Online Course Platforms

What are Online Course Platforms?

Online course platforms help users create, host, secure, customize, and launch informational products using a friendly user interface. One major downside about using these platforms is how complicated the entire process can be.

There are a variety of different types of platforms, including WordPress plugins, marketplaces, and self-hosted options that have overcrowded the market in a positive way. Each available option covers every income level and need.

With all of this being said, it can cost between $200 and $800 for a course platform. If a user chooses hastily, they may end up with a platform that doesn’t work for them. While online course creation has been shown to improve a company’s overall bottom line, no one can achieve this right away.

First, there must be some potential students that a person can market their course to. Course creators should also ask the students to provide them with feedback on their courses while they are still in development.

Expertise is another requirement for teaching online courses. A person must be able to provide value while they are talking to their students in front of a camera. Courses with bad reviews typically have a bad reputation if a person is not able to offer any value to what they are teaching.

It’s a known fact that students have their own preference of courses that they like to take. Some people who create online courses are not technologically savvy, or their audience may not be ready to try online learning. In order to validate these statements, the best course of action to take is to choose an online platform, create a landing page, and see if anyone signs up.

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t exist with online course creation platforms, but there are several that are user-friendly.

Online Learning Platform Types

Users that need lots of control over their course’s layout may be able to find something that is focused primarily on online course creation. For those users who aren’t very picky with their curriculum, there are also all-in-one solutions available.

There are a variety of options to suit most people’s needs. Online course platforms, in general, have been shown to help users create top-notch online courses, but there is more to these platforms than just the courses themselves.

If a course creator is using Webflow to design their course and there aren’t many plugins available to use, a hosted learning platform is a very good option. They keep websites secure, and also market a user’s online learning products.

The downside to this option is the cost, as it is quite expensive.

For users who are old-school and prefer to use WordPress, an LMS plugin can be used along with their existing platform. It’s a little harder to use, but it’s a lot less expensive.

It’s always recommended that course creators choose the easiest method possible to market and create their online courses.

There are several broad categories that include what each platform offers.

Hosted Course Platforms

One of the easiest platforms to use is a hosted course platform. It is an all-in-one package that does all of the hosting for the user. Course appearances can be edited without having to learn JavaScript or CSS. Users can start using this platform quickly. These platforms also include tools for selling and marketing online courses.

The downside to these platforms is that they are more expensive than using a WordPress LMS plugin. Course creators will also end up sacrificing customization for ease of use, and the structure of a course can’t always be tailored to suit the user’s needs.

Empowered users can create a course from scratch if they have a lot of pre-made resources at their disposal, which will allow them to focus more on how their courses are being sold. There are a lot of features that allow users to design their own sales pages, so they can create a basic offer in the hopes that some students may be interested in signing up.

LMS Plugins for WordPress

Plugins are a little more difficult to use. For one thing, a course creator will need to learn how to use them. Once they have mastered that, it will take some time to create and sell an online course.

There are benefits to these hurdles, however. Course creators can produce online course platforms that are better suited to meet their students’ needs because of the control a WordPress plugin gives them.

A user must already be based on WordPress if they want to create and sell online courses using a WordPress plugin. Course creators will have more control, and will be able to create an experience tailored to the needs of their students.

Courses take up lots of server space, which is why course creators will need to cover their own hosting, in addition to their regular site content such as high-resolution images or promotional videos. Course creators will also need to be technologically savvy in order to implement everything they desire.

Case-in-point, if a course creator already knows how to use WordPress, they should have no trouble using WordPress plugins.

Online Courses Marketplace

Skillshare and Udemy invest a lot of money in order to entice course creators and students alike.

Whether or not this is all worth it depends on several factors.

Course marketplaces can help course creators sell their online courses, but this service alone can take a sizable chunk out of their overall revenue. Another downside is that transaction fees can be as high as 75%, even for sales the creator wasn’t involved in.

On the plus side, they take care of everything, including customer support and marketing. However, a user won’t be able to create an online course and let a company like Udemy take care of everything else for them. Some traction will still need to be generated by the course creator.

As bad as the transaction fees are, yet another downside is that the course creator will not be able to access their students’ email addresses, which means that they will not be able to build their audience, grow their website, or even offer upsells to the students.

For users who know how to sell online, Udemy is probably not a very wise option.

An important rule of thumb for a course creator is to never put all of their eggs in a single basket. If a course marketplace makes a mistake, the course creator will be held responsible. If the marketplace changes a feature, you won’t have the option of not implementing it.

Lots of control is sacrificed when an online course marketplace is used, but it can work if a course creator decides not to grow their own platform.

If people purchase an online course by using a coupon, the platform will only cost the course creator about 5% of their revenue. So, if a user is not eager to reach more students through methods such as e-mail marketing, an online course marketplace may be a reasonable option.

Teachers who are looking for additional income, but don’t want to create a course website that’s fully-fleshed, or spend a whole lot of time marketing content, landing pages, or promotional videos for their course, may find one of these three learning management platforms useful.

Learning management platforms all have their pros and cons, which is why it is important for a user to find an online course creator that works best for their business.

Related Categories:

• Learning Management System

• eLearning Authoring Tools

• Course Authoring Software