New Course in the Works - Library Science & the Art of Librarianship

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New Course in the Works - Library Science & the Art of Librarianship

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Hello everyone!

 

I am taking my first steps in creating my first course on Udemy.

The title is "Library Science & the Art of Librarianship"

 

I hope your mouth is now watering 😉

 

I am very interested in what your thoughts and opinions are given a few of my own.

 

First --- there is no course offering on the subject of "the library" either on Udemy nor anywhere online (Coursera, edX, even YouTube all come up empty). What comes up via search is far from serious so I claim "none."

 

Second --- I see a course on the library offering as much of a universal appeal as any course possibly could. Everyone on Udemy is a potential student. For that matter so is everyone on any site offering online learning anywhere. And beyond that is the universe of people who are not currently in the market for online learning. --- The library is a subject that is important and of value to everyone - possibly more than any other.

 

Finally --- I can only claim this last point and for the purpose of this discussion hope you play along. I am presenting material that is not available anywhere else. My course represents a true advancement in the field. I plan on stating clearly that I will offer "librarian hacks, tips and tricks" not found anywhere else --- capable of saving students and lifelong learners hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.

 

My course will teach the most advanced methods of librarians and library science. I am not in any way simply rehashing material from 50 year old books.

 

Your experience creating a course (or many) makes your thoughts and input into what I hope to do on Udemy very important to me. Anything and everything from marketing, production, pricing and teaching methods are areas I can always learn from others.

 

I have and will continue to use resources already available on Udemy to build my course, but given the uniquenesses I mentioned above I wanted to ask you - the community of published instructors for your insights in this forum.

 

Thanks for your help,
Mike Brlecic

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Hey @MikeBrlecic, sorry for any confusion here.


The way Udemy organizes courses by category, subcategory and topic is designed to help students navigate the site, find similar courses, and get smart recommendations based on their past activity. As a few folks have noted, the advantage of teaching a topic no one else is teaching is that there isn't much competition for you on Udemy. The downside is that it's hard for Udemy to create these recommendations if your course is very dissimilar to anything else on the platform. Often, instructors who create a "first-in-kind" course will need to do some self-promotion to help Udemy's systems build up some data on the course and see if students who take and enjoy it might share similarities with other audiences.


On your particular topic: it's possible to get a new topic added, but Udemy will only add a topic if there are enough courses in that area to make it make sense as a grouping. (You can think of it as a library shelf: you wouldn't have a shelf with just one book, as this would benefit neither potential readers nor the book). If the Primary Topics feature doesn't automatically populate the topic you wish to select, you can still submit the topic for approval, by clicking on "propose a new topic" and entering it there. Your topic selections will be sent to the Quality Review Team for approval after you hit Save.


We hope this helps.

 

Abbie Reyes
Udemy Community Team

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Hi @MikeBrlecic! This sounds like such a great idea for a course! I hope that you will be able to properly set it up. Can't wait to see it published on the Udemy platform! 🙂

 

Regards, 

Ericka Núñez
Udemy Community Team

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Thank you Ericka!

 

I am trying to "get my feel" for Udemy and I'm learning that my best strategy may be to "go with the flow" and not worry about sqeezing every dollar out of my instruction but instead look to move people over to a service I provide them later on.

 

I want to share my instruction - maintain a value - but make it available and inviting to learn the ideas given how universal the library is to everyone.

 

My original post is me trying to understand myself the best way to proceed given the strengths (and weaknesses) of the Udemy platform - and given the goals and intentions of Udemy as well. I don't think it would be wise for me to "work against the grain" of Udemy. 

 

Your encouraging reply is very appreciated 🙂

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I'm bumping this post to alert any other potential instructors of what they may run into.

 

I posted (clearly in my opinion) the topic of Library Science - Librarianship - How to Use the Library - as a "new" or unavailable choice on Udemy. 

 

I never got a true response to inform me that I must choose one of the existing categories on Udemy - and that they would not open a new category for such an obvious missing subject in their curriculum (yes - believe it or not - they don't offer everything).

 

Honestly, much of my enthusiasm for producing the course in the first place was that I felt I had an interest not represented in any course. In fact the course (first in a series I plan on "How to Use the Library" --- directly asks "Where Are the Librarians?" to make the point that there isn't any curriculum on using the library (not on Udemy or anywhere else to be honest). 

 

Name ANY subject heading on Udemy and the LIBRARY is above it. All Udemy subject are a sub-set of the library. The library is its own category. 

 

Even still.....something could have been said. It is why I often don't waste much time on these types of forums as they don't even seem to do what they suggest they will - help.

 

Frustrated.

 

Maybe my post can help someone else.

 

 

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Hey @MikeBrlecic, sorry for any confusion here.


The way Udemy organizes courses by category, subcategory and topic is designed to help students navigate the site, find similar courses, and get smart recommendations based on their past activity. As a few folks have noted, the advantage of teaching a topic no one else is teaching is that there isn't much competition for you on Udemy. The downside is that it's hard for Udemy to create these recommendations if your course is very dissimilar to anything else on the platform. Often, instructors who create a "first-in-kind" course will need to do some self-promotion to help Udemy's systems build up some data on the course and see if students who take and enjoy it might share similarities with other audiences.


On your particular topic: it's possible to get a new topic added, but Udemy will only add a topic if there are enough courses in that area to make it make sense as a grouping. (You can think of it as a library shelf: you wouldn't have a shelf with just one book, as this would benefit neither potential readers nor the book). If the Primary Topics feature doesn't automatically populate the topic you wish to select, you can still submit the topic for approval, by clicking on "propose a new topic" and entering it there. Your topic selections will be sent to the Quality Review Team for approval after you hit Save.


We hope this helps.

 

Abbie Reyes
Udemy Community Team

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Thank you for your reply Abbie.

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