I saw a meme on LinkedIn recently that stuck with me.
It was an image of a child, surrounded by apples. Each apple had a single bite out of it. The caption read: “Me and my Udemy courses”.
How many apples did you bite?
Does this hit home for you? It did for people on LinkedIn. Lots of people liked and reposted the meme. I took some time to read the comments:
- Only 2 people claimed that they finished their courses. That was less than 5% of the people who commented.
- People substitued Coursera, YouTube, LinkedIn Learning and “old-school” books for Udemy in the caption.
- One person wrote: “Not relateable at all. I’ve got plenty of courses I didn’t even start!”
A match made in corporate heaven
Companies love online courses. Chances are good that your company has bought a licence Udemy or LinkedIn courses.
In theory, this type of training allows more employees access to more training at their own pace. To make managers happy, there are dashboards with completion metrics and skill assessments.
In practice, it is the cheapest way to check the box that says “We provide training for our employees”. It makes it easy to prove that training took place, even if learning didn’t.
The AI apple-cart
Online courses are built on the myth that content equals learning. Upload some videos, sprinkle in a few quizzes, and add a certificate – you have created education.
And now AI is here to help. And by help, we mean flood the internet with thousands of new courses on every possible topic. No human needed, not even to narrate the video.
Welcome to the age of infinite online courses. More apples. More bites. But not more learning.
I ate my apples – sort of
We have so many ways to hack the course dashboard. Leave the video running while you do something else. Skip to the last video and click “Mark as Complete”. Take a photo of the quiz answers so that you can pass it next time.
I like to believe I am more disciplined than most people. I’ve enrolled for a few online courses. Some free, some expensive.
One free course was compulsory for a competition. While the topic (drugs in sport) was interesting, I didn’t think it was relevant for me. So I went through it as quickly as possible. I retook the quizzes until I passed. I don’t remember much. I have a certificate.
I enrolled for another free course. I got bored. I skimmed to find out what content was covered. I skipped the group assignments. I don’t remember anything. I have a certificate.
Then I committed to an expensive online course. I watched everything, made notes, did the practical. But my context was very different to that of most participants. So I had difficulty applying the knowledge. I learned some important things. But not enough to justify the cost.
The fourth course was on the same topic as the third course. It was the most useful. It had the most real interaction. I had a series of one-on-one video sessions with a coach. That made a big difference.
It’s not about the content
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The most valuable part of any course is the instructor.
Remember school? It wasn’t the textbook that made a difference. It was the teacher.
Good instructors don’t just read out content. They adapt and inspire. They explain in different ways. They turn confusion into clarity. They show you what is possible.
People don’t want content. For that, they have Google and Co-pilot. They want context. They want a guide, a human who says: “No, that’s not quite right. Let me explain again.”
Online courses are great for the budget. But if we’re serious about learning, we need to rethink this strategy. Because one bite doesn’t plant an apple tree.
What’s your experience with online training? Have you finished all your apples? I’d love to hear your comments.