Trust & Safety - General

Every day, thousands of minutes of content are consumed on Udemy. This is made possible by instructors who are passionate about teaching and students who are dedicated to learning. Udemy is founded on core values centered around this exchange of knowledge. We are committed to empowering highly knowledgeable everyday, real-world experts to provide an amazing learning experience for a global community of students.

It is up to all of us here at Udemy to live these values: instructors, students, and the Udemy team. When we live these values, we continue to create a thriving, sustainable marketplace where anyone can truly learn anything online — and have a great time doing it.

Who forms our community?

Students: Our students come to Udemy to have an engaging learning experience where they have access to a huge variety of topics from real-world experts, who practice these skills.

Instructors: Our instructors are an inspiring bunch who love to teach. They come to Udemy because of the opportunity to impact millions of students across the world, and for access to the tools, platform, and coaching that enables them to create high-quality courses.

What are the ground rules?

1. Don’t spam

Students come to Udemy to have a safe and engaging learning experience and instructors teach for the love of sharing knowledge. Instructors: Once you’re on the Udemy platform, don’t try to sell other products or spam each other with requests and offers.

2. Don’t game the system

• For instructors: Don’t direct Udemy students away from the Udemy platform, push the envelope on what is and is not allowed, or search for loopholes in policies. We want our community of students to grow, as does every other instructor. When you game the system, the whole community loses out on having a common pool of engaged students who want to learn.
• For students: Don’t harass instructors, ask for free coupons, or offer reviews in exchange for things. The community relies on a healthy interaction between students and instructors, as well as honest student feedback to understand which courses are right for them.

3. Keep it professional

Our instructors actively collaborate and communicate with each other, and students and instructors have healthy and vibrant discussions through the course-taking experience. We ask that everyone maintains professional, honest, and considerate communications with students, instructors, and Udemy staff. We’re committed to providing a platform free of any harassment. 

Be a positive member of the Udemy community. Never ask for personal information, make unwanted or unsolicited contact off-platform, or post unoriginal content as your own.

4. If you see something, say something

If anything you see or experience ever seems like a violation, or you are unsure about a policy, you can report it directly or reach out to us by email at policy@udemy.com. Someone on our team will review every report, and determine whether there has been a violation of our policies.

• Learn how to report a potential violation

We’re here to help you understand our policies and be successful on Udemy.

Why are there rules in the first place?

Udemy is committed to ensuring that students have a safe and engaging learning environment, and instructors are set up for success. Our rules exist to ensure we protect student’s learning experience and enable positive, healthy interactions between instructors and students.

How will I be notified of a strike?

You'll receive an email from policy@udemy.com about the strike, the reason why you received it, and the consequences. We'll be thoughtful and fair about how we determine if there's a policy violation as well as how we apply consequences. We encourage you to provide context and ask questions. We’re here to help, you'll have the opportunity to speak with someone on our team.

You'll also see that your feature has been disabled when you attempt to use it, and see a notification that says your access to the feature has been temporarily suspended on some or all of your courses due to a policy violation.

What happens if my co-instructor has a strike?

If your co-instructor has a strike, then all the courses that your co-instructor teaches will be affected. Only the courses you share with the co-instructor will be affected.

What if my co-instructor has a strike and I remove him/her as an instructor from my course?

If you remove your co-instructor who has a strike, and you don’t have a strike, then your course will revert back to having all your features enabled.

How long are the strikes valid?

We'll re-evaluate the strikes on your account on a six-month rolling basis.

How are you monitoring and catching bad behavior?

We hear from our students and instructors who write to policy@udemy.com or flag abuse on the site in various places. We also proactively monitor on-site behavior and reach out to students and instructors when we identify policy violations.

Does every instructor get Strike 0 to 4 or does it depend on the nature of the violation?

In most cases, instructors will see a linear escalation where they'll get a warning, and then three strikes. If there are more than three strikes we'll ban access to Udemy and un-list the courses from the marketplace. However, we reserve the right to escalate the consequences if the violations are severe.

When you sign up to become an instructor on the Udemy platform, you agree to abide by the Terms of Use, the Instructor Terms, and Udemy’s Trust & Safety Policies. 

In addition to the abiding by the restrictions in these agreements, you agree that you will not:

• violate the Community Terms or Community Guidelines in the online forum for Udemy instructors, if applicable
• violate the Udemy API Agreement, if applicable
• violate the Affiliate Terms & Conditions, if applicable 
• violate the Udemy Business Master Services Agreement, if applicable.
• violate the Student Content & Behavior Rules
• post any content in violation of the Restricted Topics 
• bid on paid advertising or media which includes Udemy-branded keywords.
• act in a manner contrary to applicable local law
• violate Udemy’s Country-Specific Policies.
• access the services from restricted geographic areas, such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.
• use Udemy instructor tools or engage with Udemy students (including through the offering of courses) in connection with a platform that competes substantially with Udemy’s consumer or enterprise offerings
• use the Udemy services in order to build a competing product 

Violations of Udemy policies or agreements may result in restrictions against your account, up to and including a ban from the platform. 

As a global destination for online learning, Udemy works to connect people through knowledge. To foster a diverse and inclusive learning environment, we expect instructors to maintain a level of conduct both on and off the Udemy platform in accordance with Udemy’s values, so that together, we can build a truly safe and welcoming platform.

Instructors who are found to be engaging in, or censured for, activities that could negatively impact user trust, will face a review of their account status. This includes, but is not limited to:

• • Criminal or harmful conduct  
  • Hateful or discriminatory conduct or speech
  • Spreading disinformation or misinformation

When investigating allegations of instructor misconduct, Udemy’s Trust & Safety Team will consider a variety of factors, including:  

• The nature of the offense
• The gravity of the offense
• Related legal or disciplinary proceedings
• Any demonstrated patterns of troubling behavior
• The extent to which the conduct is related to the individual’s role as an instructor
• The life circumstances and age of the individual at the time of the offense
• The time elapsed since the activity
• Demonstrated efforts made toward rehabilitation

We understand everyone makes mistakes. At Udemy, we believe that anyone, anywhere, can build a better life through access to education. Any inquiries into instructor conduct handled by the Trust & Safety Team will be focused on evaluating the ongoing impacts and risks to learners, and the larger platform. 

Our students and instructors are typically good, responsible members of the community. We understand that everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes, you just don’t know what the rules are.

If an instructor does have a policy violation, they will first receive a simple warning.  We will also provide resources to help better understand our policies and be successful on Udemy.  

If we see further violations of any of our policies, there will be more severe consequences in the form of “strikes.”  The escalation process is as follows:

1. Warning → An email from Trust & Safety about the violation and our policies
2. Strike 1 → Suspension of announcement and direct messaging privileges for a month
3. Strike 2 → Courses blocked from active promotions for a month + suspension of announcement and direct messaging privileges for a month
4. Strike 3 → Courses blocked from new enrollments for a month + suspension of announcement and direct messaging privileges for a month
5. Ban → Account and course materials are permanently banned from the platform

These strikes apply at a course level. All instructors and co-instructors associated with the course or courses in violation will see their features disabled for that course.

Please note that we reserve the right to escalate strikes based on the severity of the violation as well as past instructor behavior. Strikes are reevaluated on a six-month rolling basis, but those with an ongoing history of policy violations will ultimately face removal from the Udemy platform.  

We encourage instructors to be proactive about understanding and following Udemy policies.  We recommend everyone look through our Terms and the Trust & Safety articles to start off on the right foot.

If you ever have questions about our policies not answered in the Help Center, please let us know at policy@udemy.com.

As a global educational platform, Udemy is committed to providing a safe and engaging learning environment across the globe. Use of the platform must always be in accordance with applicable local and regulations. In this page, Trust & Safety will add local laws as necessary to reflect the needs of our global customers. 

Our universal terms of use are available here.

Japan

If you’re an instructor located in Japan, then the following additional terms apply to you. 

You represent and warrant that: (i) you do not, individually or as part of a group, seek economic profit through violence, force, or fraudulent means (“Anti-Social Forces”); and (ii) you are not involved with, directly or through third parties, Anti-Social Forces. Udemy may terminate or suspend your account immediately and without notice in the event of a breach of any of these representations and warranties.

About the marketplace maintenance program

Udemy strives to provide an opportunity for success for all courses. In order to increase the discoverability of quality courses, improve site performance, and support overall marketplace health, we periodically audit and unpublish content that has shown little to no recent signs of new student engagement, and fails to meet certain marketplace best practices (please see below for more information).

What does it mean for a course to be unpublished?

When a course is unpublished from the Udemy marketplace, new students can no longer find and enroll in it. Previously enrolled students retain access to the content, and instructors can still edit the "draft" course.

What content is at risk of being unpublished?

Content may be considered for removal as part of the marketplace maintenance program if it:

• Has had little to no recent enrollments, revenue, and engagement, AND
• Has not historically had significant enrollments, revenue, and engagement, AND
• Has not been updated within the last six months

Content is more likely to be flagged for the maintenance program if its Course Landing Page is sparse and/or has a significant amount of content in common with other Course Landing Pages.

Will instructors be notified if their content is at risk of being unpublished? 

If your content is at risk of being unpublished, you will receive an email indicating which courses need attention. 

What should instructors do if their content is at risk of being unpublished?

If your content has been flagged for the marketplace maintenance program, and you want to ensure your content stays available for enrollment on the Udemy marketplace, make sure it has:

• A robust course landing page (including at least four learning objectives in the "What you'll learn" section)
• A unique course description
• At least one significant update in the last six months 

Learn more about these guidelines and others in Udemy’s Course Material Basics.  

Can instructors re-publish their content after it has been unpublished in the marketplace maintenance program? 

Content that has been unpublished as part of this program can be republished. However, if your content continues to garner low interest from new students and does not meet the requirements above, it may be unpublished again. You will only receive an email notification the first time a given course is flagged for the marketplace maintenance program.