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Get your employees excited about learning by leading a book club–style discussion or "course club". You and your employees choose topics together and create a learning community while moving toward common upskilling goals.

Why Course Club works

People want and need to feel connected. Social learning gives peers this chance, which often leads to wanting to learn more. Group discussions on shared learning reinforce and deepen how to apply new concepts at work, making them relevant for each team member.

How to get started 

Have your employees take a course or short lecture for time-strapped teams, then invite them to an informal conversation to share what they've learned. Use our AI Assistant to suggest courses on any topic.

Follow these 5 simple steps to start your course club:

1. Pick your course and format 

Choose your course

We recommend selecting a course that's one hour or less. Save time by using our AI Assistant to suggest courses on particular topics for your team. Or start with a 10-minute lecture if your team is time-strapped? Check out Smart Tips courses, which consist of 5–7-minute lectures that act as bite-sized micro-learning for employees.

Create a learning path 

Alternatively, you can create a learning path and customize it to include your desired courses, lectures and internal or external resources. Our AI-powered learning paths help you quickly generate a learning path on any topic, skill or concept.

Assign an AI-powered role play 

You can assign a role play to your team to practice skills before the course club. This takes 5-7 minutes and generates an AI-created scenario where learners interact with an AI character to complete tasks.

Download the app 

Invite learners to download the Udemy Business app so they can watch lectures on their commute or listen to audio at the gym or on walks.

2. Plan your first session 

Format and location

Anyone can host - a leader, power learner, or subject matter expert to endorse the club and encourage attendance. Decide on in-person or online, and choose the venue if needed.

Timing

Pick a time accommodating different time zones. Keep discussions to an hour or less - even 10 minutes at meeting starts can be impactful. Never underestimate micro-learning. Give enough lead time: 30 days for longer courses, a week for short lectures.

Who to invite

Consider people already enrolled in the course, send open calendar invitations to your team/organization, or create a Slack/Teams channel to share the course link and discussion questions.

Agenda

Prepare talking points and activities to keep things flowing. Create a simple slide deck if helpful. Use AI to generate discussion questions - our in-course AI Assistant can suggest questions for useful discussions and brainstorming.

3. Launch the course club

Send a calendar invite - Use the template below — including an email, Slack/Teams message, and executive announcement for an all-hands or team meeting — to invite people to take the course and attend the discussion.

Executive announcement

4. Host the discussion 

• You don't need to be a subject-matter expert, but take the course and come prepared.
• Engage participants with open-ended questions, follow up on responses, and probe interesting points.
• You don't need all answers - redirect questions to the group or follow up later.
• Encourage interaction using whiteboards, sticky notes, and invite quieter members to participate.
• Tell stories to reinforce concepts - they're more memorable than data.
• Recap key ideas at the end if possible.
• End on time and thank everyone for coming!

5. Evaluate the experience 

Gather feedback

Send an anonymous post-meeting survey to attendees for honest insights on what worked and what didn't. 

Need more support?

Want additional ideas for fine-tuning your course club? Reach out to your customer success partner for expert guidance

Good luck launching your course club!