Big news from Udemy this week. Starting April 4th, 2016, the price of all courses published on Udemy’s platform will be capped at $50 (click here to see their official announcement). This was a big decision for them to make, one that will likely affect thousands of online instructors who are selling their courses on Udemy’s platform. One of the biggest concerns current Udemy instructors have is how this change will impact their sales. After all, many courses on Udemy are currently priced at several hundred dollars (up to a maximum of $300). With the new changes, they’ll be forced to bring it down to the same price as other courses. Understandably, many instructors are upset about this. In this post, we’re going to look at the arguments for and against Udemy’s pricing changes, and then talk about how you can actually use this to your advantage if you’re an online course instructor on Udemy. Note: If you can’t read the full article right now, download our workbook on using Udemy’s new pricing to your advantage. Big changes to the pricing model at #Udemy. Here's how to use it to your advantage. #teachonline Click To Tweet Why Udemy changed their pricing The short story is that the majority of Udemy students never pay full price for a course. Here’s what Grégory Boutté, the VP of Content at Udemy said about their current pricing model: "Today, prices are inconsistent and complicated for students. List prices range from $9 to $300, but the reality is that 90% of sales occur with a coupon code, and at a price less than $50." Since its inception, Udemy has been notorious for running promotions with large discounts on their courses. In fact, it is not uncommon for them to promote courses at 80% or even 90% off to their database of customers. In doing so, they’ve basically trained their customers to never pay full price for a course. Instead of paying full price, most customers simply wait to receive an email with a promotion before making a purchase. Their new pricing model will help put a stop to that since they will also be changing their discount policy: "Course discounts, for both Udemy coupons and instructor coupons, will be capped at 50% off; we will also continue to support free coupons." This data is backed by other top instructors on Udemy, who agree that the massive discounting was a problem. John Colley, who teaches courses on entrepreneurship and business strategy, thinks that the new policy helps solve that problem. "I think Udemy is repositioning itself, in the market, to get away from this very heavy discounting strategy. And that is only going to be a positive thing for instructors." Scott Duffy, another big proponent of the new changes, agrees that once the massive discounting culture goes away, instructors will start seeing more impulse purchases at full prices. "We should start seeing students come to the site and just buying things. Not looking for a coupon, not looking for sales or bookmarking a course, but seeing something they want and buying it instantly. It will take some time for that to develop." Phil Ebiner, who sells his courses for $300, never gets organic sales at that price. So he actually decided to test out the new pricing by dropping his courses to $25, and he started seeing more organic sales from them. "By decreasing the course prices to under $50 and limiting it to just 7 options between $20 and $50, instructors will have a better idea about how much to charge, just based off of the limited options. Students should feel more comfortable to buy courses whenever, and not just during sales. I’m excited about the next price changes and feel like it was the best option for the long run of Udemy’s success (and the success of instructors)." Why some instructors don’t like the new pricing Now, it makes sense that a $50 cap won’t negatively affect course sales for those who never make full-price sales anyway. However, there’s a section of instructors who actually make full price sales of their courses (at $300), and it’s these instructors that aren’t happy about the changes. James McAllister is one such instructor. He teaches courses on online business and entrepreneurship, and he consistently makes sales at his price point of $197. When we spoke to him, this is what he said - "The problem with Udemy’s new pricing approach is that it completely disregards the segment of Udemy’s instructor base that brings their own customers to the platform. Some of us have spent months or even years building credibility with our following and can justify the higher price point - not only because our following has been engaged with us for so long, but because we actually know how to sell the value of our courses." Simon Kloot, a professional trader who creates high-quality financial trading and investment courses, says that selling his courses at $50 or less would actually lower its perceived value. Many similar courses are worth thousands of dollars and Simon has found success selling his courses at Udemy’s maximum allowed price. "Selling my course for $50 or less actually cheapens the content and people start to question whether it has any value at all. The thing is, unlike some of the free or extremely cheap financial courses on Udemy, I am not directing traffic to a more expensive course. What you see in my course is the whole package on how to trade from beginning to end. It is why I only ever wrote one course and why I feel it has more value than a whole series of courses that some instructors seem to churn out." Simon has a really good point because we’ve seen how pricing plays a huge role in buyer’s psychology. Higher priced products are typically seen to have more value than cheaper products. That’s why people prefer to pay hundreds of dollars for an authentic iPhone, instead of a cheap knock-off. Higher priced courses have a higher perceived value than cheap ones. #teachonline #onlinecourses Click To Tweet Another major consideration is that online courses are not completely passive. The really good instructors have assignments and quizzes, and are constantly in touch with students, coaching them through the course. As Leilani Joy says, this takes up a lot of time. "On Udemy, I was offering a 6 week art school training course, that requires me to work directly with students and provide hands-on critiques of assignments. $25 per student ($50 subtract Udemy’s 50% cut) is not even minimum wage for my time." This is the reason why millionaire course creators like Marie Forleo and Ramit Sethi don’t use Udemy, and instead, opt for their own branded site. They’ve spent years building credibility and thousands of dollars (hundred of thousands in Ramit’s case) on creating impeccable courses. Plus, the attention they give to each student is worth far more than the $25 they’ll receive from Udemy. It would simply ruin their business. What’s the verdict? Clearly, there are pros and cons to the new pricing model. Some instructors say it will help bring in more organic sales while others correctly point out that it will devalue their advanced courses. So the big question is are these changes good news or bad news for Udemy instructors? The answer is it depends. If your goal is to generate a significant income by selling courses on Udemy, you’re going to have to sell a lot of courses to make that happen. Udemy is simply not the place if you want to make it to the level of Marie and Ramit. But if your goal is exposure, publishing your course on Udemy does have some advantages… If your goal is exposure, there are some benefits to selling your course on #Udemy. #teachonline…Click To Tweet How to use Udemy’s pricing model to your advantage If you’re a current instructor on Udemy, this change to their pricing model isn’t necessarily bad news. Yes, you won’t be able to make more than $50 from a single sale of your course, but just because you can’t sell your course for more than $50 doesn’t mean there is no reason to publish a course on Udemy. Udemy is a very large platform, with millions of students from around the world. So there is value having a presence there, at least from a personal branding standpoint. Publishing a course on Udemy gives you exposure to hundreds, maybe even thousands of potential students whom you would not have been exposed to otherwise. For that reason, we’re not going to tell you not to publish any courses on Udemy. How to use the new pricing model at #Udemy to your advantage as an online instructor. #teachonline Click To Tweet Here is what we will tell you: if you’re going to publish your course on Udemy, publish the beginner version of your advanced course. For example, if you have a course that contains over 7 hours of video training (along with mentoring, personal support, access to your private Facebook group, and other things) that you can confidently sell for several hundred dollars, publish a version of that course that does not have the additional mentoring and bonuses and sell it on Udemy at a much lower price. This way, you get exposure on their platform without giving away all of your valuable knowledge, support, and expertise for an inexpensive price. And you still make a bit of money too. Heck, if all you care about is the exposure, you could even make your Udemy course available for free. If the students who take your mini course want to take their learning to the next level, invite them to check out your longer, complete version of the course (just make sure you do so without violating Udemy’s terms of use). Many of the top instructors on Udemy, like Sarah Cordiner, Vanessa Van Edwards, and Johnathan Levi follow this strategy. Sarah publishes mini-courses on Udemy just for the exposure, and then upsells them on her full course, hosted on her own branded website (powered by Thinkific). As Sarah says in her Facebook comment, Udemy is a marketplace and not an LMS (Learning Management System aka online course platform). While you can make money on it, that’s not the point of it. The point is to get exposure to a huge audience and grow your brand. It’s really a marketing channel. Once you have that exposure, and you’ve built up a brand, you can bring your audience over to your custom branded site they can buy your higher-priced courses. The point of #Udemy is to get exposure, not to make money. #teachonline Click To Tweet What if you want to sell your online course for more than $50? What do you do if want to charge more than $50 for your course?What if you want to charge $300? $500? $1,000? If you’re like James, Simon or Leilani, you might already have a full-fledged course and you don’t want to create a mini-course just for Udemy. Your course deserves to be sold at a higher price. In that case, the simple answer is: don’t publish your course on Udemy. You’ve likely spent years acquiring the knowledge and skills that have enabled you to create your course in the first place. If you provide enough value in your course to justify and confidently charge a higher price (a price that customers are willing to pay), then you should most definitely have the freedom to charge whatever you want. That is the basic premise of a free market economy, isn’t it? If you want to sell your online course for more than $50, don't publish it on #Udemy. #teachonline Click To Tweet Instead, use a platform like Thinkific, where you have full control over your courses, students, and pricing. No one is going to stop you if you want to charge more for your course. You can create a $2,000 course like Arel Moodie, and sell it with a 6-month payment plan of $375/month. The bottom line At the end of the day, Udemy is a marketplace and they get to control your students and prices. That’s their business model and they can change it if they feel like it helps their business, their instructors, and their students. Only time will tell whether this move makes sense. Fortunately, you as an instructor have an option. You don’t have to stay with Udemy if you don’t want to. At the same time, you aren’t in a contract with Udemy, meaning you can sell your courses there as well as on your own site with your own pricing. Our verdict? You don’t have to pick one or the other! Use Udemy as a marketing channel to drive traffic to your branded site where you can create a real business. With Thinkific, you can create your branded site in less than an hour! The post Udemy’s New Pricing Model: How To Use It To Your Advantage As An Online Instructor appeared first on Thinkific.

"Hope, you’re lying to us," Cecilia pointed at me. Veronica nodded her head in agreement. "You obviously know Spanish!" Let’s rewind a bit. I’m on day two of a two-day "Leading with Presence" program with participants who work at a bank in Mexico City. Because Spanish is the language in which they conduct business, I have the participants tell their stories in Spanish. These stories are personal stories—profound, even humorous moments of learning and emotional insight from their individual lives. And I don’t understand a word of it. Let’s be clear: the only Spanish I know is the kind where you walk into a restaurant and order agua and maybe a strong drink that starts with an M and rhymes with "señorita." So no, I don’t speak Spanish. But somehow, my participants are convinced that I can understand them. Why? Because despite the differences between Spanish and English, all of us speak a universal, time-tested language: expression. Expressive Techniques as Part of Presence While storytelling relies on strong Reaching Out and Self-Knowing (the R and S of The Ariel Group’s own PRES model), it also relies heavily on the E—Expressive skills. You’d think that this situation would be terrifying. Mortifying, even. But, it was actually exciting. If you think about the captivating presenters you’ve seen, you’ll probably recognize these same expressive techniques. There’s even research to back up the anecdotal power of expressive techniques. According to research conducted by UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian, in some cases what resonates with audiences isn’t what we say; it’s how we say it. His work is often oversimplified, but his research does provide the following insight: 7% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is in the words that are spoken. 38% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is paralinguistic (the way that the words are said). 55% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is in facial expression. My experience in Mexico City illustrates at least some of Mehrabian’s findings. One at a time, my participants told their stories in front of the group, and in a language I do not know. Yet, I followed the stories almost perfectly. I was able to follow the emotional arc of the story and the basic plot points through the expressive techniques they used. So well, in fact, that I was able to coach them on their deliveries. "Now, Luis, this story is about a young chef you used to mentor, correct? I want you to add a longer pause and more eye contact right after he unrolls his knives. Let’s see how that impacts the audience." Luis looked confused. "How did you know that’s what my story was about?" "Because I followed the story through the expressive tools you used. You pantomimed putting on an apron, you acted out unrolling the knives and dicing onions, you spoke softly to indicate that you were concerned about this young chef, and so on." "But the words…" Luis protested. "To an extent, the words are irrelevant if you’re being expressive enough." It was one of those moments. The kind of moment where I just taught more with a single action than I could have with hours of words. Since the dawn of civilization, people have used expression to communicate when they have no other shared language. In a more current context, think about your favorite TV shows or scenes in movies. Can you tell if a character is upset, nervous, scared, excited, even if the volume is muted? That’s the power of expression - and it’s as relevant today as when the first explorers reached the shores of distant lands. The takeaway? Even without shared language,  communication isn’t only possible, but can be enlightening, as well. Expressiveness can improve engagement and help overcome communications obstacles. It can add life to your stories. And it lends an air of authenticity and humanity to your presentations. So now that you see the value of expressiveness, you’re probably wondering - what techniques can you start using now to incorporate it? Eye contact: Focus on sharing a complete sentence or thought— with just one person —while giving a presentation. This will help create mini-connections between you and members of your audience. Change the tone: A change in pitch, attitude, or strength, such as really expressing your frustration or your excitement, will help the audience stay engaged. Speed: If you are at a point in your presentation where everything stops….it just goes quiet…rambling through that won’t make the moment as palpable. Experiment with speeding up and slowing down — and even taking pauses — during your presentations. Incorporate facial expressions and deliberate body movements: If you ever watched an actor "smell something odd," his face is telling the story more than the words. In the same way, if a person is talking about hitting a homerun, getting into the "stance" of the baseball player and taking a swing will help bring the story to life. What expressive techniques do you use? Have you been able to understand someone who speaks another language because you relied on their expressive skills? Let us know in the comments, and let’s keep the communication going. The post The Value of Expression appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related Stories5 Ways to Calm Your Nerves for PresentationsInside the Ariel Classroom: How Scared Should You Be?4 Presence Skills Salespeople Need 

The post Infographic Resource: Humans + Robots appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesInfographic Resource: Four Presence Skills Salespeople Need4 Presence Skills Salespeople NeedUse Presence to Stand out in Sales 

The most important skill for a salesperson is to build rapport and develop trust. In research surveys, it is always at the top of the list. ("Duh! Really?!? Tell me something I don’t know.") If you are a sales professional, you know that in your gut. The question you need to ask yourself is: what comes before trust? Presence. Presence - the ability to connect authentically and build relationships that inspire forward action - is each salesperson’s key to developing trust. In sharpening your presence, you differentiate yourself from competitors and make more of a positive impact with clients. Unfortunately, there is often lop-sided thinking from many sales professionals - and the leaders who manage them. Too much of the time there is an extra heavy focus on methodology and process. While methodology and process are important, and act as a helpful roadmap to good sales conversations, it’s our presence that activates those conversations, makes them memorable—and most importantly—impactful. Often, the competencies that make up presence are considered "soft skills" - and people assume that either you have them or don’t. However, there is a hard, objective way to teach people what presence is and how to develop it. Here are four tactics that will take your presence from good to great and sharpen your skills in building rapport and developing trust:   Communicate Your Unique Value  Neuroscience research tells us that we make decisions about who we like, trust, and what we buy with the emotional part of our brain. If you want to build trust, share what you care about it, why you care, and what you uniquely bring to your clients. Various experts speak and write on this topic, the most famous, as of late, is Simon Sinek - the author and speaker who asserts that the best leaders, marketers, and salespeople "Start with Why." There are millions of Sales Representatives (or Sales Executives or Account Managers or Client Specialists, or whatever your title is) in the world. To distinguish yourself, figure out your why. Why do you care about being a salesperson? How do you approach a client relationship that is specific to you? What unique skills do you bring to your sales role? Why might your client care? Answer these questions in a concise and compelling way. Then find ways to authentically communicate it to your clients.   Manage Your Physical State In poker, everyone has a "tell" - an unconscious signal that you are bluffing. The reverse is also true: You may be 100% honest with your client but something in your body language may be indicating otherwise thus diminishing your ability to build trust. Identify and adjust any blind spots you may have in how you carry yourself - especially when meeting a new prospect or during challenging client conversations - that may be perceived as less than credible.   The Voice - It’s Not Just For Singers Some research indicates that vocal tone (the intonation of your voice as you speak) accounts for less than half of the impact of your message. Often overlooked, your voice is a tool with which to carry emotion and meaning to better communicate your message. A quick short cut to using your voice is to focus on what you want your client to feel about your message. Make a specific choice: I want to warn/challenge/console/empower my client.   Do More Than Listen. Be Curious. Everyone in sales talks about listening to client needs. No brainer. Now, build a deeper relationship by bolstering your curiosity. Tap into your inner child and keep asking why. Why do they have that need? Why is it important to them (or other stakeholders) to make a change? Why would a change be beneficial? Don’t be so quick to get to the "what" and "how." Allow a deeper sense of curiosity to shift your listening to build a more authentic connection and add value by exploring the why behind your client’s needs.   These are just some of the tactics you can use to develop your presence and with them, clients will trust you enough to have a robust dialogue about their strategy and challenges. Then can you can weave in your methodology and process to take the relationship to the next stage.   Want to know about our Sales Presence product? Go here.    The post 4 Presence Skills Salespeople Need appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesUse Presence to Stand out in SalesLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part 2: Creating a Program for High PotentialsLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part I: Working at the Individual Level 

      The post Infographic Resource: Four Presence Skills Salespeople Need appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesInfographic Resource: Humans + Robots4 Presence Skills Salespeople NeedUse Presence to Stand out in Sales 

Want to stand out from your sales competition? Teach your team presence skills. Presence is the ability to connect authentically with clients, build trust and inspire forward action. It can ignite your existing process and methodology and differentiate your team from others. To learn more about the impact presence can have on your sales team — and your company’s bottom line — read my blog Stand out From Your Sales Competition with Presence on The Baron Group blog. The post Use Presence to Stand out in Sales appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related Stories4 Presence Skills Salespeople NeedHow Sales Presence Impacts ClientsSpreading Positive Gossip: The Power of Third-Party Praise 

...

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) conducted research into the skills, challenges, and trends in instructional design. As they state, the primary purpose was to focus on instructional design competencies and the designer’s role in talent development. ATD conducted a survey of 1,381 instructional designers and has released a whitepaper on the top competencies required to be effective in the profession.  ATD used this information to determine if there has been a shift in the instructional design field, especially as a result of the constant evolution of technology. Interestingly, the research did not show a significant change. Determining learners’ needs and designing training programs remain the core competencies.   You can read the full report (or just get a better view of the one-page infographic on the research results) on the ATD website.   

The reality of compliance training for most organizations goes something like this: Legal responsibilities and regulatory requirements continue to increase, budgets shrink, and seat time pressures rise — not quite the formula for a winning training solution. Here are 5 top tips for maximizing your compliance training experience. How To Maximize The Impact Of Your […] The post 5 Top Tips To Maximize Your Compliance Training Experience appeared first on PulseLearning.

Michele Osinski is a 5th Grade Teacher at Temecula Valley Unified School District. She's been to 6 EdTechTeam Summits featuring Google for Education and we wanted to know what keeps her coming back for more! She just came full-circle back to Las Vegas a year later after 6 Summits! Her partner in crime is Rosalinda Jaimes, and together, they are the TechFairies.3 Reasons to Return: Confessions of a JunkieThe most interesting thing about being a life-long learner, to me, is that even after 30 years of teaching, I am never satiated. I am never stagnant. I MUST know more, and often to the detriment of my need for sleep, I feel like I must know everything. Before he passed, my father asked me "How do you know all of this stuff? You didn't go to college to learn about computers!" Honestly, I learned by doing (shout out to Cal Poly!), as I hope my students will. My students know that I know some things, but I am happy to learn right alongside them as we continue integrating more technology into our classroom. I am a teacher who very much believes in student choice and autonomy, and have found that Google tools help me to facilitate teaching and guiding learning in these ways.So, backtrack to November of 2014 when I saw a tweet or post or got an email (or who knows how or where) about a "Google Conference" in Las Vegas. It had been a while since I’d been to Vegas, and I am always looking for an excuse to travel. I approached my classroom-neighbor and co-teacher, Rosalinda, waving the "Las Vegas carrot" in front of her and told her we HAD to go. We are blessed with a forward-thinking principal who agreed to pay for our registration fees and we agreed to pay for our travel expenses. There was a price, however: we had to agree to train our site’s teachers. This was an easy trade as we knew how hungry our colleagues were to grow in order to help their students grow. Our district had gradually switched over to being a GAFE organization, and we were feeling fairly confident in our implementation of a few things, but we knew there had to be more. Oh, yes. There is more. So much more.We arrived Saturday morning at the Southwest Career and Technical Academy really having no idea of what we were in for. By the end of the day, we were looking at each other, astounded, and had trouble putting into words what we were feeling. We’d been bitten by the Googlebug. BADLY. On Monday (hey, we had to play a bit!), we headed home… planning all the way. We talked and talked and Ro typed copious notes as I drove. We had a lot to try, and thankfully our students were exceptionally curious. As it turned out, they were more than willing to jump into the deep end of the Googlewater with us. Neither of us was afraid of asking them to learn with us and teach us what they discovered. We also knew that our fellow educators in Temecula Valley needed a EdTechTeam Summit. We immediately began the process of convincing our district-level administration that this needed to happen. On the eve of my fifth Summit, HERE IN TEMECULA, I was asked to share why I keep coming back. I warned the EdTechTeam that I’m a writer, but I’ll do my best to keep this as focused as possible.Reason #1: The information. Things change so fast. There is always something new. Through social media, we are kept abreast of most changes, but with only 140 characters, most of the in-coming information needs more investigation. Which leads me to the next reason - which really should be #1, but it didn’t flow as well…Reason #2: The people. The EdTechTeam and the other people I have met, be they presenters or fellow-attendees share the same passion that I do: we want the best for our students. We want them to be prepared for their futures; we need to help develop flexible learners who can collaborate and communicate well. The people I have met at the Summits have become friends and mentors, and we are able to stay connected through social media. I feel completely supported in my endeavors to stay abreast of all of the new information and hope that I can do the same for others. I feel encouraged to go back to my colleagues and my students and push them to try new things.Reason #3: The format. As stated before, I learn best through participation. Sitting and listening to lectures is not going to work for me, let alone interest me. I have been thoroughly engaged in all of my sessions and encouraged by presenters who offered opportunities to put new ideas to work immediately. Whether a presentation is focused on tools to make instruction or management easier or tools for our students, each has ideas that can be implemented in my classroom the next day.So there you have it. Three reasons why I keep coming and WILL keep coming back for more GAFE Summits. Coming full circle, in February, I attended my SIXTH GAFE Summit - as a presenter - in Las Vegas, where it all began. I was able to sit alongside new-to-all-of-this teachers in a few of my sessions, see the shock and awe in their eyes, and help them along. I made more new friends and grew my PLN; I enjoyed hanging out with my "tribe". I just submitted my "Request for Presenters" for the Pomona (LA County) Summit in March. It is so FUN to find passion for something new this late in my career. And, I feel privileged to support "experienced" teachers who may be resistant to or afraid of technology. There is nothing easier to adapt to than Google Apps for Education.Confessions of a Google Summit Junkie.