Course Taking - Leadership Academy

This article discusses the thematic analysis feature, including how to view top discussion themes, filter to an individual theme, and determine how many posts are attributed to each theme.

• Learn more about how to participate in course discussions.

What is the thematic analysis feature?

Thematic analysis is a method of analyzing and interpreting qualitative data, such as text, to determine common themes or patterns. For Udemy Business Leadership Academy (UBLA), thematic analysis is used to determine themes from course discussion posts.

Leveraging generative AI, the UBLA thematic analysis feature generates two to seven discussion themes within individual course discussion activities based on the content of posts and replies. Those themes are then displayed within each course discussion activity and can be selected to filter posts attributed to a particular theme.

How it works

After a minimum of 10 total posts and/or replies are shared, our thematic analysis analyzes the posts and generates two to seven themes based on the content of the posts, with each post being attributed to a single theme. After completion, themes are displayed above the existing discussion posts within the course activity 

Note: themes do not appear until the page is refreshed. Each theme button includes the theme label as well as the number of posts/replies attributed to that theme.

To view posts/replies attributed to an individual theme, simply click on the desired theme’s button. Once clicked, you will see a filtered view of posts attributed to the selected theme. 

Note: When a post/reply in the selected theme is part of a discussion thread containing posts/replies attributed to other themes, the posts attributed to other themes are faded. View the full thread by clicking, “View All _ Replies”. 

Notes

• A minimum of 10 total analyzable posts and replies combined must be shared for thematic analysis to run.
• Only English posts are analyzed currently.
• All posts that do not fit into a theme (for example, non-English posts, posts from non-cohort members such as a Moderator or Sponsor) are placed into an ‘Other’ category.
• Themes are updated until seven days after a course has ended, at which point the final themes remain on each discussion page. Any posts shared after this period will be labeled Other.
• Self-paced courses with discussion activities do not have tbe thematic analysis feature available.
• Only course discussions are analyzed; Ping, Community of Practice, and breakout group general discussions are not currently analyzed.
• Currently, themes are refreshed after each post or reply is saved.

This article provides an overview of what to expect in a course experience as well as steps to take to ensure you have a successful learning journey.

Please review the Participant Guide below to learn more about how to prepare for your course or program experience.

• Participant Guide PDF

This article describes how to find current courses multiple ways, including via the To Do section of the home page, via My Courses, and via the Courses tab.

The instructions below will guide you to courses you are currently enrolled in and which are currently running.

• Learn how to navigate to courses that have ended as well as the difference between current and ended courses. 

If you can’t find a course you believe you are enrolled in, learn how to find your missing course.

How to find a current course using the Courses tab in the header

1. Log in to your account 

2. Locate the Courses tab at the top of your screen. Hover over Courses, then hover over Current Courses, and you will see all current courses you are enrolled in. Note: If you are an admin, you will also see options for Participating and Supporting. Participating refers to courses where you are a listed member of the cohort, i.e. a learner, while Supporting means you are an admin for that course and cohort.

3. Click on the course you would like to go to and you will be taken to the course home page.

How to find a current course via My Courses 

1. Log in to your account

2. Hover over the Courses tab.

3. Click on My Courses. 

4. On the next screen, you will see all of your courses. You can use the filter on the right to filter by current or ended courses. Note: If you are an admin, you can also use the tabs on the left to filter by courses you are participating in or supporting.

5. Click on the course you would like to go to and you will be taken to the course home page.

How to find a current course via the To Do section of the home page

1. Log in to your account

2. If you are enrolled in a current course, the course will be listed on your home page, i.e. the first screen displayed after logging in. Locate the course you would like to go to.

3. Click on the course tile or click View Course and you will be taken to the course home page.

This article describes how to find ended courses multiple ways, including via the To Do section of the home page, via My Courses, and via the Courses tab.

The instructions below will guide you to courses you are enrolled in and which are no longer running.

• Learn how to navigate to current courses as well as the difference between current and ended courses. 

If you can’t find a course you believe you are enrolled in, learn how to find your missing course.

How to find an ended course using the Courses tab in the header

1. Log in to your account 

2. Locate the Courses tab at the top of your screen. Hover over Courses, then hover over Current Courses, and you will see all current courses you are enrolled in. Note: If you are an admin, you will also see options for Participating and Supporting. Participating refers to courses where you are a listed member of the cohort, i.e. a learner, while Supporting means you are an admin for that course and cohort.

3. Click on the course you would like to go to and you will be taken to the course home page.

How to find an ended course via My Courses 

1. Log in to your account

2. Hover over the Courses tab.

3. Click on My Courses. 

4. On the next screen, you will see all of your courses. You can use the filter on the right to filter by current or ended courses. Note: If you are an admin, you can also use the tabs on the left to filter by courses you are participating in or supporting.

5. Click on the course you would like to go to and you will be taken to the course home page.

This article outlines the way certificates of completion work in the cohort learning platform. While completion certificates can be earned, it is important to note that the certificates do not offer credits at the respective academic institutions and are simply certificates of completion.

Which course authors offer completion certificates?

Our company enters into partnership agreements with Executive Education business units within accredited academic institutions. Currently, our company has two such academic partnerships:

1. The University of Michigan Ross School of Business
2. Penn State University Smeal College of Business

Our company also has a partnership with the consulting firm The RBL Group to award certificates of completion for programs offered through the Dave Ulrich HR Academy.

The partnerships between our company and academic institutions do not include articulation agreements, meaning that schools will not award university credit toward degree programs for any of our courses or programs. They do, however, issue branded certificates of completion.

University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Our company offers 5 courses that learners can complete to earn a certificate of completion from Michigan Ross. Michigan Ross requires that a learner completes a minimum of 80% of course activities (validated through data captured in our platform) across a minimum of 3 weeks (or 9 hours) of content. Courses that qualify for certificates of completion are shown in the table below.

Our company also has bundled Michigan Ross courses into our company Programs that include formal application activities and toolkits. Again, to earn a certificate of completion for a program, learners must complete 80% of the course activities. Programs that qualify for a Michigan Ross certificate are identified in the table below:

An example of the Michigan Ross certificate of completion is shown below.

Penn State Smeal College of Business

Our company has 5 courses that learners can complete to earn a certificate of completion from the Penn State Smeal College of Business. Penn State requires that a learner completes a minimum of 80% of course activities (validated through data captured in our platform) across a minimum of 3 weeks (or 9 hours) of content. Courses that qualify for certificates of completion from Penn State are shown in the table below.

An example of the Penn State Smeal certificate of completion is shown below.

Dave Ulrich HR Academy

Our company has 1 course that learners can complete to earn a certificate of completion from the Dave Ulrich HR Academy. Learners must complete a minimum of 80% of course activities (validated through data captured in our platform) across a minimum of 4 weeks (or 12 hours) of content to earn the certificate. The qualifying course is shown below.

Accredible certificate platform

Learners who successfully complete courses or programs that are eligible for a certificate of completion receive their certificates through Accredible. Accredible manages sharing activities so that learners can post their certificates to varied social media and other HR systems. 

This article discusses the process for asking a question while taking a course on our cohort learning platform, Leadership Academy. The best person to ask is based on the type of question and this article includes the proper instructions for each question type.

• Non-cohort learning: Review how to ask a question about your course.

Question about course content 

For questions about the content in the course, contact the Moderator. You can contact the Moderator from the home page, using the envelope icon in the Moderator section on the right side of the page.

Question about how to use features in the platform

For questions about how to use features in the platform, first browse/search the Learning Center. There are articles about the various features of the platform that can help you learn how to use the feature in question. If you cannot find the information you’re looking for, contact the Moderator.    

Note: This should not be confused with technical difficulties, listed below.

Question about course enrollment 

If you would like to be added or removed from a cohort or have a question regarding enrollment in the course, contact your organization’s learning leader. They can add or remove you from the cohort and answer questions regarding enrollment.

Technical difficulties

If you are having technical difficulties, please review our system requirements. If you are still experiencing technical difficulties, please contact Support.

Feedback about a course 

If you have feedback regarding a course, we’d love to hear from you! Please leave your feedback in the end of course survey. 

If you want to report an error in a course, contact the Moderator with a screenshot of the error and we will get the error fixed. Thank you in advance for reporting any errors.

Reporting inappropriate content

If you believe you’ve uncovered inappropriate content in a course, please contact our support team so we can assist. We take content quality very seriously and will address any concerns as quickly as possible.

This article discusses the course discussion feature, which allows learners to collaborate and tap into the collective genius of their cohort as they go through a guided learning journey. 

What is the discussion feature?

Cohort learning courses in our platform are multi-modal, meaning they leverage several learning modalities such as videos, readings, reflections, assessments, and others. Discussions are a key piece of any course because they offer an opportunity for learners to interact with other members of the cohort to engage in structured dialogue, learn from each other, collaborate, and tap into the cohort’s collective genius. 

Every course activity contains an action label, found above the activity name in the course map. Activities with the action label “discuss” contain discussions. These activities are found throughout each course and within each lesson. 

How to post in discussions

Each discussion activity contains a prompt, under which you can use the Contribute to This Discussion section to post a comment.  

Posting a video

If you prefer to record a video instead of typing a comment, simply click the video icon and upload your video file (Note: Make sure the file fully uploads and click Post Comment to ensure it is posted to the discussion). 

Using the @ mention feature

To tag a cohort member or Featured User (e.g. Sponsor, Moderator) in your post, type “@” and their name. As you type, you will see other cohort members displayed and can click on the user(s) you wish to tag. You must click on the user(s); writing their name(s) does not tag them and they will not receive any notifications. You can tag as many cohort members and Featured Users as you’d like in a discussion post.

When you tag someone in a post, they receive an email notification that they have been tagged in a discussion post.

Replying to a discussion post

Discussions are nested such that you can reply to a specific discussion post, or even to a reply. Simply navigate in the course activity to the comment you’d like to reply to and click the Reply link. The person you are replying to will automatically be tagged in your reply and, once you click Post Reply, they will receive a notification letting them know you have replied. 

Liking comments

Similar to social media platforms, our platform’s discussion activities allow comments and replies to be Liked. To Like a post, simply click the thumbs up icon below the post. 

After you have Liked the post, the icon will fill in with color to indicate you have Liked the post.

Who can see discussion posts?

Discussion posts can be viewed by other learners in your cohort, the Moderator, the course Sponsor(s), and any admins included by your organization’s learning leader for the course. Learn more about common roles in a course. Depending on the cohort, if the live event capstone includes faculty, they will be able to see discussion posts as well.

Learn how to view course discussions, including new posts, popular posts, and popular posters using the course discussions widget.

Thematic analysis

When there are more than 10 applicable posts in a course discussion, the themes of the discussion are displayed above all shared comment,  along with the number of posts attributed to each theme. Each theme may be clicked to filter to a specific topic as well. 

Learn more about the thematic analysis feature.

Discussion notifications

There are several notifications that can be triggered from a discussion activity in a course. In particular, the following are most common. Learn more about course notifications.

• When you are tagged in a post
• When someone replies to a discussion thread you have contributed to
• When someone replies to your post

Tip: When you receive an email notification regarding a discussion post and want to reply to the discussion post, click the View Comment button in the email to go directly to the discussion. Replying to the email does not reply to the discussion post. 

Viewing past discussions 

All discussion posts you make are stored in your backpack and can be viewed as long as your account is active.

This article outlines how to mark a course activity complete to indicate completion of the activity.

What is the Mark Complete button?

In our platform, the way a learner indicates they have completed a course activity is through the Mark Complete button. Clicking the button signifies to the system that the activity has been completed and the learner is ready for the next activity. 

The Mark Complete button is found on the right side of the footer of every course activity.

What happens when you click Mark Complete

Several things happen when the Mark Complete button is clicked:

• The platform gives the learner credit for completing the activity 
• The learner is automatically taken to the next course activity
• A check mark displays next to the completed activity to indicate that it has been completed

What happens if Mark Complete is not clicked

Even if an activity has been finished by a learner - e.g. an activity’s video has been watched - the platform does not update a learner’s performance metrics (e.g. completion percentage) until the Mark Complete button is clicked. 

Often when there are discrepancies between what a learner believes they completed in a course and what their learning leader is showing as having been completed via course analytics, the reason is that the learner did not click Mark Complete in one or more activities. 

This article instructs you how to change the playback speed of video in the platform so you can speed through a long video, or review a scene in slow motion. 

Note: This feature is available only for videos added via Udemy Business Leadership Academy Video or via JW Player. So, if you are viewing a video that does not have playback speed options, it likely has been uploaded via another method.

How to change the playback speed of a video

You can increase the speed up to 2x, or slow the video down to 0.5x. To return to normal speed select 1x.

To change the speed of your video during playback:

1. Select the ‘gear’ icon from the bottom right of the player toolbar

2. Click the ‘speed’ icon

3. Select the speed at which you wish to view the video

• 0.5x:  0.5 times slower than normal speed
• 0.75x: 0.75 times slower than normal speed
• 1x: Normal, default speed
• 1.25x: 1.25 times faster than normal speed
• 1.5x: 1.5 times faster than normal speed
• 2x: 2 times faster than normal speed

Speed can be adjusted at any time before and during playback. You can modify the playback speed by clicking the gear icon in the player

Note: Both video and audio will be adjusted for all speed preferences.

This article goes over which files can be downloaded from the platform and which files cannot be downloaded.

What can be downloaded

• Attachments: Files such as PDFs or video transcripts are found at the bottom of a course activity. When clicked, the files will open and can be downloaded.

• Images: If the body of a course activity contains an image that you would like to download, such as a diagram or flow chart, right click the image and click Save Image As to download the file.

What cannot be downloaded

• Entire courses: You cannot download an entire course including all of its content.

• A course activity: You cannot download all of the text, images, video, etc. from a course activity. If you would like to view the content at a later date, you can save the activity to your backpack.

• Videos

• Text from a course, including discussions and reflections

This article details the course email notifications sent from the platform during each course. These communications provide messages about course enrollment, reminders, launch, progress, and discussions, as well as messages from breakout groups and Moderators.

• Learn how to update notification preferences.

Please note: Emails that come from the platform include a button in the email to go directly to the relevant page related to the email. For example, when a launch letter is sent, the email includes a button that takes you to the course page.

Types of course email notifications

• Enrollment notifications, if enabled by the site admin
• Reminder notification, if enabled by the site admin and configured by your organization’s learning leader
• Launch letter
• Automated daily email
• Discussion replies and @ mentions
• Breakout group
• Messages from the Moderator

Enrollment notifications

If the site admin has enabled enrollment notifications, you will receive an email when you are enrolled in a course, either by your organization’s learning leader or via self enrollment. 

Reminder notification

If your site admin has enabled reminder notifications and your learning leader has configured this notification for the cohort, you will receive this email. The reminder communication is meant to remind cohort members of the upcoming course. The time it’s sent varies by cohort based on the learning leader’s configuration, but it’s typically sent a few days to one week before the course begins.

Launch letter

The launch letter is a message that is sent to all learners in a cohort to let them know the course is now available to them. You will receive this when a course has officially been opened and you can begin completing the course with your cohort.

Automated daily email

The automated daily email notification is sent every day there are course activities in a course (even if they are set as optional). If there are no activities on a given day, for example, due to a holiday or the pacing of the course, you will not receive the automated daily email that day. Additionally, these emails are not sent for module-paced or unpaced courses. In general, these emails provide you with a snapshot of how many activities you have completed and how many are scheduled for the current day.

Discussion replies and @ mentions

Whenever someone tags you in a discussion post using the @ mention feature or replies to a discussion post you have made, you will receive an email notification to let you know what was posted. By clicking the View Comment button in the email, you will go directly to the discussion so you can easily reply.

Tip: Replying to the email does not reply to the discussion post. You must click the View Comment button and reply from the course activity itself.

Breakout group

If your course incorporates breakout groups, you will receive notifications when someone posts in your breakout group page or in a breakout group discussion. Breakout group discussion activities function similarly to discussion activities, but the discussions are only between breakout group members and cannot be seen by other cohort members.

Messages from the moderator

Periodically, the Moderator will send a message to a portion or all of a cohort, often to introduce themselves and send information related to the course.

This article outlines how to use the catalog and splash pages to enroll in a course.

What is the catalog?

The catalog is an optional feature, managed by your site owner, that allows for a learner to browse available courses prior to enrolling in a course. The catalog displays courses that learners can enroll in, and offers search and filter capabilities to help learners easily navigate to the course(s) they’re looking for. 

Note: If the catalog feature has not been enabled by your site admin, you cannot use the catalog currently. However, you can still use self enrollment splash pages to enroll in courses, provided they have been set up by your learning leader (see below).

Catalog features

• Course tiles: Each tile represents a course that has or will have one or more cohorts open for self enrollment. The tiles contain information, such as the course title and tagline, next cohort start date, and the length of the course. Clicking the tile takes you to the splash page for that course, where you can enroll for a specific cohort.
• Search bar: If you know the name of the course you’re looking for, you can use the search bar to search for the course by name.

• Sort: Sort the courses in alphabetical order from A to Z or Z to A.

• Filter: Use the filters to filter for courses that are currently open for enrollment, by start date, by course duration, or by course tags (Note: The tags listed in the screenshot below are only examples).

How do I sign up for a course using the catalog?

After you have navigated to the course you’d like to sign up for, follow the instructions below to sign up for a specific cohort for a course.

1. Click on the course tile for the course you’d like to sign up for.

2. The page you land on is the course splash page. This page contains information about the course, as well as the cohort(s) that you can sign up for that will be taking the course. Read the course information and view the cohort start date(s) to learn about the course, what you will learn, what others are saying about their experience, as well as FAQs and course details.

3. Click Enroll Now to enroll in the course. If there are multiple cohorts to choose from, you can use the dropdown next to the Enroll Now button to choose the course start date you’d like to enroll in.

4. After clicking Enroll Now, you are officially enrolled in the course. You will be taken to your My Courses page, where the course will be listed as Upcoming. If you navigate back to the course splash page, you will see a message where the Enroll Now button was previously found:

5. Depending on the notifications your organization’s learning leader has configured on the platform, you may receive a confirmation email immediately as well as a reminder notification email several days before the course begins. You will receive an email to let you know when the course has launched and during the course, you will receive automated daily notification emails (Note: these notifications are not sent if the course is unpaced). Learn more about standard course notifications.

How to unenroll from a course

1. Navigate to the My Courses page.

2. Locate the course you would like to unenroll from.

3. Click Options on the bottom left of the course tile.

4. Click Unenroll.

5. Click OK on the popup that appears. You have now been unenrolled from the course.

Can I sign up using a splash page if my organization doesn’t use the catalog?

Yes, but you will need a direct link to the course splash page in order to sign up. Ask your organization’s learning leader for the splash page link, which was likely shared via email or other communications to promote the course. Then, follow steps 2 through 5 above.

This article discusses the course notes feature, which allows learners to take notes as they learn and save the notes to their backpack.

What is the notes feature?

The notes feature allows learners to take notes during their course experience. The notes are tied to specific course activities and are saved in the learner’s backpack. Notes are always available to revisit for active accounts. 

How to take and save notes

In any course activity, the notes feature can be found in the footer, to the left of the Save for Later button, which saves the activity to the learner’s backpack. 

When the Notes button is clicked, a lined text box appears and learners can write notes in the box. The notes are automatically saved as they are written. 

To remove the lined text box, simply click the Notes button again.

Where are notes stored?

Notes are stored in a learner’s backpack. To retrieve notes and/or go to the activity where a particular set of notes was written, follow the following steps:

1. Click on the backpack icon on the top right of any course page.

2. Click Your Notes.

3. Your notes will be displayed. You can also easily navigate to your reflections, discussions posts, and all saved activities.

4. To go to a specific course activity where notes were taken, click Go to the right of any set of notes.

This article outlines the live event course activity within the course experience, including what the term “live event” means within the learning journey, how to access live events, and what to do if you cannot attend a live event.

What is a live event?

Courses in our platform often involve both asynchronous and synchronous learning alongside a cohort. Asynchronous learning can be done separately for each learner based on their schedule, while synchronous learning requires cohort members to come together at the same time for a virtual learning event. Examples of asynchronous learning include watching videos, reading information about a topic, and engaging in discussions. The best example of a synchronous learning experience is a live event activity.

Live events are typically found at the end of each course or module and are typically referred to as course “capstones”. Often after several days of asynchronous learning, live event capstones bring the cohort together to engage in meaningful dialogue facilitated by the Moderator and often incorporating the course Sponsor and/or a Faculty. Live events vary in terms of structure but often involve meaningful conversations between learners and the course Sponsor and/or Faculty.

How to access a live event

Live events can be accessed two main ways:

• Via calendar invitation: Your organization’s learning leader will likely send calendar invitation(s) for the date(s) and time(s) of all live events in the course. Those invitations should include the link(s) to join each live event via the designated meeting platform (e.g. Zoom, Teams, etc).

• Via the course: 

1. Navigate to the live event activity in the course and click on the activity. Live events are often found on the final day of a course or module and contain the action label “Live Event”.

2. On the activity page, click the Launch Event button to open the meeting room (via Zoom, Teams, etc). The meeting details are also sometimes found in the activity text.

What to do if you cannot attend a live event 

All live events are recorded and added to the respective course activity within 24 hours. If you cannot attend a live event for any reason, you can view the recording in the course activity page.

 Marking a live event activity complete

After attending a live event, you must click Mark Complete on the course activity to receive credit for completing the activity. 

This article describes the people involved in a cohort learning course experience and the roles they play in creating a successful learning experience.

What is a cohort member?

One of the main distinctions between cohort learning and other forms of learning is that cohort learning brings together a specific group of people for a specific period of time to share a learning journey. In other words, you do not take a course or program alone, you share the experience with other learners. Together, you make up a cohort and each of you is a member of that cohort. In your learning journey, you will engage in discussions in the platform, likely come together virtually in a live event capstone, and possibly meet as part of a breakout group depending on the course.

What is a Moderator?

Each cohort is guided through the course by a Moderator. Moderators engage learners throughout their learning experience, deepening their learning by facilitating discussion activities to prompt collaboration, communicating key course details, helping nudge learners who may fall behind, and hosting any live events for the cohort.

Moderators are leadership development professionals who have experience guiding corporate groups through dialogue and discovery. They have been trained on the platform and method and are certified by our company in platform moderation and discussion facilitation.

The Moderator can be found on the right side of the course home page under the label Moderator. You will be able to message the moderator using the envelope icon next to the Moderator label.

What is a course Sponsor?

Sponsors of a course are leaders, sometimes senior leaders, that champion the initiative a course is part of. Sponsors take on varying levels of involvement in each course or program, sometimes engaging in discussions in a course, attending and speaking at live events, or providing a welcome video at the beginning of a learning journey. Courses and programs can contain a varying number of Sponsors, the Sponsors can come from varying levels in the organization, and can have varying levels of involvement in the course or program. 

Sponsors are not cohort members because they are not taking the course as a learner. They may join in the discussions in the platform and view some of the course content, but they are not considered a cohort member in the platform.

The Sponsor(s) can be found on the right side of the course home page, often under the label Sponsor or Executive Sponsor. However, some organizations prefer other terms, such as Champion, and others choose to have multiple categories of Sponsors.

What is a course admin?

A course admin is someone designated by your organization’s learning leader (i.e. the person who organizes the learning journey for the cohort) to have access to the cohort taking a course. Depending on an admin’s role and level of permissions, they can view the course pages, analytics from the course, and discussions.

Each cohort has a varying number of admins and often include the organization learning leader, the Sponsor(s), the Moderator, and other project leaders involved in managing the course or program experience. 

Admins are not cohort members because they are not taking the course as a learner. They may join in the discussions in the platform and view some of the course content, but they are not considered a cohort member in the platform.

What is a course Faculty?

When courses have live event capstones, a Faculty may be in attendance as a deep subject matter expert to synthesize learnings from the week and further explore application ideas. On live events, the Faculty directly engages learners and executives in conversation, encouraging deeper thinking and application in their specific organization by bringing in new stories, best practices and appropriate application ideas.

Faculty members are credentialed with an advanced degree in the course topic and are credible in leadership, management, and executive education. Often, Faculty members practice as a consultant and teach as Adjunct Faculty, Assistant Professor, or Professor at a reputable institution.