Skillshare requires all classes to meet a minimum level of engagement to remain on the platform. This is part of our efforts to ensure the global community of Skillshare members has access to engaging, fresh, and quality content; and to further support our teachers in finding meaningful success on the platform.

In this article:

• Why does Skillshare have a class performance requirement?
• What is the class performance requirement?
• How do I check if my class meets the class performance requirement?
• What can I do to meet this requirement?

Why does Skillshare have a class performance requirement?

There are a few reasons we introduced this class performance requirement (previously called the Class Engagement Requirement). We want you to be as confident as we are that this decision best serves the Skillshare community of students and teachers alike.

Feedback From Our Teachers and Students

A major reason we enforce this requirement is because of ongoing feedback from our community of teachers and students. When we survey them, students frequently share that they love the catalog of content they find on Skillshare, but often struggle to find the best classes amidst content with minimal engagement and low reviews. Similarly, teachers have shared concerns that their content can be difficult to discover onsite amidst older classes and classes that aren't being watched. We believe we can improve both the student and teacher experience by closing these classes that are not adding value for our students.

How Class Performance Impacts Membership

Another important reason is based on data. If a student interacts with an older class that has low engagement performance, they are far less likely to keep watching other classes and stick with Skillshare, meaning they do not renew their membership, or subscribe at all. Meanwhile, those students who take more engaging classes are far more likely to subscribe and renew as Skillshare members. This tells us that if we’re not providing students with a catalog of engaging classes, they will not see the value in subscribing. And as we all know, we want to grow the number of subscribers so they can discover the many great classes you all do offer, and thus contribute to your earnings.

Meaningful Success for Teachers

Finally and very importantly, we want to ensure teachers find meaningful success on Skillshare. We have learned that teachers find the most success — and by success we mean they reach the most students, earn the most money, feel a part of our community, and are inspired in their creative lifestyle as a result — when they commit to publishing great new classes consistently and take responsibility for marketing and promoting those classes. If a class is languishing with minimal engagement and low reviews, we know the teacher isn’t reaping benefits from that class.

What is the class performance requirement?

All classes on Skillshare are required to meet a minimum threshold of class engagement performance. This threshold only applies to classes that have been on Skillshare for 12 months or more, as we know it can take time to build up engagement in new classes.

Your class will be subject to removal if all of the following are true:

• Your class has been on Skillshare for more than a year (at least 365 days); AND
• Your class has less than a 2.5 average rating or no reviews at all, or has not received a positive review in the last 12 months. A class’s average review rating is calculated by adding the value of your reviews, for example “Not really” = 1 and “Exceeded!” = 4, and dividing by the total number of reviews.
• In addition, your class has accrued fewer than 900 minutes watched in each month in the past year; AND
• Your class has accrued fewer than 600 minutes watched total across the past 3 months (90 days).

If just one of the above criteria does not apply to your class, then it will not be subject to removal. By only removing classes where all of the above are true, we are aiming to ensure that this guideline does not impact classes that have been enjoyed by students in the recent past even if current engagement has slowed. All new classes that have solid performance or have positive reviews will not be affected.

How do I check if my class meets the class performance requirement?

Explore your Class Stats to check on the recent minutes watched in your classes.

• In support of this requirement, you can see an entire history of a class’s stats in the table on the bottom of the Class Stats page.
• While in Months view, click See More at the bottom of the table to expand the whole history of the class’s stats and also see the month the class was originally published in.
• Visit Where can I find information on my class performance and earnings? to learn more.

You can also check out the reviews for your class from your class stats dash. Visit Where are my class reviews displayed? if you need help finding them.

Most importantly, as of June 2022, we will reach out to you directly if one of your classes does not meet the requirement and may be closed as a result.

Here’s how the process will work:

• Our Moderation team will regularly review all classes to determine if they meet the class performance requirement.
• If one of your classes does not meet the requirement, they will reach out to you directly at the email address associated with your teaching account to give you notice that this class will be closed. A closed class will no longer be discoverable by students, but you will be able to see it as Closed in your classes.
• Keep in mind that we will regularly review classes, so you will need to continue promoting engagement in a class to meet this requirement.
• If you feel a negative review is unfair or inaccurate, please let our Moderation team know when they reach out to you.
• Please also keep in mind that our Trust & Safety team conducts regular checks for fraudulent activity (e.g. duplicate accounts for the same person watching a class to increase minutes), and any minutes accrued in this way, or through any means which violate our terms or guidelines, are regularly removed. For more information on our Trust & Safety procedures, visit Why did my minutes watched decrease?

What can I do to meet this requirement?

To meet the class performance requirement, each class will need to accrue a minimum number of minutes watched each month, maintain some viewership over the long-term, and have positive reviews. (Specific criteria is defined above.)
The great news is that there are lots of ways you can boost engagement in your classes, and it may come as no surprise that these are the same tips for finding success that we already share with our teachers!

1. In general, we always encourage you to craft an engaging class from the outset. This starts with creating quality content, and continues with facilitating engagement amongst your students once the class is published. Head to our Class Quality Guidelines for our minimum requirements for crafting a quality class and to Engage Your Students for general guidance on student engagement.
2. The next thing you can do to ensure your class meets our engagement requirements is to promote it! This is best practice not just when your class is brand new, but also when it’s been published for some time. Wondering how to promote an older class? We’ve got heaps of great ideas in Promote Your Class, and we recommend you check out our new blog post with class marketing tips for older classes.
3. Encourage students to leave a review! You can suggest this in the last, outro video of each class. For more tips on how this works, visit Receive Student Reviews.
4. Refer new students to your class using your referral link. This is a best practice for class marketing and promotion, and worth an extra shout-out here. If you’re new to teaching on Skillshare or to building a community online, it can feel intimidating to drum up engagement. However, it can be as simple as inviting your friends, family, and colleagues to check out your class. Refer to Where can I find my referral links? to learn how you can retrieve your referral link for your class, and check out this blog post for more referral ideas, Teacher Tips: Boost Your Referrals with these Creative Tips & Tricks.

If you have any questions or feedback about the class performance requirement, please reach out to us at teach@skillshare.com.