Are you one of those still wondering if it is worth learning at Skillshare or not? Then, this page is for you; because I will share my honest (both good and bad) and real life experience of learning at Skillshare for a couple of years
Introduction to Skillshare
Skillshare is an e-learning platform which offers thousands of courses for curious and creative people, on topics like illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more. At Skillshare, you will find millions of users coming together to find inspiration and taking the next step in their creative journey.
With more than 27,000 instantly accessible online courses, Skillshare is an online learning platform for users like you, where you can enroll yourself and attend thousands of courses after paying a monthly or annual subscription fee.
Skillshare also allows it’s users to sign up as an instructor, and create their courses. By doing so, everyone can earn money depending upon the number of people watch their course materials.
But, the above details doesn’t necessarily mean that the Skillshare would be the most suitable e-learning platform for you too. So, carefully ready the details given below and then make a decision about your online education. And if you need more online education tips, read this article.
| Pros: • Large variety of courses • Top teachers can earn up to $100,000 from Skillshare • Skillshare has an app • Skillshare workshops • Unlimited access to all the courses after subscription • One month free trial |
| Cons: • No accredited certification • Lack of Real Person Support • Difficult cancellation process |
What to learn at Skillshare?
Courses at Skillshare include almost all the subjects one can think of, including:
- Business and Entrepreneurship – from venture capital to basic freelancing.
- Technical Subjects – from Search Engine Optimisation to Windows Server administration.
- Writing – from creative writing and self publishing to spanning business texts.
- Accounting and Finance – from learning financial software to courses on book-keeping.
- Programming – from data science to app development.
- Lifestyle Courses – from language learning to cookery.
- Creative Topics – from handicrafts to fashion photography.
All you have to do, is to use the search function and search for whatever you wish to learn. For all the subjects, you will find a large selection of courses to choose from.
The above discussion provides you with the information about different subjects taught at the Skillshare. I’m sure you must be curious to know about the pricing of Skillshare.
Skillshare Pricing and Free Trial
Skillshare has a subscription model. You would be paying a fixed amount every month or for full year and get unlimited access to every workshop and course present at the website.
Means, if you don’t like a course due to any reason, you can drop it and try any other course of the same or a different topic. This is a great option because at other channels of e-learning like Coursera and Udemy users have to sign up and make payment for each course.
The basic membership of Skillshare is free of cost for the 1st month; whereas, the Premium membership costs $1 for first couple of months. After that, Premium membership costs $19 per month, or you can choose to pay $99 upfront for the whole year.
If you think it’s too expensive, you can also avail an interesting referral scheme. Skillshare gives away two month free trial to your friends, with that you get a free month which you can use to continue your study without making any payment. You can even download classes after downloading Skillshare app, on your mobile.
The above discussion provides you with the significant details about the pricing of Skillshare e-learning courses. I feel that the charges at Skillshare are justified because you can access a large variety of courses for the same price. However, I would be glad if you share with me your opinion about the pricing of Skillshare courses.
Sign Up and Get Started
It is very easy for you to sign-up at the Skillshare. All you need to provide are; your name and password. You can also sign up via a Google account or Facebook.
You get a free trial of one month, but you would also give your card details such that amount can be taken if you decide to continue your Skillshare membership. At this stage, you have to decide if you wish to pay annually or monthly. Make sure to choose the right option prior to further proceeding.
Afterwards, users are encouraged to pick a few subjects they take particular interest in. Skillshare can make suitable course recommendations. One may also save some courses at the profile to start your own path of learning.
The process – starting from the recommendations of course to the largest library of materials in access by only paying one subscription fee – does give Skillshare very much similar to a “Netflix for learning.”
I’m sure that after reading the above discussion, you’ll find it a lot easier to sign up yourself at the Skillshare. Did you know that you can even earn money at Skillshare? Let me tell you about how you could earn money at Skillshare.
Making money at Skillshare
If you are an expert and you create your own courses and lessons; you can certainly make money at the Skillshare.
Afterwards, you will be paid a royalty depending upon the number of minutes users have watched your classes at Skillshare.
But, it isn’t very easy. You only earn revenue if your video is collectively watched by the student for at least 30 minutes in a month.
According to Skillshare their top instructors earn more than $100,000 every year. Teachers are paid from the money that derives from a “royalty pool.” According to Skillshare 30-50% of the revenue they use to pay to the teachers is earned through the premium memberships.
However, after reading the readers reviews I discovered that Skillshare instructors usually earn almost $200 every month and top teachers even earn more than $3000 every year.
It would be great if any of the teachers reading this review would give their valuable feedback.
Discussion About Pros Of Skillshare
After using Skillshare for more than 2 years, let me tell you some of the most significant advantages of using Skillshare service.
1. Huge variety of on-demand video lessons:
Skillshare contains one of the most extensive catalogs of courses in the industry which includes a large variety of topics.
2. Wide range of expert instructors:
I find Skillshare teachers to be very skilled, informative, and entertaining.
3. High-quality “Original” classes:
Skillshare’s in-house ‘Original’ classes are very well structured, very-well built, and deliver high-quality learning.
4. Mobile App for Android / iPhone:
You can make your time more productive and easily attend classes if you have the iPhone Skillshare.
After signing up for your Skillshare Premium account, you can access your account from various devices including computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. However, Skillshare has no app for the Windows phones, Firestick, Roku and Apple TV.
5. Downloadable Offline Watching:
The Skillshare allows users to download classes. This can be only done on the app, however.
6. Free Trial of 1-Month:
First month’s free trial is very effective and helpful in deciding if you wish to continue your Skillshare membership using the paid membership.
7. No Boundaries
The option of cancelling the membership anytime keeps your mind relaxed.
8. Frequent Addition of the Classes
There is an addition of 10 classes each day at the website.
9. Group workshops
Skillshare Workshops provide a great way to the teacher and the Skillshare team to take classes according to a designated schedule when many students are able to take the class at the same time. The additional support and structure of a workshop allows to keep the classes on complete your projects successfully.
Discussion About Cons Of Skillshare
Although, there are many positive aspects of Skillshare, but there are few things you must know before deciding to study through Skillshare.
1. No Completion Certificate:
Skillshare does not offer certificate after completion of the course. Although, e-learning certificates are mostly not accredited, but certificates offer a great sense of achievement to the students.
2. Teaching quality may fluctuate:
While attending online classes at Skillshare, I felt that quality was compromised in classes conducted by some of the community-based educators.
3. The Complexity of the Class Cancellation Process:
According to user reviews, Skillshare’s cancellation process is very complicated and the user has to confirm several times that he is willing to cancel. Things become even worse, when you get the bill for something that you think have been canceled.
Also, if a user cancels his subscription during the free trial, he would become ineligible to access Skillshare Premium, even if he cancels his subscription on the first day.
4. No Accreditation
Unfortunately, courses at Skillshare are not accredited. Although, it was rumoured but considering the quality of teaching of their user-based and in-house teachers it would be difficult for the company to provide accredited certification.
5. Support System
A major issue reported by the users of Skillshare is that there is lack of support which is carried out a real person. In spite of a lot of FAQs, an extensive and expert knowledge-base, and instructional blogs, presence of real support matters alot. It is a bit sad, and people wish to see further addition of phone support and live chat.
Conclusion
After reading the above discussion, you can conclude that Skillshare is a well-rounded e-learning platform that contains course materials for the creative minds, teachers, entrepreneurs, and those willing to invest in their personal development. Although, you wouldn’t get an accredited certification after the course but the ability to access 27,000+ video classes with just paying $8.25/mo is certainly a good deal. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that at a competitive price Skillshare is offering incredible value to its users.