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I remember my Calculus instructor started one lecture session by asking "What does it take to get a college education? For some people, all they would need is a library card and the time to study what they want to learn. Others require detailed, scheduled step by step instruction. Most of us here are somewhere in the middle."

I've been tempted to buy courses but... Just found Microsoft Learn and The Odin Project which have been great to actually learn without spending a penny 👌🏻

I am an online course creator but I’m also a consumer of online courses and other learning resources. I have been doing this for years. One of the challenges with certain online courses is they sometimes don’t reflect the need for attention retention. Doing a course of your own volition is difficult to follow through with, particularly if it is left solely to self-discipline, which few people have. Consequently, courses need to be designed to hold the attention and interest of the student-information can no longer be presented in a conventional manner. Course videos need to be ‘gamified’, and infused with interactivity to sustain engagement. Online courses also need to have small wins at the end of each module rather than some grand result at the end of 24 hours of videos. Many courses could also stand to be shorter and more narrowly focused on specific needs. Consumers of courses also need to bear some responsibility. I read ebooks and take online courses because I want to learn new skills that will help me get ahead in my business. You either want to succeed with the knowledge that will help you grow or you don’t.

Udemy has outstanding courses especially with tech, programming, data science, but you have to know which instructors are the good ones. Once you figure that out it's really a gift.

So it isn't JUST ME that has a problem with finishing courses! 🙌🏼🐙🙌🏼🐙

That embarrassment you feel when you look at the description of a Udemy course, get that surge of optimism ("this course is really going to do things for me!"), you click on it, and it says "You purchased this course." --A long time ago. 😢

Don't forget edX offers free "audits" for some courses. You get the same structured class without the testing or certificate. The biggest negative factor is that some of the courses also restrict access to the homework assignments. This can be a great option if you just want a good introduction as part of self-guided study. Or if you want to focus on a subset of the syllabus content.

I always thought it would be cool to make a course that let you earn back some of the cost you paid for it by completing sections. Wonder why no one has tried that, is capitalism to blame?

I just learn myself that I don't need to be expert in everything, be everywhere, experience all. Unreal expectations, and outside pressure for strangly define success is what killing you. Just be honest, you can't be president, astronaut, engineer, lawyer, physician, profesor, and who knows what else at the same time. This is why I am at peace with myself.

A year ago I tried some Hydrology courses from a government agency from country (greetings from Brazil btw) and they were really cool: no boring video lessons to watch, you would donwload a bunch of pdfs to read and had two months to study them and and then do a test. I have to say that this method just worked for me waaaaaay better than the traditional video classes we expect from online courses, because the latter are just so boring, take too long to get to anywhere interesting and by the time they do I am already distracted by something else. By doing the "read this, do a test later" thing I can take the course's content on my own pace, I have much more control on how fast or slow I can take the content each day. Sure, I don't need to watch entire videos all the time, I can watch half a lesson one day and the other half latter, and sure I can skip parts or increase the speed, but the pacing itself is still dictated by whoever is presenting the lesson, so I feel like I leave very little agency.

I agree these platforms sometimes discourage people to learn consistently, but the core reason is from us. As long as we truly want to learn something that we really need and like, we'll make way to complete the courses. Anyway, great review Tina. Thanks for sharing!

If your not completing courses, it just means a) you're not that interested in the topic to begin with or b) you are so used to distractions in life that the act of giving something your full concentration is something you need to work on. We live in such an amazing time where literally anything a person wants to learn can be learned. Sites like Udemy are a total godsend.

Paralysis by analysis is a big enemy of self-paced learning and these platforms with tons of courses do not help. Great video Tina! Also, Yuru Camp *_____* !!!

I think there is truth to what you're saying, but another truth to the low completion rate might be that people are figuring out how to not waste their time and look for only specific things. A lot of the courses usually have more than you need or something you might need in the future you could use as a reference to look back at, but might not need them here and now. Learning something you don't need now is a lot harder and less efficient, so people leave these sections for later use.

I needed this video. I've felt stuck for a while bouncing between different courses on python trying to get to a higher level than beginner. Its been a struggle. I wish i had a personal mentor that would get me to my first python related job. My interest is in Data analysis or data analytics. Going to try and stick it out with the courses i have purchased and put time into. But I realize after this that I need to hone in on those key educational parts. Luckily I have already improved my decision making on which platforms to invest into by inspecting how their platform operates, cost, assessment, interaction, practice, etc. Thank you for this.

Instead of purchasing courses, firstly I make myself to know which topic should I learn, check the roadmap then learn from different sources for a topic to go deeper. It could be YT videos, articles, or documentation. It really does help me a lot.

Over the past year I've enrolled around 10 Udemy courses on my journey to transitioning to IT/Data. And I've listed the things that helped me finish a course by establishing a learning routine. 1. Watch the intro videos and make sure the pace is to your liking (also check if you can follow the speaker without too much trouble). 2. Check whether the course is split into proper sections with bite sized videos (max 15-30 minutes). This honestly helps in setting up a learning routine. 3. Hands-on projects. And I'm not talking about the MCQ quizzes. Proper hands-on homework/assignments relevant to the section and milestone projects throughout the course. 4. And the most important thing is, to select courses that genuinely interests you. Not because it's cheap, not because it's the trend and not because it has 100k enrolls. But even with that, there are still times when you are interested in one part of the course and not the other, thus not completing a course entirely. So don't beat yourself up ✌️.

These are some great insights. I’ve yet to pay for an online class like this, though I did try a trial to SkillShare I didn’t keep it. Idk, between wonderful creators like you uploading free content to KZfaq, Facebook Groups, and the rest of the internet, I’ve never felt like I would get much greater value from a paid for course than I was already finding. I get that most of those platforms in some way compensate their creators, but for a lot of them it is just one more revenue stream to a platform they were already creating on.

Often only 10-30% of a course are really what I need right now to progress in my skills. Also if you do similar courses you find they will often contain some chapters that are almost identical. Just study what you need, then continue creating or helping others.

Coursera has very high quality lectures but I wouldn't overemphasize the significance of following their framework beyond watching the videos, which you can do for free by auditing a course. I think the value should be primarily about access to information and how you apply it, not obtaining proof of work.

I don't think you will find anything better then Harvard's CS50. It is amazingly engaging, has a grading system, great community, and it's FREE. It is the first course I am really determined to complete, and I am already 2/3 in.

Indeed Udacity is among the best and you also get a Nanodegree at the end. But I also had a really good experience with PluralSight. Some courses, especially on JavaScript, are mind-blowing! I've learned so much more from them!

I don't buy courses. I have a condition called, "The Cheapness"

I've persevered through multiple 14h KZfaq video to learn python 1 year ago. Coursera was actually a breath. I haven't had the chance to explore other learning platforms though. The ones you mentioned seems interesting.

I just stumbled across your channel and I'm impressed: you're such a genuinely bright and brilliant person. I've spent several years studying these topics on a broader scale but it was interesting to see an applied case in an industry that is believed to be the emblem of human betterment... seemed a bit too good to be true. Anyway, you got my sub when I saw you promoting Brian Christian's Algorithms to Live by. You seem the kind of person that makes this world a little bit better, good luck!

Tina. As someone who is a lifelong learner, I find this video encouraging. I have subscribed to all of these services at some point and experienced the same problem with not finishing them. Sometimes too many options can cause paralysis. Too many things fighting for our attention. I'm actually putting together a buyers guide on these as we speak. Anyway, great video as usual. Subscribed to your newsletter as well. Looking forward digging into it.

I usually quit online courses because I find them boring or uninspired. Recently I’ve completed multiple learning German courses because it was set up where each video was 3 min long. Furthermore, there was no homework as all the exercises were incorporated into the videos and everything learned would frequently be reinforced. So I didn’t have the pressure to spend a long time studying nor the pressure to do external study after I’ve already studied. I ended up watching 25 to 40 videos a day even though I could’ve done 1.

I do love the style of you explaining all that educational stuff🥰 Please go on💙

Oh, your ct shows up at the beginning of the video! 😻😻😻 Excellent argument, by the way. Love your content!

I think there's also a fallacy that courses will get enrollees skills for jobs and promotions. I completed the Google Analytics Cert and it did zilch for me.

I bought a $1000 online complete game design course and never watched. This haunts me every day.

I knew myself too well so I never buy online courses 😂

I use coursera. I've been through several courses over the past 2 or 3 months and have several more lined up over the next couple months. I recommend going in with a goal and plan even before buying anything. Many courses you can audit before you buy anything so you can get a feel for the instructor(s) and course flow as well if that would make you drop a course, but for me I went based on my goals and what would look better on a resume. I want to be a software tester. Not like a programmer that just makes sure the code works as intended, but someone who specializes in testing software to break it or exploit its weaknesses in ways that aren't normally thought of when its being designed so those edge case program breaking bugs and exploits never come to the end user. I need programming and software testing experience and/or training to just start in this career. This meant I needed courses that would target either of these. Only keep reading if you have some time to waste since I delve more into my personal experience. :) ----------- I went with googles python automation track first. Then I went after Penn Engineering's (University of Pennsylvania) python and java intro certificate track. This may seem redundant, but google's course is better laid out for online learning making the experience smoother for learning something I was nervous about jumping into. The Penn certificate track started with python which allowed me to reinforce fundamentals of python and programming concepts, then step into java to expand my programming knowledge. Since I'm comfortable with concepts from the previous courses, I only had to worry about learning java itself while reinforcing and building my knowledge of programming concepts and mindset for resolving issues. Now that I'm comfortably in the door for programming, I'm starting the software testing course track from University of Minnesota that requires some foundation in object oriented programming. After I'm done with that course track, I have two programming projects lined up for reinforcing my programming foundation and I'll practice software testing methods on my own program's development. Then I'll start looking for work. These courses will give me the foundation for switching careers. The certificates from well known institutions will improve my resume with current education, and I'll have real experience with all skill sets by working on a project on my own and hopefully a collaboration work - something where I can program less and focus more on the software testing aspects. This all leads back to the beginning where I recommended goals and a plan. Mine is more of a serious one since this is for a career change, but the same can be done for any hobby. You have to remember that you aren't in a structured school program with most of these - Though coursera does a good job with the quality for course structure. I really mean the need to pass a class to progress to the next school year isn't a nipping reminder to take things seriously. So You'll have to create your own reasons to progress and I do this with a plan for learning, and setting to-the-point goals yourself that have their own set of focused reasons. Even if you want to pickup a new hobby, try to narrow down why you want to pickup that hobby and what it will let you accomplish. It'll help push you to finish the course(s) you've started. Even though switching careers is the goal - that's just a means to an end for me. There are more personal things I want to accomplish and experience, and those require me to career switch. Those personal objectives are the real things that remind me to log out of a game or turn off netflix and jump back into it. So really give some thought about why you're doing what you're doing. If you can't find an important hook, then it'll be harder to stick to it since you'll have nothing concrete to remind yourself if you start procrastinating for too long. --this only applies to someone like me who's new found enthusiasm for something can only carry them so far--

I have around 60 Udemy courses. I think I only finished 5-10. But I reached 40-60% completion in many others. I don't see the point in reaching 100% completion. For me, in many cases I learn only the parts I need. Right now, for work, I watch 4-5 Udemy courses and use what I learn. I am not too fond of Udacity.

It's true for everything. Video games completion rates are very low as well. There is just so much affordable content these days, it's easy to buy a lot, and the more you own, the harder it will be to focus on any one of them. You need to be focused and intentional in your choices.

wow, fantastic analysis of the market for online courses - it explains so much!

Instructors have the same issue. A 7-week course will often be awesome for the first 3 weeks, with clear in-depth explanation of the material and interesting practical part, but the quality will decline as the instructor is running out of time and energy to finish the course. This of course leads to students quitting the course half-way through.

Yes! I don't even open most of the emails I get from Udemy anymore. Constantly having "sales" lowers my perception of the quality of their classes. That said, I really should go back & take a look at the classes I bought from them & never completed or even started!

This is such an original content and THE reason I'm subscribed!

I think one of the best analyses I've seen of the "content quality" problem that you identify, is the Semafor interview with Medium's CEO. He points the finger at the "content creator" economy and its objective to monetise audiences, which is the business model of the whole internet. There are a few great content creators, and then there are the majority of content marketers creating content... who have been taught to fake it til they make it... and so many audiences buy courses from marketers not subject matter experts - or just as bad, from experts who know nothing about instructional design.

Love your videos, you extract the critical stuff really well, and give a great explanation.

always productive lady, I love your work.

I'm really enjoying the Codecademy data analyst path!

This video is so important and so useful! Thanks a lot for sharing your perpective about this topic, Tina

I think also (in the US) higher education is sooo expensive these companies might be taking advantage of people who want to build skills to get a decent pay by taking these courses

Great video Tina. This is an issue for me too. I’ll commit to one course and finish it and make that a point. I have to say I go hard in the gym though 🤣 but I understand the concept.

So true about the quality of courses. I treat them like shows to watch at night time instead of TV shows just to make sure I'm getting the most out of my subs 😅

i like this girl, her content is rly good

Awesome. I liked so much this vídeo. Congrats Tina.

I remember trying to do some online courses on Udemy and tried to reach a teacher each time with no result. Sometimes I'll have a question and see that other people asked the same thing but there would be no responses from years back. I don't mind online classes, but I would at least like someone to reach out to, and I feel like I had better luck with online college or Microsoft learn, or anything that has more of a hands-on approach since that's the best way I can learn and get feedback.

My story is that I bought several online courses on Udemy, but only did only one. Luckily for me, after doing this one course I was able to get a job thanks the the knowledge I got from it

my best advice when learning is to find repeatable examples, and a lot of them. the more examples you can recall, the more " knowledgeable" you are in something. From my schooling so far, I've found the teachers like to point at stuff, but show little in the way of examples. The nuances are missing too. This makes or breaks the learning experience. Another hurdle is too big of gap between subject materials. Or loads of extraneous stuff that muddies the topic. Like when writing a paper, one can dance around the subject and never actually talk about anything near and dear, or they can dance and focus the point. Good luck.

This was helpful, and bonus points for that quick shot from Yuru Camp 😎

CONGRATULATIONS on uploading your 100th video Tina!!

You have to use discernment when picking a UDEMY course. I've learned so much from them.

Great information. Thanks for doing all that legwork. Very interesting and useful.👍👍

In my opinion, we tend to watch several courses of the same subject, because one course teaches some tecniques while the other teaches different techniques, or adds more materials to learn from. As developers, if there are 20 ways for creating a password generator, we wanna know those 20 ways.

Another thing I find with online courses is they’re typically high level. They don’t dive into deeper topics and it’s more like you paid to read an owners manual.

I bought 10 courses from udemy around 2016 and never looked at them again.... But thank God the courses are still relevant today... So i guess now I have to finish them... Thanks for making this video... And lowkey I am happy that people don't finish the courses they buy, that means the real life competition is always lower than what it seems..

i new here. and i quit my many courses XD btw i loved your messed up hairs and the way you says BUT!! lol.

I think Tina makes many valid points. The point is the market is totally over saturated now its genuinely hard to know where to turn to for quality learning. I will stick with Coursera, KZfaq and free platforms for the time being.

Best way to learn is... learn the fundamental, have fun with failure, and jump straight into mini project. Fist bump 🤜🏻🤛🏻

I'm into lesson 112 of 508 of an Udemy programming course, and it's getting very confusing and honestly, dull. The author needs to just get to the point instead of ad-libbing and taking forever to explain simple code! But I hate my current job so I'm not giving up!

I must be in the minority here. I always complete the courses I buy. I make a goal that I want to do X, and then find a course to do that, and I don't switch to anything else until that is done. If you struggle with deciding what you "should" do then, yeah I can see why you would flip flop from course to course. Although, I have technically "enrolled" in courses before just to see the content, decided that course wasn't worth my time, and then immediately unenrolled and found a better alternative.

I always liked going to school in an actual building. I think it helped me complete my graduate degree.

You made a lot of good points Tina, one thing to add, I use Coursea through my work and at home Skillshare. Coursea is better because there are usually projects that required you apply what you "learned", this help my VBA useage. While Skillshare, it takes a while to find a good instructor and you have to develop your own projects, which can be time consuming.

Thanks for showing the big picture of incentives behind making courses so quittable

I have to agree with Udacity being the best, I have also taken like 30 courses (or more...) and Udacity is where I finally learned web development. Udacity teaches you much more like a university but focused on a skill which is amazing! Udacity also really focuses on how they teach you, who teaches you, and the process really well. It's definitely the best and good on you for making this video because I was thinking of doing something similar to this!

Very informative! Your content really helped me find myself as a new Tech KZfaqr that switched careers to the tech industry recently. So thank you for that!

This was so interesting thank you so much for making this video 🥰🥰

Coursera was probably one of the first online learning platforms I used.

Especially with programming courses, the main problem is that the instructor tries to make it as long as possible and with as many "Classes", so their product became more attractive for an outsider. Would you rater buy a 100 hours 300 classes course or 20h 10 classes for the same price? Udemy enforces the first one. Other problem is that I usually buy courses to learn how to use a new tool and 50% of the course is about teaching the programming language used for that tool and I already know that, so I just skip to the part that I need never finishing it.

Is that a Thom Browne shirt? Loved the video, thank you for the deep dive.

Sometime I even feel it is much more easier to complete watching ‘one piece’ from episode 1 to the current episodes as compared to all those online courses !!!

Thank God...I'm not alone

Most coding or IT related stuff can be learned very well on KZfaq for free.

Thank you for this video. I've never thought of this angle before. There is one constructive feedback, tho: Even if you have a text that said you don't diss any particular course, you should have blurred the names/face of the instructors because whether intentional or not, you might be hurting their reputation, livelihood and feelings. Unless you've personally studied their courses and find them bad, it's not nice or fair that some budding instructors find themselves arbitrarily shown as examples of low quality just because you need that visual engagement.

Brilliant and well researched breakdown

Yes, it happens to buy courses and not finish them. But the important thing is to take them back and finish them

I needed to hear this!

Thank you for sharing this!! Very helpful!

For college kids I recommend they look up Codepath. Codepath doesn’t charge any money to students. It is taught live with instructors (I was one of them). The courses is structured around projects. The first three are hand holding with step by step. The second half the course is group project where the students create their own app. There is always support from instructors and TA’s. They also provide support for resume review and interview prep. No cost to students. No obligation though if you can become a volunteer it’s good to give back. Course taught are the practical kind. Android and iOS development. Intro cybersecurity and data structures. It hard to get in and they do take attendance but again really awesome resources for college students. Look them up and feel free to ask me questions

I use Free Code Camp (NOT shilling for them; I have no stake). Since it is free and relies on donated courses, the quality is all over the place - BUT - so is the style of presentation, which means there are nuggets of gold amidst the crud, if you are patient and look. I have found a couple of presenters who contribute some really useful content. They work for me best when I actually do the examples (typing them in myself), and also making notes: Pause. Think. Write in my own words. Rewind a bit. Check my work. Continue. This works for me pretty well, and has helped me learn skills for my job. Again, not shilling - there are a lot of crap courses, there, too. But you don't have to pay!

Thanks Tina... learnt a lot from this video.

I agree for the most part, but there's an assumption that the Paradox of Choice is universal (or maybe just the majority). I do consumer research for a living and there are generally two types of people: those that want to find the "best" option and those that choose the first choice that meets their criteria. Not sure how many people fall into each bucket, but each group is sizable, with the latter group probably not having the "buy multiple options" problem that the former does.

While watching the video i went to udemy, saw some nice new courses, bought 3 and probably will never use them. Thanks.

I have done a lots of Coursera courses, and happened to finish all but 2. Basically I spent some the time selecting exactly which ones were really relevant and interesting for me, and did only one at a time. For the udemy ones, somehow it was not as good. I discovered recently Pluralsight and the courses I did on them were really good, brought me really forward. I think for the money, good courses for 50 a month or less are great value. That’s something you really should consider as a life investment. It makes you better, and nobody can steal it from you

Did I just watch a 14 minute ad for Brilliant?

That mechanical keyboard is just amazing! From the very first second of the video it just got my attention. lmao.

My problem is I have a fixation on frugality. Through my school and github student, I have access to a lot of free resources that I would normally have to pay for, like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, DataCamp, etc., so I focus on them when in reality there are some really good resources on KZfaq or a free website.

I don't complete courses because most of the time it's a introduction to something, then it helps me out getting my feet wet, then show me the initial ropes and once i'm confident enough to walk alone i dont need the course. That's why a have like 8~ courses at Udemy at 40-60% completion, and all of them were VERY useful, some of then i would pay even more just to complete 40% again. Also, that something i have major problems with traditional education, i did 3.5~ years of computers engineering, always had very good grades in the courses that matter and shit on useless ones (so my GPA was in the middle of the road) and i learned a lot and helped me out a lot in learning other things alone... now it's actually useless if i want to put it in a curriculum or anything, even though today i do things that are way more complex than anything the course would teach me. So, doing 70% of a traditional university course helped me out on my career but i can't say I'm a "Computer Engineer" even thought i could teach half of the curriculum better than my professors back in the day.

I have 328 courses on Udemy But I didn't keep up even with one always jump around I think enrolling to courses gives this false sense of progress I admit I am addicted to gathering courses Am now in third year into CS

- Scarcity principle : “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost” - G.K. Chesterton

Thank God you made this video.

I have collected quite a lot of courses on udemy over a while. Since a month, I'm on a path to learn and complete at least one course each week or at a phase I can take it. Small steps. Oh also, Practise (For the coding and office courses)

Such an interesting topic! wow

I think it depends on the learning style. I consider myself a pretty systematic learner. Initially, I do a "broad survey" of different topics. This leads me to audit a lot of courses. Then I finally do a "deep dive" on what I want to put my efforts into. I usually do this, for courses that are exceptionally well taught, and on a topic matter I want to master (or be reasonably competent in). In this case Andrew Ng's introduction to machine learning, and then deep learning, on Cousera, was a real pleasure to get into. Completed these, and got my certificates. The Udemy courses were all audits, surveys of topics I am semi-interested in (e.g. cybersecurity, AWS certification, reinforcement learning, ...). But it's people like me, who will screw up the stats, for completion rate, in Udemy.

I’ve purchased so many Udemy courses, I have finished several but I decided to sign up for the $30 plan. I would have saved money if I had subscribed previously.

Thanks for the vid !