Course Material Basics

Udemy does not approve content in some topic areas, or may publish only in limited circumstances. Subject matter may be excluded due to concerns that it is considered either inappropriate, harmful, or offensive to learners, or because it is otherwise inconsistent with the values and spirit of Udemy.

While instructors have production and editorial independence over their courses, it is also their responsibility to ensure their courses follow the letter and the spirit of our policy, including our content quality values and standards, when submitting to the Quality Review Process. 

We recommend that you reach out to the Trust & Safety team before building content relating to any of the following topics. Please include as much detail as possible. 

It is the instructor’s responsibility to ensure their course follows the letter and the spirit of the policy when submitting to the Quality Review Process. While the Trust & Safety Team will guide instructors around smaller fixes, extensive coaching on how to build or update a course is not available.  

Please bear in mind that while a course might be permissible in the Udemy marketplace, business customers might be more sensitive to certain topics & presentations. If you wish for your course to be eligible for admission to Udemy Business, please ensure that all content and presentation is appropriate for a professional audience.

Restricted topics

Sexuality

Sexually explicit content or content with implied sexual activity is not permitted. We will also not publish courses providing instruction on sexual performance or technique. Content around reproductive health and intimate relationships must be free of explicit or suggestive content.  See also: Nudity and Attire. 

Examples that are not allowed:

• Instruction on seduction, sexual techniques, or performance
• Discussion of sex toys

Examples that are allowed:

• Safe sex courses
• Consent and communication
• Human sexuality from a sociological or psychological perspective

Nudity and attire

Nudity is permitted only when essential to learning within an artistic, medical, or academic context. Attire should be appropriate to the subject area of instruction, without unnecessary emphasis on exposed body parts.

Examples that are allowed:

• Fine art and figure drawing
• Anatomical illustrations
• Medical footage or demonstrations

Examples that are not allowed:

• Boudoir photography
• Naked yoga
• Body art

Dating and relationships

Content on attraction, flirtation, courtship, etc. are not allowed. Any other courses on long-term relationships must be in accordance with all Udemy policies, including those involving Sexuality and Discriminatory Language.

Examples that are allowed:

• Marital counseling
• General discussions of intimacy within a course focused on strengthening overall relationship
• Self-confidence to be ready for dating

Examples that are not allowed:

• Stereotyping on gender roles 
• Seduction techniques

Weapons instruction

Content providing instruction in the making, handling, or usage of firearms or air guns is not permitted. All other courses providing weapons instruction must otherwise adhere to all Udemy policy, including Violence and Bodily Harm.

Examples that are allowed:

• How to disarm an attacker

Violence and bodily harm

Dangerous activities or behavior likely to impact health or result in injury cannot be shown. Glorification or promotion of violence will not be tolerated. 

Examples that are not allowed:

• Self harm
• Substance Abuse
• Unhealthy weight management practices
• Extreme body modification
• Combat courses encouraging disproportionate aggression

Examples that are allowed:

• Martial arts courses
• Recovery programs for substance abuse

Animal cruelty

Treatment of animals such as pets, livestock, game, etc. must be in accordance with the recommendations of relevant animal welfare organizations.

Discriminatory language or ideas

Content or conduct fostering discriminatory attitudes on the basis of a group characteristic such as race, religion, nationality, disability, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation will not be tolerated on the platform.

Illegal or unethical activities

Content must be in accordance with any applicable national law. Activities which are illegal in many jurisdictions may also be disallowed, even if permitted within the uploader’s country of residence.

Examples that are not allowed:

• Courses relating to cannabis
• Directions on cracking software access or non-ethical hacking
• Dark web exploration (unless clear emphasis is how it can be used in investigations by security professionals) 

Examples that are allowed:

• Instruction on how to find coupons or cheat codes

Misinformation and misleading content 

Instruction which is intentionally misleading or that promotes ideas in opposition to the consensus in scientific, medical, or academic communities should not be posted.

Examples that are not allowed:

• Vaccine hesitancy
• Fringe theories
• Money manifestation

Sensitive or otherwise inappropriate topics or language

As a global learning platform with learners ranging from casual hobbyists to professional enterprise customers, we must take into consideration many sensitivities when evaluating content. 

We will examine not only the kind of topic under discussion, but also how those topics are presented. When providing instruction on a sensitive subject area, ensure that all associated course materials treat that subject with care. Avoid language and imagery which is inflammatory, offensive or otherwise insensitive.

Content for young people

Udemy is not currently set up to support underage learners. Persons under the age of consent (for example, 13 in the US or 16 in Ireland) may not use the services. Those under 18 but above the age of consent may use the services only if a parent or guardian opens their account, handles any enrollments, and manages their account usage. 

As such, please ensure any subject matter oriented towards young students is clearly marketed to parents and guardians who will be supervising their learning. See Section 1 of Udemy’s Terms of Use to learn more.  

How to report abuse

We reserve the right to add to and modify this list at any time. If you see content that you believe should not be on the platform, please flag the content through the Report Abuse feature.

This article outlines the audio standards when recording and exporting your course on Udemy.

What are Udemy’s minimum standards regarding audio?

To publish your course, each of your course videos must contain audio instructions. We require:

• Good audio quality that is clear and not distracting to students
• Audio that comes out of both channels (left and right) 
• Audio is synced to video

What audio issues are considered distracting or low-quality? 

Some of the most common audio issues that have the greatest impact on the learner experience include:

• Distortion: An electrical static sound caused by having the gain turned too high.
• Background hiss: A raspy noise within your audio track. 
• Left speaker: Audio might come out from the left speaker only if settings do not specify that it should be in stereo.
• Low volume: Volume is inaudible unless the user turns their device settings very high
• Inconsistent volume: Sudden changes in volume levels within a lecture or across the course.
• Muffled sound: Unclear speech due to audio response settings or sound mixing.

Do you allow usage of text-to-speech programs?

Udemy now accepts courses with audio instruction created using quality text-to-speech programs. To be approved in the Quality Review Process, please ensure the audio quality is clear, easy to understand, and that your program can properly pronounce any acronyms and technical jargon used in your course. These courses must be accompanied by dynamic and clearly relevant visuals in accordance with the Video Standards.

What else do I need to know about recording a course?

If you have already reviewed the minimum requirements in the Course Quality Checklist, 

our Teaching Center resource has additional guidance on recording great audio. 

For more in-depth troubleshooting and advice, try connecting with the Instructor Community. The Trust & Safety Team is unfortunately not able to provide technical support to instructors.

This article outlines the video standards when recording and exporting your course on Udemy.

What are Udemy’s minimum standards around video quality?

In order to publish your course, you must have at least 30 minutes of video content in your course. In order to ensure the best viewing experience across a range of device types, Udemy requires that video content is: 

• High Definition (HD) quality, with a resolution of at least 720p
• Oriented horizontally, with an aspect ratio of 16:9
• Clearly relevant to the audio instruction, with dynamic and custom presentation visuals

What video issues are considered low-quality

Some of the most common video issues that have the greatest impact on the learner experience include:

• Audio-only content with no visuals at all
• Video content which is limited to a static image or presentation slide
• Visuals are blurry, indistinct, or otherwise difficult to recognize or understand

At this time Udemy does not feature audio-only experiences

What else do I need to know about recording my course?  

Learn more about our requirements and recommendations for course videos in our Course Quality Checklist.

The Teaching Center has further logistical guidance for setup and recording settings.

Connect with others in the Instructor Community for more in-depth troubleshooting and advice.

To deliver a consistent student experience, Udemy courses must meet minimum standards for approval. The Quality Review Team will help you get your course approved when you submit your course for review. We reserve the right to re-review courses if instructors violate these standards at any point.

What is valuable educational content?

Since Udemy is a marketplace for educational content, your course material should be designed with student learning in mind, not personal promotion.

The course material is the actual content of the course and includes:

• Section/lecture titles
• Videos or other lecture types
• Resources
• Quizzes

The course needs to meet our detailed list of quality review guidelines in order to be available in the marketplace. If we find that a course in the marketplace does not meet our quality review guidelines, we reserve the right to re-review the course.

You may add multiple instructors to a course when they help create, develop, teach or manage the course. It is not an option that should be used simply to augment marketing capabilities and reach more students. 

• Review guidelines on when to add other instructors to your course.

Detailed course material guidelines

The course material is meant to help students learn within a safe environment. It is not meant to be used for instructors to market or sell to students in any way or form. If this happens, it results in students feeling distrustful because they’re being sold to when they want to learn. 

• The course material needs to meet our quality review guidelines and may only include information relevant to your course topic. 
• Courses should not contain content that is duplicated in other courses published on the marketplace. Any overlap in content across your courses must remain minimal.
• You may include your website, social media profiles, or contact information as a small watermark on your video throughout the lecture or briefly at the beginning or end of a lecture. Learn more.
• You may not include links to paid content off Udemy. The only exception is you’re providing access to a tool/product that is part of the Course Requirements, which is stated in the Course Landing Page.
• You may not post personal information about students.
• You may not include affiliate links.
• You may not include coupon codes, links or promotional references to any Udemy courses.
• When adding an external link to your course that requests students to pay or provide personal information, please use the following guidelines to decide where you can include the link.

When it comes to deciding whether the link is relevant to the course or not, we will take context into account. This is where the spirit of the policy matters, so unless you can prove to our team that this material provides value to your students within the course, please don’t include it!

When an instructor is clearly going against the spirit of Udemy policies in an attempt to game the system or if we see a severe negative impact on the student experience (high unsubscribe rates or refund rates) it will be considered a violation of our policies.

Course price guidelines

Review information and guidelines for pricing your course.

Escalation policy

Learn what happens when there is a violation of our policies.

One of the requirements in order for your course to pass Udemy’s Quality Review Process, is to incorporate correct use of your branding or personal information in your watermark.

Watermark guidelines

• Watermarks should be unobtrusive, without using distracting placement or colors.
• Watermarks should match the instructor’s personal or company logo.
• Instructors without a personal logo may create a watermark using their name,  website URL, or email.  Watermarks cannot request students visit or contact them.

Example of a bad watermark

Example of an acceptable watermark

Title Requirements and Quality Standards

Here are Some Techniques we do Recommend:

• Focus the title/subtitle on what students will learn and how they can apply the skill, instead of making salesy, big promises that can come across as scammy to students.
• Make the title specific.
• What level of student is this for?
• What level of skill is the course?
• What type of course within a given field is it?
• What will the student be able to do or understand after taking this course?
• Use titles with 60 characters or less.
• If the course is about creating a course on Udemy or marketing on Udemy:
• The course title needs to end with “- Unofficial” in the title.
• The first line in the course description has to be “This course is not sponsored by or affiliated with Udemy, Inc.” (This is required for courses about Udemy!)

We Don't Allow the Following in Your Title/Subtitle:

• Don’t use direct references to monetary promises, specific amounts or promises how much money or income etc. as being the purpose of your course. Students are here to learn skills that they can apply, so do focus the positioning of your course on the skill that students will learn. To pass the Quality Review Process, your title, subtitle, and course description cannot include monetary promises related to making money, financial success, income etc.
• Don’t over capitalize or use unnecessary punctuation or special characters (invalid characters, hyphens in the wrong places, multiple exclamation points etc.).
• Don’t use the word “Udemy” in the title or subtitle, unless the course is about creating a course/marketing on Udemy.
• Remember, we do check for this as part of our Quality Review Process.

Check out some examples and best practices below:

This article outlines the Instructor Bio’s quality standards, including best practices and minimum requirements to pass Udemy’s Quality Review Process.

What is the Instructor Bio? Why is it important?

The Instructor Bio is a dedicated space for instructors to present their expertise, experience, and personality. It appears at the bottom of the course landing page(s).

Instructors can update their Instructor Bio under Biography in their profile (Learn how).

In a survey of potential students, respondents cited “credibility” as the most important factor in choosing an online course. It’s critical to establish expertise to boost student confidence and enrollments. 

Make sure this space is an accurate representation of instructor qualifications and is free of promotional content. The profile is reviewed during the Quality Review Process to ensure it matches Udemy policy.

Minimum requirements to pass our quality review process

• Ensure that the information in the instructor bio is accurate
  • While you can create an account under a pen name or pseudonym, you may be asked to complete additional verification if it differs from your legal name. Using an image of another individual (whether stock image or artificially generated) is not permitted.
  • All qualifications must be accurate to the account owner as an individual or the business they run.
  • Additional verifications may be required if information appears inconsistent or contradictory across the instructor’s account and courses.
• Outside links are not permitted.  Instead, instructors can add links to the designated "Links" section of their profile. 
  • Please test the links after input - they are preset to already include the domain for all social media platforms.
• Refrain from listing email addresses or other contact methods where personal information is given directly.
• Do not use distracting copy or formatting such as excessive capitalization, punctuation, or emojis.

What is Your Course Description? Why is it Important?

Your course description explains what your course is about to potential students. It is largely responsible for convincing them that your course -- and your course only -- will change their lives! In your course description, we recommend providing information about 1) the content of the course and 2) how students will benefit from that content.

What you Need to Know

• Use the course description to summarize what your course covers, how it is taught, what students will learn, and what they will gain from the course.
• Optimize for sales conversions using our recommended best practices below for the tone and structure of your course description.
• Don’t include images, external links, or links to other Udemy courses in your course description.
• Don’t include coupon codes, coupon links, course referral links, or mentions of discounts (per our rules and guidelines).

Remember, we do check for this as part of our Quality Review Process.

In this article we will cover:

• Best practices for the tone of your description
• Best practices for the structure of your description
• Minimum requirements to pass our Quality Review Process
• Examples of good course descriptions
• How to edit your course description on Udemy

Best Practices for the Tone of Your Description

1. Ask yourself these questions before writing (to make sure you really understand your potential student):

• What are the demographics of your ideal student?
• What needs are you solving for your ideal student?
• Why does your ideal student want to enroll in your course? Is it essential to their career, relationships, lifestyle?  How?
• Look at message boards, forums, reviews of other similar books or products.  What do students ask for in other places?  How will your course meet those needs?

2.  Get personal with your students:

• Speak directly to the students; say "You" instead of "enrollees", "students", or "course participants".
• Use easy-to-understand copy, and sentences of various lengths to keep students engaged. Here is a great example for inspiration.

Example

Good: "At the end of the course, you will be able to build 10 Android Apps"
Bad: "This course includes 10 Android App projects"

3. Stay positive and emphasize benefits:

• Focus on the benefits your course provides to students. What problems will it solve for them?  How will it change their life?
• Stay positive and approachable as you walk students through what makes your course unique and what the students will learn.
• If possible, add in some real-world examples to validate your course topic.

Example

Good: "In this course we'll fix, together, that bad posture that's been causing you stress, headaches, and overall discomfort"
Bad: "This course covers the basics of what bad posture is."

Good: "Ever wonder how companies like Apple design their products?"
Bad: "I'll teach you how to design products."

4. Bold and CAPITALIZE with care:

• Just as sentence length should vary, so should formatting (if too much is bolded, nothing will stand out).
• Do not include long and dramatic bullet point lists (besides in the area we recommend in the Structure part of this article)

Best Practices for the Structure of Your Course Description

1. Add an introductory 2-3 sentences at the beginning of your description:

• Highlight what your course is (a high level overview) and how it will benefit students.
• Do not ask questions or "pitch" students here -- instead, focus on the problem your course is solving in a positive and inspiring tone.

2. Add in 1 sentence 'heading' after your 2-3 sentence overview:

• Structure this as follows: one sentence that contains an action verb, the subject of the course, and context of the course subject (in bold and "title case" -- the first letter of each word capitalized).
• Do not repeat the title of your course.
• Do not make claims such as "The best course on the subject!" or "100% satisfied or your money back".

Example

Good: "Master Foreign Languages Quickly Using the Magnetic Memory Method"
Good: "Learn and Master the Most Popular Big Data Technologies in this Comprehensive Course"

3. Add in a short list of bullet points underneath the heading:

• If a student is scanning your course page, including this short list will help them take in the most important benefits your course provides, and what makes it unique.
• Your bullets should be structured as short phrases that start with an action verb (e.g. Learn, Recognize, Build, Find).

4. Add in a one line overview of your course topic:

• This line should be different than the one line heading.
• Bold this text, if desired.

5. Add in an overview of your course topic (what are you covering?):

• This should be 4-6 sentences long (or two small paragraphs).
• Some ideas for content to include: the course topic's history, what the topic is used for, who uses it, why it's unique, the types of jobs you can get if you know the topic, current events or news about the topic.
• In general, short teasers are better than detailed histories.
• Highlight what makes your course unique (e.g. real-life applications, projects, test-prep).

Example

Good: "We'll learn about Julia Child: the story of a spy who became a chef who changed the world of cooking forever"
Good: "Well-known startups like Twitter, Tinder, and Meetup all use Python platforms for their websites"
             

6. Add in an overview of your course (how do you cover your topic?):

• Most course descriptions have the highest word count in this section.
• Expand upon the bullet points you included above: what benefits your course offers, what skills you teach, any course metrics (e.g. # of lectures, projects, quizzes, etc.) you want to include.
• Tone: try not to overload your students with too many details too fast, and stay friendly and approachable. Stick with small paragraphs of 2-3 sentences each.
• At the end of this section include a conclusion which tells the student what they will walk away from the course with.

Example

Good: "I designed this programming course to be easily understood by absolute beginners"
Bad: "This is the most efficient course on programming"

Good: "Complete with working files and code samples, you'll be able to work alongside the instructor and will receive a verifiable certificate of completion upon finishing the course."

Minimum Requirements to Pass our Quality Review Process

• Use the course description to summarize what your course covers, how it is taught, what students will learn, and what they will gain from the course.
• Don’t include images, external links, or links to other Udemy courses in your course description.
• Don’t include coupon codes, coupon links, or mentions of discounts

Examples of Great Course Descriptions:

A Data Course
A Java Course
A Language Course

How to Edit Your Course Description on Udemy

Click here to learn how to edit your course description.

Practice activities like quizzes, projects and exercises are activities that help students practice a concept they’ve learned. By helping students build on concepts they’ve learned in your video lectures, and applying them to real world applications, you help students engage more with your course.

What you need to know

• In each section of your course, include one learning activity (quiz, exercise, or project) to help students apply what they've learned in that section.
• Provide all needed resources for each activity, such as worksheets, source code, practice files, etc.
• Describe how the activity is relevant.
• Connect the activity to your course goals.

Remember, we do check for this as part of our Quality Review Process.

Best practices

• Include one practice activity per section. In each section of your course, include one practice activity (quiz, exercise, or project) that helps a student apply the knowledge covered in that section. This may include:
• Highlighting key takeaways at the end of each section, using a slide or “cheat sheet”;
• Providing practice exercises for students to apply what they’ve learned, such as challenge questions, tasks or projects; and/or
• Challenging students with a quiz to assess their progress.
• Provide all needed resources for each practice activity. One of the biggest complaints students have is when they don’t have the right resources for completing a project or exercise. Avoid this by providing all needed resources for students to easily start and complete each exercise. 
• Describe how the practice activity is relevant. Students need to know why they should take a quiz or complete an exercise. Describe how each activity is related to the content and what students should learn from completing it.
• Connect the practice activity to course goals. Students want to know that an activity is going to help them achieve their goals. Describe how each activity they complete will get them closer to their overall course goals.

How to add practice activities to your Udemy Course

More information regarding the various types of practice activities and how you can add them to your courses is available in the Creating Content section of our Help Center.

Instructor delivery is all about how you communicate in your course. When you come across as a credible and confident instructor, it has a huge positive impact on the learning experience for students, and can tilt the scales on whether students love the course or they don’t.

What You Need to Know

How to speak:

• Edit out all uhms, pauses and verbal mistakes.
• Demonstrate genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the topic.
• Speak clearly and with a measured pace.
• Practice and script out what you want to say.
• Use “I” and “you” instead of “we”.

What to say:

• Use visual tools to reinforce what you’re saying.
• Avoid going off into tangents when explaining a concept.
• Explain all jargon that you use.
• Catch and explain potential misunderstandings (this demonstrates empathy for students).

Other recommendations:

• Engage with students in the discussion forum by answering questions or starting new discussions and posing questions to your students
• Opt for closed captioning

Remember, we do check for this as part of our Quality Review Process.

In this article, we will cover:

• Best practices
• Minimum requirements to pass our Quality Review Process
• Examples of good and bad instructor delivery

Best Practices

How to Speak

• Edit out all uhms, pauses, or verbal mistakes: Keep your videos clean and free of mistakes. Edit out any verbal miscues, long pauses, or other mistakes that might distract students. These can be small (“umms”, “ahhs”, slight sniffles) or they can be large (blowing your nose, dropping a prop, leaving the frame). This is one-time pain for long term gain, so don’t be afraid to do retakes when you’re recording!
• Demonstrate genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the topic: Whether it’s your first time explaining something or your twentieth, students appreciate instructors who can convince them that a topic is truly interesting and worth diving into. Don’t be afraid to show your passion for the topic!
• Speak clearly with a measured pace:  By slowing down and enunciating your words with careful pronunciation, you will make it easy for students from around the world to understand you clearly.
• Practice and script out what you want to say: There are very few people out there who can face a camera and just start talking. For the rest of us, we recommend scripting out what you want to say so you can stay confident and organized on camera. Rehearse the script once or twice before recording and you’ll do great!
• Use “I” and “you” instead of “we”: Use language that refers directly to yourself, and to the student, rather than speaking generally. This small touch leads to a more personal experience for students and, in turn, higher student engagement.

What to Say

• Use visual tools: Students appreciate when instructors zoom in or visually highlight the part of the screen that is most relevant to what the instructor is saying. In live-action videos, try superimposing key words, freeze framing, or using a telestrator to help focus students’ attention. 
• Avoid tangents: Avoid talking about related topics that aren’t immediately necessary or relevant to the topic of the lecture.
• Explain all jargon: Whenever you introduce a term that may be new for students, define that term in the context of the concept you’re explaining.
• Catch and explain potential misunderstandings: Think about the types of mistakes an average student would make and the concerns he/she would have, and address them whenever possible.

Other Recommendations

• Answer questions in the discussion forums: Students report higher satisfaction with courses when instructors take time to answer their questions or spark conversation in the course discussion forum.
• Opt for closed captioning: Some students really appreciate being able to read an instructor’s words while they’re being delivered. While this is totally optional, it is something to consider when making your content more globally accessible. Click here for more information on adding closed captions to your course.

Minimum Requirements to Pass our Quality Review Process

• Cut out “umms” and “ahhs” and get straight to the point. Students want an instructor who is clear, concise, and confident.
• Work to deliver your content with an enthusiastic tone. The camera strips out some enthusiasm so you’ll have to give 110% while filming your lectures.
• Pronounce your words clearly and emphasize important points. 

Why is the Intended learners section important?

The descriptions you write in the Intended learners section will help students decide if your course is right for them. Additionally, since this information sets the right expectations for learners, it can help improve your course's rating when students review the course.

What you need to know

When completing the Intended learners section, you want to ensure that:

• You have a specific target audience in mind, because the more specific your course is, the better it will do in the marketplace.
• Your audience will learn specific skills that they didn’t already have.
• What you report they will learn or achieve through the course is realistic and achievable.
• You are setting the right expectations; the course will actually deliver on these goals.

Remember, we do check for this as part of our Quality Review Process.

Minimum requirements to pass our Quality Review Process

• Fill out each of the prompts (they cannot be left blank).
• At least four,  learning objectives or outcomes.
• Don’t use generic terms e.g., the course is meant for “everyone”.
• Don’t use the space for marketing to students.

How do you complete the Intended learners section?

Learn how to describe your intended learner.

A good course image is critical to a course's success. It should grab the attention of the viewer and help them understand the essence of what the course has to offer. Following these simple guidelines will ensure that your course image is effective and impactful.

Course image violations are one of the most common issues that cause a course to be rejected when first submitted to the Quality Review Process. Please ensure you understand the guidelines below to avoid delays in course publication.

Course image technical requirements

Image file format:The file format must be .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, or .png

Image dimensions: Always design your master course image at the following pixel dimensions. The main design needs to live within the content safe area for maximum visibility.

Minimum required dimensions: 750 x 422 pixels

Maximum required dimensions: 6000 x 6000 pixels

I-------------750 px------------I

The mobile crop view: Every course image will be cropped for the Udemy mobile application. The cropped view should communicate the course concept as clearly as the uncropped view.

I------------750 px-----------I

Uniqueness:To avoid confusion, each Udemy course must have its own, unique image. The same image cannot be used for more than one course. 

Relevance: A good course image enables the viewer to predict what the course is about. Make sure that the image relates to the course content.

Appropriateness: Images should be oriented towards general audiences, and free of inappropriate or offensive content, such as Udemy’s Restricted Topics. 

Resolution:Images should be clear, non-pixelated, and free of distortion.

Simplify: One of the most important factors of a successful course image is simplicity. Limit the number of visual elements and detail to drive better comprehension. Too many unique elements and too much visual detail will compete for attention and create confusion.

Use of text

Textual information such as the name of the course is not permitted within the course image. Only limited exceptions are allowed, such as logos. Logos should not overlay the photo or make the layout muddy.  

Logos and Custom Branding:

You may use your own company logo (John Smith, Inc) in your course image.  Make sure your logo is legible, on brand, has adequate negative space, and is within the content safe area.  Do not add any frames, borders, strokes or letterboxing.

With regard to using someone else's brand (Apple, Microsoft, etc), consult your attorney and make sure all the content in your course complies with Section 6 of the Instructor Terms.

NOTE: You will be responsible for all of Your Submitted Content, that You own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions, and have the authority to authorize Company, to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform (including by means of a digital audio transmission), publicly display, communicate to the public, promote, market and otherwise use and exploit any of Your Submitted Content on and through the Products in the manner contemplated by these this Instructor Agreement, and that no Submitted Content shall infringe or misappropriate any intellectual property right of a third party.

Additional suggested image guidelines

Image color model: We recommend using the RGB color model while creating your course image, and not the CMYK color mode, since it is designed for computer screens and electronic devices

Use of illustration:Illustrations should be iconic and elemental rather than detailed or cartoony.

Foreground & background:Only use background images/patterns if they enhance or add to the comprehension of the course concept rather than repeating it.

Single point of focus: Incorporate a central point of focus in your images to draw viewers in.

Stock photography: Stock photography can often feel staged, cold, or inauthentic. Only use stock images that feel natural and are high quality.

Color and contrast:Use colors that compliment one another and work well together. Opposite colors (red and green for example) can clash and cause visual vibration. Make sure there is enough contrast between the subject and background to ensure legibility.

This article includes a checklist of the minimum requirements a course must have in order for it to be published on the Udemy platform. In addition, it also includes guidelines and resources instructors can use to improve the quality of their courses, and enhance the learning experience of students!

The minimum course requirements checklist

Below is a checklist of the minimum standards a course must have in order for it to be published on the Udemy platform. 

• At least 30 minutes of video content
• At least 5 separate lectures
• Valuable educational content (learn more)
• HD video quality (720p or 1080p)
  • Note: Videos exceeding an aspect ratio of 16:9 will automatically be re-modified to 16:9 by our system. If the resulting quality of the video is poor, the video may be rejected by our Quality Review Team.
• Audio that comes out of both channels and is synced to video
• Audio quality that is not distracting to students
• A unique course landing page
  • A course image in line with Udemy image standards
  • A course title and subtitle that includes relevant keywords
  • A course description with more than 200 words
  • A completed intended learners section
  • A complete instructor bio and profile picture

Please note: free courses published on or after March 17, 2020 must have less than 2 hours of video content. Learn more about the changes to free courses.

Additional resources

Best practices for course creation: best practices make good courses, great. You can learn more about the best practices that have worked for thousands of Udemy instructors to create compelling, high quality courses in our Teaching Center.

Test video service: we highly recommend you take advantage of our test video service to get personalized assistance and feedback on audio and video quality early into the course creation process. This will help you feel confident about your recording setup before you record your course. 

Trust & Safety guidelines: as you create your course, we also ask that you take time to review our Trust and Safety Policy Guidelines and make sure the course meets these and can be published.

The Quality Review process: after you complete your course and it’s submitted for review, our review team will provide you with feedback to help you get your course ready for students to enjoy. Learn more about the Quality Review process.

The Instructor Community: our global instructor community is another great place to find help and ideas regarding the course creation process. 

Instructors may feature materials requiring download in a variety of formats, including  on-site course resources within lectures, off-platform links, or video instruction on downloading items such as software.

Providing detailed and transparent information for any downloading instructions is important to ensure learner safety and compliance.  When referencing downloads off-platform on websites unaffiliated with Udemy, learners should be fully advised of their options and obligations when downloading.  

What are the guidelines for downloads outside of Udemy?

If off-platform downloads are necessary for the course experience, this must be specified as a requirement when describing intended learners.  

To ensure learners are properly advised before they initiate any downloads for a course, we ask that instructors provide verbal and/or written instructions on details such as: 

• Associated fees and/or pricing tiers
• Options for enterprise vs. personal usage
• Any requirements for payment information to access
• Direct links to a trusted download source
• Direct links to the software provider’s Terms of Use 
• Reminders to defer to employer best practices for software procurement, if using a work-issued device or using a program as part of job responsibilities 

Escalation policy

Please note, if references to software downloads do not follow the above guidelines, they will not be considered appropriate for the Udemy Business Collection, and may face removal from the marketplace as well.  

Beyond the download instructions above, any course instruction which appears to be in violation of a software provider’s Terms of Use will be considered a violation of the Restricted Topics provisions against illegal or unethical activity.

Learn more about the escalation process for policy violations.