Youtube launches Courses in India

For years, teachers have used YouTube to promote their lessons and persuade learners to join their classes off the platform. The platform is now taking broader steps to make the online video service more appealing to educators and learners and also provide more monetization avenues to the creators.

That's why Google unveiled "Courses" at its annual India conference on Monday, a feature that will seek to bring a structured learning experience to YouTube.

On YouTube Courses, teachers will be able to publish and organize their videos and provide text reading materials and questions right on the video app. They will be allowed to offer the content for free or charge a fee, the company said.

Courses will span academic subjects as well as vocational interests, and viewers who buy a Course will be able to watch the videos without ads.

The feature is currently in beta and will roll out to users in India soon, and will represent a “new monetization option for our creators,” according to the company, which added that it has partnered with several local creators to develop courses across academic and vocational subjects in various Indian languages.

YouTube Courses will be competing with platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and Udacity.