For the eLearning service Gale Presents: Udemy, you have the option to create your own Gale account to sign into Udemy, or you can sign in through a Google or Microsoft account, which you may already have for personal, work, or school purposes.

If you choose to sign into Udemy using Google or Microsoft, Gale will need you to grant certain permissions from these services. These are the minimum permissions necessary to create a "user" token. Gale does not store this information but transmits it to Udemy in an encrypted string that Udemy decrypts upon receipt. Udemy uses that authenticated token to create your personal account and keep your learning history, lists, and user dashboard private so only you have access to that information.

Here’s why those permissions are requested:

Google permissions

For Gale to create a user account, the minimum permissions required are:

• View and manage Gale’s own configuration data in your Google Drive

For Gale to perform functions such as saving documents from Gale’s Udemy portal to your Google Drive, the required permissions are:

• View and manage Google Drive files and folders that you have opened or created with the Udemy application

Microsoft permissions

For Gale to create a user account, the minimum permissions required are:

• Maintain access to data you have given Gale access to
• Have full access to the Gale/Udemy application's folder
• Sign you in and read your profile.

For Gale to perform functions such as saving documents from Gale’s Udemy portal to your Microsoft OneDrive, the required permissions are:

• Have full access to your files lets the service perform functions such as saving documents from Udemy to your Microsoft OneDrive.

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.