Gale to Bring Udemy Online Courses to Libraries

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/28/20

Shortly, a partnership between Gale and Udemy will launch, bringing learning video content from Udemy to public libraries. "Gale Presents: Udemy" will provide library patrons with access to 3,500 on-demand video courses in 75 different topics from Udemy's business collection.

According to the two companies, the courses will be "continuously monitored" monthly for quality and relevance, "based on factors such as marketplace demand, user reviews and instructor responsiveness." The announcement came during the recent American Library Association Midwinter 2020 conference.

The arrangement includes an app for iOS and Android enabling users to view the courses on their mobile devices, download them for offline viewing, listen to courses with podcast-style audio and watch them via Chromecast or Apple TV.

A search for courses can be filtered by level, duration, topic and ratings. A "smart recommendations" feature will suggest follow-up courses based on previously-expressed user interest.

Current topics in the collection cover cloud computing, data science, design, development, finance and accounting, human resources, IT operations, leadership and management, marketing, office productivity, personal development projects management and sales.

The courses available through Udemy include on-demand video, articles, downloadable resources, "lifetime access," and a certificate of completion. While many of them are priced on the website upwards of $200, the company frequently runs specials making those same courses available for big discounts. For example, at the time of this writing, "Advanced Machine Learning & Data Analysis Projects Bootcamp," with 20.5 hours of video and other materials, is available for $12.34. However, the lessons made available through Gale will be free to library patrons.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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