Question
We are starting the week with a community poll about student groups & communities.
Do you run a group or community for your students outside of Udemy?
If so, we’d love to know more about your group in the comments below!
Answers
My company (Dion Training) runs two student support groups. Our primary one is on Facebook and our secondary is on Discord.
Our students love the support groups, especially if you make them useful. We have ours filled with daily posts from us (practice questions, quotes, tips and tricks), and also have built a 25k plus member group, so there is always someone posting about something!
Plus, since it is on Facebook, it is a great way to engage with students outside of the Udemy platform and course, and it drives students back to Udemy for new courses all the time, too!
Thanks!
Jason Dion
Dion Training Solutions
Yes- I run 2 groups associated with 2 different courses- a Tarot one and a angels and guides one- I love being able to have that connection with my students outside of the Q and a Board and its a great way for them to practice what they learn in the course with each other in a safe and supportive environment.
I also love doing monthly facebook lives for them where I answer 5 questions that were asked on the Q and A board that month- its a great way to bring them together and give them the opportunity to ask me anything they like about the course live.
I too run a Facebook group student community for several of my Udemy courses and my own online school, as well as anybody on Facebook who is interested in joining, currently with 3k members.
Like Jason said, Facebook is a great way engage with prospective students outside of Udemy, as well as to build your brand.
Discord is certainly very interesting.
I have about 4K members in the Facebook group... The most interesting conversations are when students present their actual work related issues and discuss or ask how these should be resolved using Lean Six Sigma and Project Management tools (my niche). I proactively share my inputs. The engagement is awesome.
The most engaging conversations are on the following topics:
- Actual work-related issues that they want to resolve using process improvement tools
- Seeking answers to tough questions asked by their interviewers
- Asking course related Qs and seeking answers from old group members/me
- Asking statistical software related Qs (which is taught in the course work)
I make a point to introduce new members to the group each Monday. I regularly:
- Add polls that refresh their knowledge on various topics (I have seen polls have the highest engagement).
- Add FREE content that I share on my YouTube Channel
- Share articles that I find on Quora/Medium or other sites for my niche
High level of engagement builds trust with group members and a sense of association. Students also get back with their needs and requirements of courses on new topics. It is definitely worth the 10 minutes I spend daily in the group.
I am also highly active on LinkedIn, but don't have another group on that platform. Some students prefer to use LinkedIn as against Facebook. So, I use the platform to let students connect with me and ask questions.
Our Discord is new and still small, not even to 2k yet. But people see pretty engaged so far!
Yes, I run a Facebook group for my students. I have 8 moderators who have taken the majority of my courses to help run the group.
It is not exclusive to my students - answer the questions and you can enter - this is a great tool to sell to 'outsiders' who may have an interest in Shamanism but who do not know about Udemy.
I run Facebook live sessions on an irregular basis - they are all well attended. Students feel very grateful to have an 'extra bit of me'
I run an academy at academy.numericalinsights.com with courses, a community and downloadable templates.
Hi @Bella, I have two groups a free udemy Facebook group which is for Udemy students only and that community is now over 6,000 and I have my own personal community. Facebook really helps to launch courses. I do two lives a week in my own community and again that helps drive Udemy sales, whilst providing an environment conducive to my teachings and learning.
I don't have any group, but I am considering to create one.
My questions:
- Is it really beneficial to put in that time?
- Would one group be enough for all of my courses, or would you need a group for each course?
Facebook & Discord as many instructors doing here. I generally use them as complimentary support groups. I actually do Q&A inside of Udemy in order to keep things strict. However sometimes they want to help each other and get instantaneous answers to their questions by visiting Discord and Facebook, that is helpful.
Also what i observed that it is not easy to let students know about job opportunities or internship opportunities. Since i have a huge student base many people ask me for that and i try to relay this message to the students. I do not receive any kind of money or compensation for this but it helps companies and it helps students. It also helps me because students feel more committed since i provide some additional value to them rather than only the content of the course. So i generally try to let them know about job opportunities etc via my Discord or Facebook groups.
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