We [Udemy] strive to connect students with the right instructors and courses to help them accomplish their learning goals. There are a lot of things we do to make these connections, but one particular area we are investing in is badges. Badges highlight to prospective students when instructors and courses deliver a unique experience. As we identify important signals to call out to students you’ll see us testing new badges. If you feel like you and your course provide a unique experience for students that isn’t recognized by badges today, please submit feedback to our Product team here.
Below is a list of badges, how they appear on-site, and what they highlight to students. We’ve also shared some of the contributing factors that go into earning each badge and advice and resources to help you earn them. Things to note:
- We will regularly update this guide as we introduce new badges or make significant changes to existing badges. Because all of the existing badges are still being tested, badge contributing factors, how they display, and other aspects will likely evolve. This also means that badges might be applied to courses in some languages and not others. Generally, when testing new badges we first apply them to English courses and then later to other languages if we see positive results for students and instructors.
- Today a course is only eligible to receive one of the following badges in this order of prioritization (Best Seller, Highest Rated, Hot and New, New). For example, a course may qualify for both Best Seller and Highest Rated, but it will only display the Best Seller badge. One exception is that courses can receive Top-Responding Instructor and one of the above badges.
Badges
Best Seller - First launched November 2016. Currently rolled out to users in all languages; however, factors for receiving badge may differ by language of course.
The Best Seller badge calls out to students that this particular course is the most purchased amongst a pool of similar courses.
Contributing factors:
- Course with highest recent sales within a particular Topic-Category combination (e.g., Python - Development, Python - Business, Yoga - Personal Development, Yoga - Health & Fitness).
- Course has minimum of 4.2 average rating
- Note: Not all Topic-Category combinations will have a Best Seller, only those with sufficient demand.
Advice for instructors:
- Aim to provide the best possible experience for your students and complement Udemy marketing with your own. Visit the Teach Hub to learn the ins and outs of selling your course using instructor coupons and finding potential students in your personal network.
- Conduct competitive research against other similar courses. Is there an experience they provide students that your course does not? If so, consider how you can improve your course while keeping it unique.
Highest Rated - First launched January 2018. Currently rolled out to users in all languages; however, only English, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese courses are eligible to receive badge at this time.
The Highest Rated badge calls out to students that this particular course has the highest rating amongst a pool of similar courses.
Contributing factors:
- Course with highest average rating within a particular Topic-Category combination (e.g., Python - Development, Python - Business, Yoga - Personal Development, Yoga - Health & Fitness)
- Course has minimum of 4.5 average rating
- Course has minimum of 10 ratings
Note: We do factor in a “rating confidence” metric when determining which course has the highest average rating within a particular Topic-Category combination. In other words, a course with a 4.8 average rating and 1,000 reviews will probably earn the highest rated badge over a course in the same Topic-Category with a 4.9 average rating and only 10 reviews.
Advice for instructors:
- Earning the “Highest Rated” badge is about providing the best possible experience for your students. Questions you should ask yourself:
- Have I clearly defined my target student? Teach Hub: Course Goals
- Have I included practice activities to give students a hands on experience? Teach Hub: Practice Activities
- Does my course have high Audio/Video quality? Teach Hub: Audio/Video Quality
- Did I set clear expectations and deliver on the promises I laid out in my course landing page? Teach Hub: Course Landing Page
Hot & New - First launched January 2018. Currently rolled out to users in all languages and across courses in all languages.
The Hot and New badge calls out to students that this particular course is one of the most purchased amongst a pool of similar new courses.
Contributing factors:
- Course published in last 60 days
- Course in top percentile of Category’s historical new course revenue
- Course has minimum of 4.2 average rating
Advice for instructors:
- This badge is similar to the “Best Seller” badge, but with emphasis on new courses. Learn how to easily find potential students and launch your own first 30 day promotion plan on our Teach Hub.
- Keep in mind, students expect new courses to provide the most up to date information on a particular topic.
New - First launched August 2017. Currently rolled out to users in all languages and across courses in all languages.
The New badge calls out to students that this particular course is new to Udemy and should contain the most up to date information on its topic.
Contributing factors:
- Course published in last 60 days
- Free and Paid courses
- No minimum average rating
Advice for instructors:
- Good news! All courses published within the last 60 days receive the “New” course badge distinction. Keep in mind, students expect new courses to provide the most up to date information on a particular topic.
Top-Responding Instructor - First launched September, 2017. Testing currently paused.
The “Top-Responding Instructor” badge calls out to students that this particular course has an extremely responsive instructor.
Contributing factors:
- Respond to 90% of students questions within 24 hours
- Course needs to have at least 10 questions over last 90 days
Advice for instructors:
- Our research tells us that Udemy students love when their instructor is highly responsive to Q&A. Click here to learn more about Q&A best practices.
Highly Rated by Beginners - First launched April, 2018. Currently being tested on users with English, German, Portuguese, French, and Japanese language preferences. Courses in all languages are eligible to receive designation.
The Highly Rated by Beginners designation is currently in experimentation, and calls out to students that this particular course is highly rated by students, who identify themselves as beginners.
Contributing factors:
- Course with a high average rating (by students who identify themselves as a beginner) within a particular Topic-Category combination (e.g., Python - Development, Python - Business, Yoga - Personal Development, Yoga - Health & Fitness)
- Course has minimum of 4.5 average rating
- Course has minimum of 10 ratings
- Course is not labeled as Intermediate or Advanced level.
Advice for instructors:
- Earning the Highly Rated by Beginners designation is about providing the best possible experience for beginners to the topic you’re teaching. Questions you should ask yourself:
- Have I clearly defined my target student? Teach Hub: Course Goals
- Have I included practice activities to give students a hands on experience? Teach Hub: Practice Activities
- Does my course have high Audio/Video quality? Teach Hub: Audio/Video Quality
- Did I set clear expectations and deliver on the promises I laid out in my course landing page? Teach Hub: Course Landing Page