The last five years have been great for online education startups. Especially, the arrival of the pandemic has also increased its demand globally. Since the study/work from home culture is going so well, there are people with new online education platform ideas in the queue ready to make big in the eLearning field.
Though having a powerful idea in mind is great, but still, you must know well about the development process for your platform. With a mere idea, you cannot expect to get what you want. You must have a team that is reliable and will help you throughout the process of development and later in marketing. Here we discuss the essentials that will help to transform your wonderful idea into a successful eLearning project:
The Aim: Beginning from the aim, if you already have the idea of what you want from your eLearning platform you are all set to start to work on the platform. Also, you must be aware of the fact that there are three different types of eLearning platforms, and depending on your requirements you can choose the type for your eLearning platform. The three categories of eLearning platforms are:
1) Online learning platforms,
2) eLearning marketplaces,
3) eLearning web conferencing software.
The eLearning platform can be for students, for people who want to learn new skills, or for an organization that wants to train its employees. So you need to make sure which sort of eLearning platform you want to build and which audience you want to target. The development team you choose will help you figure out which platform would better suit your need and aim.
Features that Make a Perfect eLearning Platform: Though the eLearning platform can be any of the three types, some must-have features make it a perfect online learning platform. These features include the following:
1) Profile Management: An eLearning platform must have a powerful management system for both, the learner and the teacher, and in the case of a separate administrator, there has to be a separate profile management system for them too. A powerful authentication system comes under the same category, such that all the users have their unique profiles, which need a unique username to login into. Through their separate profiles, the students can track their progress, teachers can curate courses, and the administrator can offer permissions to other users and control the activities.
For a teacher, with proper profile management, it becomes easier to create courses, add study material, have different classes and students registered, such that tracking their progress becomes easier for them. Same for the learners, as they can have the records of course they completed or are under progress, track their performance, have their certificates stored, etc., on their profile. This way, the eLearning platform works in a manageable manner and becomes more user-friendly. So an eLearning platform needs to have strong profile management as well as authentication.
2)An Accessible Dashboard: The developers need to give equal importance to the look and feel of the dashboard of the eLearning platform, as they would do for the backend coding of the platform. From courses to certification and from study material to communication, everything has to be easily accessible and user-friendly. In simple words, the platform dashboard should not be messy, and the users, whether they are teachers or learners, should be able to easily find whatever they want to. The dashboard should be well organized and simple looking.
3)Course Builder and Editor: A perfect eLearning platform would be the one, where the teachers have the liberty to build courses and publish them for their students. This way, the teachers do not need to use a separate application for preparing the study material but are allowed to do the same on the eLearning platform itself, saving them time and effort.
4)A Secure Payment System: Though not all the eLearning platforms are paid, most of them are. So you need to create a strong but convenient payment gateway for the learners, so that, they can trust the platform and invest in new courses in the easiest way. Also, make sure to include all sorts of payment methods on the platform to make it more accessible for the users.
5)Communication: Along with a nice-looking dashboard, a great payment gateway, an inbuilt editor, a perfect eLearning platform must also include a proper medium of communication for the learners and the teachers. The learners should be able to contact the teachers whenever they want in case of any doubts. There must also be an option for sharing the content or connecting with the other students through social media.
So these are some of the must-have features that make a perfect eLearning platform, and now we talk about the third most important part, the ‘Cost’.
How Much One Should Invest?
The development process for an eLearning platform may vary depending upon the features, the industry, the location as well as development team. Some people just need an educational website, and some need a full-fledged platform to be used at a global level. For some people, a skilled freelance team is enough, and some hire a renowned IT firm. So the cost for developing an eLearning platform, depending on the requirement of an individual, ranges between $150 and $100000. Before deciding on how much to spend, you must clear all your needs and reach of your eLearning project.
If you are also planning to build your eLearning platform or want to know about eLearning website development, feel free to contact the experienced team of Xornor Technologies, which has been developing educational websites as well as feature-rich eLearning platforms for many years for its global clients.