Course Settings

This article outlines how instructors can enter the basic information for their course, which includes the language the course is taught in, the knowledge level for the course, as well as both the category and subcategory.

How to enter your course’s basic info

To enter your course’s basic info, please follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to the course page (steps on how to can be viewed here).

2. On the left-hand-side, select Course Landing Page.

3. Scroll down to the Basic info section.

4. Select the course language, the level (beginner, intermediate, expert or all levels) and then the course’s category and subcategory.

5. Click Save at the top of the page.

Additional resources

• Advice and tips on how to choose your course topic.
• How to add and propose topics for your course.
• Additional advice and tips on how to create an effective course landing page.

For piracy concerns, video lectures are initially set to be unavailable for learners to download on their computers. If they wish, instructors can change this default setting. This article outlines the Downloadable feature, which instructors can enable for learners to download their course videos on a computer.

Please note: 

• Course videos are always available to download for offline viewing on the Udemy mobile app. Learn more below.
• Due to certain platform security measures, the ability to download a lecture video on a computer may not be available for all courses.

Table of contents

• Enable the downloadable feature
• Disable the downloadable feature
• Course videos are available for offline viewing on the Udemy mobile app
• Downloading your own course videos
• Protecting your content

Enable the downloadable feature

To make a course video downloadable for learners on their computers, please follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your course’s Curriculum page (Learn how).

2.  Click on the applicable video lecture.

3. Toggle Downloadable to on.

Disable the downloadable feature

To disable the download feature for a video lecture, follow the steps above and toggle Downloadable to off.

Course videos are available for offline viewing on the Udemy mobile app

For a better mobile learning experience, students can download all course videos in the Udemy app. For piracy concerns, the video content is encrypted and can only be accessed within the app.

Downloading your own course videos

Instructors can download their own course videos, regardless of whether the lecture has Downloadable toggled on (Learn how). 

Protecting your content

We understand how valuable your content is and we are committed to helping you protect it. Learn how Udemy protects your content.

Selecting topics for your course is a quick way to report additional information about it, so that prospective students can locate it faster and easier. By adding topics to your course, you can provide the Udemy team with more specific information than what’s presented via categories and subcategories. This way we can surface it to interested students more effectively in course recommendations, topic pages and badges on the Udemy marketplace, and in emails and promotions from our Marketing team.

• Choosing the right topics for your course
• How to add topics to your new courses
• Topics: commonly asked questions
• Do I have to choose four topics for my course?

• Can I create a topic for my course if one doesn’t already exist?

• Can I add any topic that I want?
• After I’ve selected the course topics, can I change a topic at a later date?
• Can I select topics for private courses?

Choosing the right topics for your course

When deciding on what topics should be chosen for your course, we recommend you consider what’s primarily taught in it. Each individual topic chosen should comprehensively describe your course’s content without being too broad. The most representative topic should be the topic in a list of topics that most effectively and narrowly defines what the subject of the course is. For example, “The Complete Tennis Course” should have “Tennis” selected as a topic, but not “Sports”, since the latter is too broad and not specific enough. Or if the course includes extensive information about financial modelling, and is specifically focused on this topic, then we would recommend selecting “Financial Modelling” as a topic, rather than just “Finance.”

How to add topics to your new courses

If you’re creating a new course, then you will need to select topics for it, before you can submit the course for review. To add up to four topics to your draft course, please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the course page (steps on how to can be viewed here).
2. Click on Course Landing Page on the left-hand side
3. Scroll down to the Topics section
4. Topic suggestions are sometimes generated based on the course title. If you wish to remove one of the topics that have been suggested, however, you can do so by clicking on the X. You can select a new topic by clicking on Choose a Topic. If the topic you type doesn’t automatically populate, you can still enter it by clicking on propose a new topic below.
5. Select the topic that is most representative of your course (see above). 
6. Click Save at the top right or bottom of the page
7. Your topic selections will be reviewed, along with the rest of your course content, when you submit the completed course for review. Please note that while our review team always considers the topics suggested by instructors, they may determine to select different topics as they deem fit.

Please Note: After your course is published, the topics that were approved by Udemy’s review team are locked, and cannot be changed by course instructors. If you think that the topics that were approved for your published course are incorrect, or if you think that other topics are a better fit, please contact our support team to submit the new topic proposals. We can’t guarantee that your suggestion will be implemented, but we’re happy to share them with our review team for another look.

Topics: commonly asked questions

Do I have to choose four topics for my course?

No. Instructors can select up to four topics for a course, but you’re not required to select four if you don’t feel four are applicable. Topics that are selected should be relevant to the course subject, and should provide a comprehensive insight into its content. Adding irrelevant or excessive topics will result in your course being misrepresented to students, and could lead to a poor learning experience for them and negative reviews.

Can I create a topic for my course if one doesn’t already exist?

Yes. If after searching for a topic in our list of topics you can’t find one that is appropriate for your course, you may suggest one to us. To do this, enter the topic you would like to propose in the dropdown option. 

Once you’ve entered your suggestion, click “Propose new topic” just below the text field. Please note that in order to propose a new topic that doesn't already exist in our system, you will need to change your profile language to English first. 

After doing this, you should see your proposed topic appear in the primary topic section:

Some additional guidelines:

• Please only propose a topic that meets the criteria for the topic of your course.  The word or phrase that reflects the majority of what you are teaching in your course curriculum.
• Please limit your topic to a short word or phrase rather than a sentence or paragraph.
• Please do not include URLs.

We consider a number of factors before adding topics to our list. Current supply, demand, and mutual exclusivity of the concept, all factor into whether a topic will be approved. Topics that could be approved at a later date are stored and re-evaluated periodically.

Can I add any topic that I want?

As noted above, while you can propose a topic if it’s not currently listed as an option, our Quality Review Team will only approve a topic if it’s applicable to your course.

After I’ve selected the course topics, can I change a topic at a later date?

If you wish to select different topics for your courses in the future, please contact our support team to submit the new topic proposals.

Can I select topics for private courses?

No. Currently, topics are only available for courses that are public (not private). Review instructions on how to adjust the privacy settings of a course.

Through the Instructor view, you can easily access your courses, instructor dashboards, course features, and other instructor resources. This article explains how to navigate the Instructor view, instructor pages, and instructor account settings. 

• Learn how to create an instructor account and profile. 

Table of contents

• Access the instructor view
• Courses page: viewing and editing your courses 
• Access instructor dashboards (sidebar menu) 
• Instructor account settings

Access the instructor view

After logging into your Udemy account, click on Instructor at the top of the page to access the instructor view. 

Courses page: viewing and editing your courses 

After accessing the instructor view, you will be directed to the Courses page, where you can access any courses you’ve created or published by scrolling or using the search tool and filters.

Move your cursor over any course card to edit or manage your course. For published courses, move your cursor sideways to view other course settings. 

To create a new course, click on the New Course to the right.

Access instructor dashboards (sidebar menu) 

There are numerous instructor tools and resources available in the instructor dashboards. To access them, access your instructor view and scroll to the sidebar menu icons on the left. 

Then, click on any of the following instructor dashboards, which include several of the following features: 

• Communications: Access your direct messages, assignment feedback, the Q&A dashboard, and announcements for your courses.
• Performance: Access extensive tools and analytics to track your course performance, learn about your students, view feedback, and understand the impact you’re having on Udemy.
• Tools: Access the Test Video, Marketplace Insights, and Bulk coupon creation tools.
• Resources:  Access the Teaching Center, Instructor Community, and Help Center.

Instructor account settings

After accessing instructor view, you can view your account settings by scrolling to your profile icon at the top right of the page. 

Under your profile icon, you can access the following options: 

• Public profile: Preview your instructor bio. (Learn more)
• Account: View your Account security, notifications, and message settings, as well as any API clients.
• Payout settings: Access the payout and tax details available to premium instructors as well as your promotional agreements.

Revenue report: View the instructor revenue report where you can track and review any sales your courses have made.

This article outlines how instructors can set or change the base price of their course. If instructors wish to charge a fee for their courses, however, they will need to apply to become a premium instructor first.

More information on how to become a premium instructor is available in this article.

How instructors can set or change the price of their course

Instructors set a base price for each of their courses, which by default, is used as the course's list price. If you’re an instructor and wish to set or change the base price of your course, please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the course management page (steps on how to can be viewed here).
2. Click Pricing on the left-hand side. The minimum and maximum base prices instructors can set for courses are also listed in our global price matrix.
3. Select the price you wish to set and click Save.

Please note: the new price may not be immediately reflected in the Udemy marketplace or on mobile devices, and coupons that were created before the price change may still be applied to your course.

Course prices with Udemy deals

For courses of instructors who are opted into Udemy Deals, Udemy may generate and display a market-specific list price for your course that is different from the base price (except in Japan).

Changing a course from free to paid

While instructors can change the price of their course at any time, a course can only be switched from Free to Paid once. If the course is switched from free to paid and back to free (or vice versa) after the course is published, the promotional announcements for the course will be permanently disabled. 

Courses that you charge for on Udemy cannot be offered for free off of Udemy (e.g. YouTube, your own site, other sites).

Your course title can be changed at any time and the change will happen immediately. 

How to Change the Title of a Course

1. Navigate to the course page (steps on how to can be viewed here).
2. Click on Course Landing Page.
3. Rename the course in the first box.
4. Click Save at the top of the page.

This article explains how instructors can access their course ID and URL on the Udemy marketplace to share with their audience or request support.

• Learn how to create a unique course URL when submitting a course for review.

How to access your course URL

1. Access the course landing page through the Preview feature (Learn how).

2. Copy the course URL from the address bar. 

Please note: The actual course URL does not include the characters that follow the final forward slash (/)

How to access your course ID

If you need to provide your course ID to our support team, please follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Curriculum page for the course you need the ID for (Learn how)

3. Copy the course ID listed after “/course/” in the middle of the URL.

Instructors may wish to remove their course from the marketplace and close it to enrollments for various reasons. For example, you may wish to temporarily prevent new students from enrolling in the course as you make updates to it, or, you may wish to permanently close the course to new enrollments since you’re creating a new, more current course.

This article outlines how instructors can unpublish and republish courses, or delete courses. 

• Please note: in order to uphold the lifetime access guarantee Udemy offers students, courses with students enrolled cannot be deleted.

How to unpublish a course

When a course is unpublished, it will no longer be visible in the marketplace and new students cannot enroll. Students who have already enrolled in your course, however, will continue to have access. To unpublish a course, please follow these steps below:

1. Navigate to the course management page.
2. Click on the course settings gear icon at the top right and scroll down to Course Status.
3. Click Unpublish.
4. Click yes​ to confirm your decision to unpublish your course.

How to republish a course

An unpublished course can be republished at any time. To republish your course, head to the course management page and click on Republish Course on the left-hand side.

When you click Republish Course your course will automatically return to our marketplace.

If you are switching between private and public while republishing your course, however, your course will be re-submitted through the Quality Review Process.

How to delete a course

A course can only be deleted if students are not enrolled.  In addition, in order to uphold the lifetime access guarantee with enrolled students, you may not delete or unpublish groups of course lectures in the original course to reduce the amount of content. This would be a violation of our Terms of Use.

• If your course does have students enrolled, you can unpublish it from the marketplace. Unpublishing a course prevents new students from enrolling.

Please note that deleting a course permanently erases all course content including discussions and associated files and deleting a course cannot be undone. If you wish to delete a course please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the course management page.
2. Click on the course settings gear icon at the top right and scroll down to Course Status.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click yes​ to confirm your decision to delete your course.

Udemy courses can have more than one instructor, as co-instructors can be added and assigned various permissions, which enable them to access certain information and features related to the course. 

This article outlines how instructors can invite co-instructors to their courses and manage their instructor permissions and settings.

• Note: Before adding co-instructors to your course, please read our Rules and Guidelines for managing co-instructor relationships.

Table of contents

• How to send a co-instructor invitation
• Pending invitations
• Managing instructor permissions
• Assigning revenue share to a co-instructor 
• The course owner 
• Teaching assistants
• Removing a co-instructor

How to send a co-instructor invitation

To invite someone to join a course as a co-instructor, follow the steps below.

1. While accessing Udemy on a browser, navigate to the applicable course management page, and click the course settings gear icon at the top right.

2. Scroll down the page to the Manage instructor permissions section and click Add instructor on the right-hand side. 

3. Enter the email address that is associated with the Udemy account of the person you wish to invite, and select the applicable permissions (see below for more information). 

4. Finally, click Send invitation. 

• The invitee will receive a notification via email, in which they can accept or decline the invitation to join the course as a co-instructor.  The invitee will also be notified of the invitation on their course management page.
• If the person accepts the invitation to join the course as a co-instructor,  the instructor, and any other co-instructors with manage permissions for the course, will be notified by email. 

Pending invitations

Instructors can view pending invitations they have sent by accessing them on the course management page. The pending status will also be reflected in the Manage instructor permissions section for the course.

If you need to revoke a pending invitation you have sent, click Revoke.

Managing instructor permissions

Below is a list of the various permissions you can enable for co-instructors. As outlined above, the instructor permissions for a course can be accessed by navigating to the course settings page. 

Visible: The  instructor will be publicly listed as an instructor for the course to students. Their profile picture and name will appear wherever the course is visible on Udemy and students will be able to send a message to the instructor if direct messaging is enabled. 

• Instructors must be listed as visible in order to respond in the Q&A.
• To send promotional emails and educational announcements for a course, instructors must be listed as visible and have the manage permission enabled (see below).

Manage: A co-instructor with the Manage permission can modify course content, settings and instructor permissions. They have full visibility and editing access to all course management functions, including the ability to upload and delete lectures, make changes to how the course displays in the marketplace, and create coupons for the course. 

• In addition, instructors with the Manage permission enabled can edit the revenue share for the course (more information is below).

Captions: Instructors with this permission enabled can edit, upload and disable closed captions for the course. Please note that instructors with the Manage permission enabled will automatically receive the Captions permission.

Performance: instructors with this permission enabled can access applicable data and information related to that course in their Performance tabs.

Q&A: This permission controls whether visible instructors can view and answer questions from students in the instructor Q&A dashboard.

Reviews: Instructors with the Reviews permission will be able to view and respond to student course reviews in the Reviews section of the instructor dashboard.

• Please note: in order for an instructor to respond to reviews, they must also be enabled as a visible instructor. 

Assignments: Instructors who are enabled with the Assignments permission will receive notifications when students submit assignments, and will be able to provide feedback for them if they wish.

Revenue Report: If co-instructors are assigned a revenue share (above 0%), they will automatically have permission to view the Revenue Report, which details student purchases. This permission cannot be toggled off. The co-instructor will need to earn revenue from the course before they can access the revenue report.

Assigning revenue share to a co-instructor 

For paid courses, the course owner, or instructors with the Manage permission, can assign a revenue share to co-instructors on the instructor permissions page. 

• Once an instructor is designated to receive a revenue share, they will have access to the Revenue Report for all new purchases of the course, and will see their share generated in the “Your Revenue” column on the report.
• Only co-instructors who are approved premium instructors can receive a revenue share greater than 0%. The share you assign will determine the proportion of the total instructor share they receive. The sum of all instructor shares must add up to 100%.

The course owner 

The original course creator is considered the ‘owner’ of the course and their access cannot be removed. 

• Only the course owner can edit their own permissions and they will automatically have the Manage permission enabled (and this cannot be toggled off). 
• Only the course owner is required to complete the instructor verification process and submit a test video in order for the course to be published onto the marketplace.

Teaching assistants

Instructors who are not marked as Visible in the course, but who do have permissions checked for Q&A will display with a Teaching Assistant designation whenever they reply to student questions in the course Q&A.

The Teaching Assistant designation is intended to give students additional context about these co-instructors, since they are not otherwise visible in the course. 

Removing a co-instructor

Co-instructors can be removed from a course by clicking Remove under their respective name.

• If a course instructor has the Manage permission active, they will have the ability to remove co-instructors, including themselves. The course owner, however, cannot be removed from a course.
• Any co-instructor can remove themselves from the course, regardless of whether they have the Manage permission enabled or not.
• When a co-instructor is removed from a course the instructor, and any other co-instructors with the manage course permission enabled, will be notified by email. 

Instructors have the ability to make the enrollment page for their courses private. When a course’s enrollment page is set to private, it cannot be discovered in the Udemy marketplace, so instructors must personally share the course link with potential students. To gain access to the course, the student will need to enter a password, or request access to it.

Note: courses with private enrollment pages must still abide by Udemy's Terms of Use but they are not evaluated by the Udemy Quality Checklist.

How to change a course enrollment’s privacy settings

1. Navigate to the course page (steps on how to can be viewed here).
2. Click on the course settings gear icon at the top right.
3. Scroll down to the Enrollment (Privacy) section.
4. Select Public, Private (Invitation Only) or Private (Password Protected).
5. If you select Private (Password Protected) you will need to enter a password in the box below.
6. Click Save.

Types of enrollment privacy

Password protected

If a course's enrollment page is password protected, the course won't show up in search results on Udemy. Instead, instructors will need to share the course URL and password directly with students they want to enroll. 

Invitation only

If a course's enrollment page is invitation only, the course won't show up in search results on Udemy. Instructors can accept new student requests and send invitations from the "Students" page found under "Course Management" in the left navigation.

If a student requests an invitation for the course, then a notification will appear on the left-hand side of the page by "Students".

Please note: if you have created an instructor coupon code, students must enter the code manually once you have granted them permission. Instructors will not receive the appropriate revenue share if the coupon code is not applied before the student enrolls.

If you are using instructor coupon codes, it is recommended that you protect your course with a password instead to help ensure the coupon code is redeemed before the student enrolls.

Having your lectures previewed lets potential students sample the course content and your teaching style. A lecture can be enabled for a free preview after publishing the lecture and setting a price for your course.

• Your first video lecture will automatically be available for the free preview to ensure there is always content available for students to view
• Select the additional lectures that you’d like to include in the free preview. You need to select enough lectures totalling 10 minutes of video content, including the first video lecture. On the curriculum page, you can turn on Free Preview for any video lecture.

Turning on Free Preview for a Lecture

To include a lecture in a course's free preview, please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the course Curriculum page.
2. Click the arrow to the right of the published lecture to review the lecture details.
3. Toggle Free Preview to on.

Please note: video-PDF mashup lectures are not supported by the preview function, and as a result, we recommend instructors do not select them for a course's Free Preview.