Shaw Academy – Online Courses

About Shaw Academy – Online Courses

So I got Shaw Academy because I’m tired of ordering takeout every Tuesday after work, you know? I wanted to actually learn some proper cooking skills without signing up for some expensive in-person class. The app promises a bunch of courses in different areas—business, photography, cooking, that sort of thing. I picked the culinary diploma because I’m a total beginner who can barely boil pasta without burning it. After three days, I can tell it’s not a polished experience like Duolingo or something, but the content itself is decent. The lessons are video-based with a teacher talking through recipes and techniques. It feels a bit like old-school online courses, not super flashy, but the info is solid. My main frustration is the app layout—it’s clunky and sometimes I tap on a lesson and it just hangs. I’m on an iPhone 15 Pro, so it’s not my phone being slow. Still, I’ve already made one decent pasta dish from the first module, so it’s not a total waste.

Core Features

The big selling point is the library of courses, which is pretty broad. You pick a “diploma” path, like culinary or photography, and it guides you through modules step by step. Each lesson is a video ranging from 10 to 30 minutes, followed by a short quiz or assignment. There’s also a live class feature where they stream lessons at set times—I haven’t tried that yet because I’m usually busy at 7 PM on a Thursday. The app sends push notifications reminding you to do your daily lesson, which I find annoying because I don’t like apps bugging me. There’s also a progress tracker that shows your percentage through the course, which is nice for motivation. But honestly, the search function is terrible—I typed “pasta” and got results for digital marketing. That’s not helpful. And the video player doesn’t let you speed up playback, which drives me nuts because the teacher talks kind of slow. You can download videos for offline watching, which is great because my subway commute has zero signal. No transcripts or captions that I can find, which sucks if you’re in a noisy place.

Real-World Use

I used this on a Sunday afternoon after grocery shopping. I had bought ingredients for a simple tomato sauce recipe from lesson three. The app walks you through it, but the video was shot in a studio kitchen with fancy equipment. I’m in my tiny apartment with a scratched pan and a wooden spoon. Still, the technique worked—I learned how to properly sauté garlic without burning it, which is a win for me. The problem is the app crashed twice during the video, and I had to restart from the beginning. That was annoying because I was holding a hot pan. On the plus side, the community forum in the app had people posting their results, and someone named Rachel gave me a tip on using less oil. That felt genuine. I also tried a photography course just to see, and the same issues popped up—choppy interface, videos that buffer even on Wi-Fi. It’s not a smooth experience, but if you’re patient, you can learn something. I wouldn’t use this for professional certification, but for casual skill-building, it’s okay.

Pricing & Value

The app is free to download, and you get a 7-day trial of their “premium” content, which includes full courses and live classes. After that, it’s something like $29 per month, I think. I haven’t hit the paywall yet because I’m still in the free trial, but I saw the pricing in the app info. For $29 a month, it feels steep for what you get, especially when YouTube has free cooking tutorials. But the structured course format does help if you’re like me and need a plan. I’m not sure I’ll subscribe after the trial ends—maybe if they fix the bugs. There’s also a “diploma” certificate you can get if you finish, but I don’t know how much that’s worth in the real world. Probably not much. I’d say value depends on how serious you are. If you’re just curious, stick with the free trial and bounce.

Updates & Support

I had an issue on day two where a lesson wouldn’t mark as complete even after I watched the whole thing. I contacted support through the in-app chat, which felt like sending a message into the void. They responded three days later via email—Emily from support—and gave me a link to reset the progress. That fixed it, but man, three days for a simple bug? For a paid service, that’s not great. The app says it gets updated “regularly” but I checked the App Store and the last update was two months ago, so I’m not holding my breath. There’s no FAQ section in the app that actually helps—it’s just generic stuff about logging in. Support was polite though, I’ll give them that. Just slow.

Data & Privacy

I’m the type who reads the privacy policy before hitting “agree,” and Shaw Academy’s is a bit of a red flag. They collect your email, name, device ID, and usage data. They also say they share data with “third-party partners” for marketing, which I hate. I noticed they use tracking cookies on their website too—I checked because I’m paranoid. The app asked for permission to send notifications and access my photos, which I denied because why does a cooking course need my camera roll? I also spotted that they use a third-party analytics service called Amplitude. That’s not uncommon, but combined with the vague “partners” language, it makes me uneasy. For a free trial, I’ll tolerate it, but I wouldn’t put my real info in there. Honestly, if privacy is your thing, this app might not sit well with you.