The Library provides the eLearning service Gale Presents: Udemy. Udemy is a consumer-driven online learning platform, and Gale is the company that makes its Udemy portal available to libraries. You have the option to sign into Udemy with a Google or Microsoft account, or instead you can create your own Gale account to sign in.

Accessing Gale Presents: Udemy

There are 2 main steps:

1. Library login: First, Gale must verify that you are a valid Library patron by asking for your Library card number.
    
2. Udemy login: Next, in order to keep your learning private and track progress, you must create your own Udemy account. There are 3 ways to do this:
   • Sign up for a Gale account with an email address and a password.
   • Sign in with a Google account.
   • Sign in with a Microsoft account.

Once you successfully sign into Udemy using your Gale, Google, or Microsoft account, you can begin learning!

Background Information

Gale is a Cengage Learning company accustomed to providing digital resources to libraries. Gale partnered with Udemy, a consumer-driven online learning platform, to bring the Udemy Business and international curated course collections to libraries. Gale's system is primary built to verify that users are part of a particular library, not any specific details about the users themselves. Udemy functions differently, requiring information about individual users in order to create private learning accounts. The companies work together to do both: verify valid library patrons then send individuals to their private accounts.

To access your private Udemy account, you have the option to create your own Gale account, secured by Okta. To sign up, provide an email address, create a password, and enter a first and last name. After the first time, you'll sign in with that email address and password.

Alternatively, you have the option to sign in through Google or Microsoft, which may be convenient if you already have a personal, work, or school account supported by either of these services. If you choose this login method, Gale uses the quasi-IdP (Identity Provider) services built into Google and Microsoft accounts and requires that you grant permission for your Google or Microsoft account to provide some basic user information to Gale in order to create your Udemy account.

Note: When Gale Presents: Udemy first launched, users only had the option to sign into Udemy using a Google or Microsoft supported account. Later Gale developed the alternative method of creating a separate Gale account, to provide users more options.

Share your thoughts

Udemy has been in the consumer market since 2010 but is relatively new to libraries. They have partnered with Gale, a well-respected library content provider, to adapt their product to meet library needs. This is a work in progress. Gale and Udemy are fine-tuning their systems based on feedback from library users, and the Library is providing access to this product now for our patrons who would like to explore Udemy content immediately and shape its future in libraries. If you would like to share your thoughts, please contact us.