Learning is generally assumed with a focus on classroom teaching. But with the technology revolution, there is a new capacity to change the education system and bring innovation to this social phenomena. Right now, the way of teaching is going to change from physical teaching to a virtual one. Some scholars called This disruptive innovation as Virtual Learning environment or E-learning which can be introduced as “an integrated distance learning platform that includes course materials, homework, tests, assessments, and other tools that are external to the classroom experience” (Agrawal, 2020). Like many other virtual platforms, social media tools and AI are part of these educational services for better interaction between students and instructors.
In general, there are two types of virtual learning systems: synchronous and asynchronous learning (Chou,2002). Asynchronous learning is an instructional design and delivery methodology that allows students to access content or participate in learning outside of the classroom and at their convenience, or independent of the instructor. On the other hand, Synchronous learning is a form of online learning that occurs when learners and instructors are interacting in real-time.
Our focus is on one of well known Asynchronous learning platforms that is a pioneer in Virtual educational systems.
Udemy – Virtual Educational System
Udemy is a California based startup that created a technological platform as an educational system that allows instructors to plan, design and produce educational videos for every subject.
The main mission of Udemy is to “help anybody learn anything online.” So everyone can teach and share what they know to spread knowledge, reputation and make money of their everyone. For these purposes, Udemy focus on different markets: The instructors who make specific courses, students who use these courses and organizations which use Udemy technology for training their employees or selling their courses as branded products.
How many users does Udamy have?
Right now more than 1500,000 courses are available in the Udemy educational platform and more than 57.000 instructors are publishing their videos globally. Every month more than 1000 new courses get public by this educational service provider. More
than 50 million students watching ore than 80,000 lectures daily in 10 different languages around the globe.
50M
Students
150K
Courses
57K
Instructors
33M
Minutes of video
65+
Languages
+5,000
Enterprise Customers
Key Features of Udemy educational system
- Its courses are available anytime everywhere and in every device
Like all virtual learning platforms, Udemy provides innovative services which can be available 24/7 in every device which are connected to the internet. So, it doesn’t have any traditional classes malfunctions.
- Wide range of topics are available
In the current platform, Udemy, as an educational service provider, offers 15 main categories with 15 subcategories in each one. For example, Design Tools as a subcategory of Design has 8 separate courses full of different learning courses.
- No prequalification is necessary and there is no entrance exam
Since it is an online Asynchronous learning platform there is no need for any prequalification and students can take any course which they want.
- Self-Paced
Because of the essence of virtual learning in non-intractive platforms, students can follow the base of the course on their speed. During the lectures, students can stop and replay each part as they need.
- Access to prior students ratings
Before attending any course, students can easily see the reviews and ratings of the course to ensure that it is beneficial for them and the course has the adequate quality students are looking for.
- Instructors are more than lecturers
One of the attractive parts of this new service is that lecturers are usually having actual experiences rather than academic ones. So these courses are beneficial for the one who are looking for real work experiences.
Udemy – Our case study for the design innovation project
As mentioned above, Udemy, as one of the biggest virtual educational platforms, has a good potential to be analysed in service design module. so we decided to work on the different aspect on it during our design innovation project with a focus on service and social innovation.
References:
- https://about.udemy.com/
- Agrawal, G. R. (2020). Udemy-A Virtual Learning Environment. Our Heritage, 68(9), 1141-1147.
- Chou, C. C. (2002, January). A comparative content analysis of student interaction in synchronous and asynchronous learning networks. In Proceedings of the 35th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences (pp. 1795-1803). IEEE.
- https://trainingindustry.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udemy