Skillshare

• Nontraditional Schooling
• Free Trial
• Premium Perks

Nontraditional Schooling

Skillshare is proud to focus on reinventing learning as it strives to break away from the "degree" mold and provide students with an innovating and intriguing training program to learn new skills. The online classes are full of creative online discussions and self-paced learning. Skillshare's training courses range from design to business to technology, and for a competitive price, users have unlimited access to thousands of interactive online courses and communication platforms to share projects and ideas. 

Each program offers short, on-demand video training from teachers who actually work in the subject field. The online classes are designed to help students complete their work on their own time, helping students progress at their own pace while still continuing to interact with other students and instructors throughout the duration of the class. Most instructional videos range from 45 minutes to an hour, which helps to hold the attention of the students and also provide significant time to complete assignments and projects while still maintaining a regular social schedule.

Free Trial

Skillshare also offers a free 2-month trial for new users that gives you unlimited access to Skillshare's course catalog of over 24,000 classes. If students like the material, they can then access classes anytime by paying $15 monthly or $99 for an annual premium membership. There is no contract so members can cancel their subscription at any time. In short, Skillshare is setting itself apart from the competition in three significant ways:

• Charges a comparatively low monthly fee for unlimited access to the online learning platform
• Provides offline learning for users on the go
• Gives a 14-day free trial, also with unlimited access

Premium Perks

When signing up for a premium membership, members receive the following perks:

• Unlimited access to over 24,000 classes
• Ability to download classes within the app to watch later
• No ads
• Support Teachers
• Scholarships
• Get discounts on services and benefits*

*Annual premium membership only ($99/year) 

• Traditional Education Seekers
• Unclear Course Access

Traditional Education Seekers

For learners who are looking to have one-on-one contact with an instructor or teacher, who are wishing to be tested and quizzed on a regular basis, or who are hoping for a "typical classroom structure" Skillshare is not the appropriate option. 

This company also doesn't offer any proof of completing a course to be used in the workforce. Teachers and courses aim to help others learn new skills in their respective fields with an online learning community, not provide certification. 

Lastly, not all instructors are certified teaching professionals. Class videos can be taught by nearly anyone (this is not to discount the level of learning possible) and are not generated through Skillshare's internal company. This makes an traditional, instructor-led training even less likely.

Unclear Course Access

Skillshare offers those who are hesitant to sign up access to watch the beginning clip on thousands of their free classes. This gives potential members a feel for how the classes on Skillshare work. To unlock the rest of the course, Skillshare requires either a free or premium membership. 

However, if members only have the free membership, venturing beyond the free classes page can be frustrating since most of the classes require the premium membership to access the entire course. There is also no way to see which classes are a part of the premium membership. So members won’t know if they have access to the entire class until they click on it.