed everywhere couple of times, but no reflection on the count. Or should a section be labeled "Board" or better still, a conspicuous button to take us to the board list /card for us to be able to relate with the system easily? And I think the board should be a section where instructors should be encouraged to visit more, and a conspicuous button on the home page might help to achieve that. Just suggesting, please.

[BattalKoç]

A great idea!

[AboAondofaE932]

Thank you @RyanJaress I am happy to be promoted and to have this rank. I am looking forward to achieve more success on Udemy. Thank you all for your support.

[Jasonvil]

Looking good everyone 😃

[Bella]

Hi @ScottDuffy, Community Champions are on our top rank in the community since they're part of a special program. They're higher than the Role Model rank, that's why your rank hasn't changed and you might not see any requirements to rank up.

Instructors should have received notifications for all the ranks they've reached, but it looks like there was an issue with the emails sent and some members ended up receiving only the first notification - sorry for the confusion! You are still at the peak of the mountain, don't you worry! ⛰️😅

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[Bella]

Hi @Michael_D_Nwaogu, thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is definitely not expected, could you please let me know what 'boards' you are visiting just so we can try to reproduce the issue on our end? Thank you for your collaboration! 

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[Bella]

Congrats on reaching the Trailblazer rank, @AboAondofaE932! 🤩

[Michael_D_Nwaogu]

So good to hear from you @Bella .

Hope you are doing great as ever.

Happy new year!

Thank you for your time.

Please, I learnt from the thread that

the "board" is different from the "page".

Forgive me if this sounds stupid, please.🙂

Do we click open all the tabs here

on the home page and go through each

post undert them to get the "Board view"?

Lost here, please.😊

More light would be very helpful.

From my own point of view, if the

direction/navigation is made more

dummy,  I mean more visible, it would be better, just saying, please.

I may get my way around it, but new people

coming in, or the ones paying attention for the first

time, may be later, would find it a bit challenging

to go through. May be the section is better

labeled "board" or something, which seems close to thep hysical board we know. More explicit or easy guide would be of more help...

Or better still, if each rank/level tasks could be

added to the post above,

may be a table, It would serve us more like a

road map... Sometimes we may want

to do something, but knowing not what to

do stands in our way.😊

Thank you.

[YasserHawar_71]

Just tiny question, I tried to change my picture, but it was replaced with Udemy Logo and I dont know how to changed back?

[RobertBrown028]

What are "kudos?" If they are the same as "likes," why not call them that? If not the same, definitions would be nice.

[RaquelCoelho]

Thanks for this again. I have 1 question: What specifically is a "board", as "board view" is one way to get points?

[Bella]

Thank you so much for your feedback @Michael_D_Nwaogu! I appreciate your comments and will be sharing this with the team so we can explore ways to make the community platform navigation more user-friendly. To answer your and @RaquelCoelho's question, 'boards' are the different forums we have in the community, for example, the pages Announcements, First-Time Course Creation, Marketing, Stories, and Milestones, etc. 

All you need to do in order to progress in this requirement is to visit these boards, and each time you do, that will count as a 'board view' which will get you closer to achieving the next rank. I hope this helps clear things up!

Let me know if you have any other questions. 😊

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community

[Bella]

Hi @YasserHawar_71, I'm sorry that your profile picture has automatically changed to Udemy's logo, that's certainly not expected, the logo is usually added for members without a profile picture. I'll be investigating this for a solution and will keep you posted. In the meantime, could you please try to manually change your profile picture and see if that works? Thanks!

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community 

[Bella]

Hi @RobertBrown028 that's correct, 'kudos' is the same as 'likes'. I agree that this is not very intuitive at the moment, so I'll be sharing your feedback with our team. Thank you so much!

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community

[Michael_D_Nwaogu]

Hey @Bella thank you, more grease to your elbow.

Thank you.

[Michael_D_Nwaogu]

Hey @RaquelCoelho 😊 I find them easy

to locate and access at last by going

through the dropdown menu at the top

of the home page, as you can see it here

in the diagram bellow:

 

 

[YasserHawar_71]

Thank you @Bella for replying me, I tried to do it manually but it is still not working.

[BenjaminGOLD82]

I am new here and I am already getting excited over the event here. Thanks for this opportunity.