Hi @Mona364, it sounds like what you've been noticing are tests that we're running on our search and discovery algorithms. We're always looking for ways to optimize our search experience so that learners can find the courses that they will love and keep coming back to Udemy for more.
One of the things that we have been testing is the impact that the free course filter has on our search algorithms and student enrollments. We're not getting rid of free courses and believe that free courses are an extremely valuable tool to help students get acquainted with a new topic, instructor, and learning online in general.
As with all of our experiments, these are not permanent changes and only a portion of our users see the test experience. We will be reversing the search filter back to allow filtering by “Free” at the end of the experiment.
While we're running an experiment on the free course filter, I do want to reiterate that there are a lot of factors that influence a students decision to enroll in a course, free or paid, on Udemy including course topic fit, video quality, topic demand, existing supply, etc. We are an open marketplace and can't guarantee that any course will be more or less successful than another. I've also shared your feedback with the team.
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