After the Pandemic hit, the spread of online learning platforms grew exponentially. Many students and educators started using online platforms for teaching and teaching purposes. With physical classes being off, online meets and resources became the prime source of education for a really long time and because of its growth, it is only going to grow.
With a large variety of courses, programs, online learning hubs, and etc, students are finding the easier to follow these because of its relaxed schedule, intuitive learning sessions, and many other benefits that they might not be able to get in offline classes.
There are many online learning and course platforms that can be used to learn, create, and sell online courses. With their growing demand, the interface and learning experience is also getting a lot better.
Online learning is a fun experience that most people, in the coming time will turn to because let’s face it? Who wouldn’t enjoy animatic when learning about Shakespear, the experience will elevate as a whole.
Even though it is excellent news for instructors, students, and educators who are looking for online teaching/learning platforms, it does get challenging to find the one that best suits your forte of needs and expectations.
That’s why we made a list of the top online learning platforms that you can use to offer high-quality learning experiences. An experience that you are bound to enjoy.
But before that, here are a few things you should know about online learning.
What is Online Learning?
Online learning is the process of imparting education through online or virtual mediums like Google meets, Byju’s and other platforms. These online learning courses offer a large variety of subjects and electives that you can choose from and get all the information that you need in the comfort of your house.
With online learning, the interactive experience becomes even better and you tend to retrieve more than you would in offline classes. Online classes also come with the benefit of not being limited to a set pattern or education or classes like schools and universities work, you can look up any course you want and start learning. Feeling a bit political today? Here, take a basic political science lesson. It is a very fun experience because you are not defined to a set spectrum of knowledge.
Some of the course marketplaces feature online courses that you can create, but most are for educational purposes and only offer university-level education. Of course, there is a large variety of courses that you can take, depending upon your choice and specialize in it because of the high level of reading and stuff it gives you. You can start from a basis, beginners level and built up to a professional level. The courses being offered are generally fun to take and have a good base and understanding of them so it won’t be burdensome for you to learn.
What is the relationship between an online course platform and a learning management system?
For many educationists and instructors, these online learning platforms work as a learning management system where they can create, deliver, host and sell their courses. An LMS is generally used for high-grade education purposes, for example, it is implemented by a lot of businessmen to train and by academic personnel or institutes for educational purposes.
For instance, it is important to understand that most online learning platforms used by educators or students use cloud-based learning in order to create their own personalized courses and manage them. This gives both parties a chance to interact at a more professional yet friendly level and make the learning experience a lot better.
What is the difference between Online Learning Platforms and Online Learning Courses?
While it’s important to know the major difference between online learning platforms and online learning courses, it is also important to know what you want to prioritise. With online learning courses, you get to specialize and know about the selected topic but the question remains, where to find these courses and are they reliable.
This is where online learning programs come in place because you get to explore more than one platform in one go and don’t have to surf the internet for hours to find the one that fits perfectly in all your requirements.
While dealing with an online learning platform, a lot goes into making it stand out from the current market competition. These platforms become the major market for selling personalized courses by educators, educational corporates or universities in order to grow their business and also impart knowledge to the ones looking for it.
These platforms are created and run on basic guidelines and on capitalist lines. While their focus is to give students and instructors both a platform to interact and learn, they also focus on the revenue scales of the said course or site and making. It takes a lot of time for these learning platforms to build a reliable audience and work well.
When it comes to an online course, there is a much free and open space of work for both the creator as well as the students. While the price and quality might not be as good as the courses designed by top universities, they are still a way to go for a lot of students because of their easy and flexible patterns. You are the ultimate and the only owner of your courses and have all the command over what you want and how you want to proceed.
Few things to keep in mind before choosing an Online Learning Platform:
There is a lot of things that a person look into before they start pursuing their dreams. Things like affordability, the acceptance rate, time-management, and etc. All these things are extremely important in order to reap the fruit of success in the time to come and when investing in education, which is the root of it all, one has to be even more cautious about it and that’s why here are few things you should know before joining an online learning platform
Time-management
While most courses are flexible in nature, there are times when you won’t be able to manage the alignment of your education and family. In that case, you should look for a platform that has a flexible timetable where you can attend a lecture anytime you want.
Affordability
This is yet another prime factor because it is an important decision when you are investing in something monetarily. Look into all the aspects of the course and what all extra it has to offer. Does it have everything you want? Is it worthy enough to buy? All these things play a major role.
Reliability
Yet another important factor is the reliability score of the course that you are taking up. Is this course good enough to invest your time in? Will it provide you with the necessary needs in the coming future? How will I use this for employment purposes? All these minute details are extremely important for an individual to keep in mind while choosing an online learning platform.
While most of these questions are generally asked by students, the platforms also offer a place for educators to grow. They also have to be aware of the cost and benefits they might be getting into when investing in an online learning platform.
These are a few things that you should keep in mind when looking for an online learning platform because your current choices are going to play a big role in your coming future.
Note- We analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each learning platform to help you decide if it fits your requirements or not. Learners looking to find a subject to study are more likely to find learning platforms suitable. They have a large collection of courses and learning paths.
Some of them allow individual instructors to teach with different conditions to approve the content. This is the second-best way to launch a course if you don’t want to do it under your own website. Instructors have their own requirements for uploading and how they make money from their work.
Pros, cons, and information for both students and instructors looking into these platforms have been included. Other than this, we recommend you to look deeper into the websites linked for a better understanding of the courses, how they work and how will they benefit you.
List of best Online Learning Platforms that you should try:
LinkedIn Learning (Lynda)
LinkedIn Learning, an educational platform that offers professional courses in accounts, computer science and other creative outlets related fields in form of video lessons, was formerly known as Lynda.com. The platform is a premium plan and service for their customers and offers over 15,000 courses in 7 languages, as well as helping individuals to invest in their professional development.
Pros of Linkedin Learning
- It is very well known in the B2B community.
- A one-month free trial is what it comes with.
- Personalized course recommendations are provided for users.
- Upon completion of the course, it provides certification.
- You can use the quizzes to check your progress.
- Offline learning access can be accessed on the go.
- You will be able to access other premium career features.
Cons of Linkedin Learning
- The kind of courses it has to offer is ambiguous which will require you to dig in and do some research before you enrol.
- It may be challenging to join as an instructor.
Who can find Lynda useful?
- Students: Professionals and businesses looking to train their employees are mostly suited by this.
- Instructors: The platform can be used for educational and training purposes by business teams, universities, and public services.
- If you are a course creator, you can apply to become a learning instructor here.
LinkedIn(Lynda) Pricing
- LinkedIn Learning offers two types of subscription plans for the students:
- Monthly: €29.49 (plus taxes)
- Annually: €299,88 (plus taxes)
NOTE: These plans may differ according to your region and current LinkedIn updates.
Udemy
Udemy is known to be the most popular learning platform in the market right now. The educational platform has more than 50 million students and 50 thousand instructors creating online courses.
Everyone has the possibility of acquiring new skills with the help of Udemy.PowerPoint, PDF Documents, Texts, and video content are just some of the online learning materials it offers. While it is open for instructors to start teaching from this platform, it does take a toll when it comes to the revenue and has control over pricing and discounted courses.
Pros of Udemy
- There isn’t any cost for setting up. Instructors are included.
- It is designed for self-paced videos and learning courses.
- There isn’t a need for highly technical knowledge.
- The Udemy app is available for both mobile devices, iOS and Androids.
Cons of Udemy
- The interaction rate between students and educators is very low. (both instructors and students)
- Extremely high level of competition between instructors. (for instructors)
- No possibility of any kind of personal branding. (for instructors)
- It has control over prices and often sells courses for incredibly low prices. (for instructors)
- There is a lack of data ownership or control over branding — they tend to keep all kinds of information like emails or user data away from the instructors and do not share.
- The platform tends to promote courses that are already popular, so your popularity depends on your own marketing. (for instructors)
Who can find Udemy useful?
- Students: If you want to take a course for almost every discipline, you need to familiarize yourself with the reviews. The quality is not consistently good.
- Instructors: It is great for people who are just starting out in teaching. Like instructors, educators will find it useful and satisfactory.
Udemy Pricing/ Revenue for Instructors
There is no starting fee, but a high commission on course share could be up to 70%. 50% of the course sales go to students through organic searching on Udemy or any search engine. 75% of the time, students come through the paid user acquisition channel. If you sell the links by yourself, you will get 97 per cent of course sales. There is a 3% administration fee that Udemy keeps.
Note: These plans might differ depending upon your criterias.
Coursera
Coursera is another one of those best online learning platforms that have a large audience, around 20 million and are dedicated to providing high quality online learning and training experiences. When partnering with world-renowned universities and businesses, provides students with the chance to receive certifications from world-famous universities into joining them in their paid course promotion and education system.
There are individual courses, specialized courses, and degree courses that are offered to you in personalized lecture rooms, courses and homework, exercises and revised assignments and community discussion in the Coursera forum.
Pros of Coursera
- It has a variety of learning opportunities.
- Students with different degrees and certificates are awarded by it.
- It provides high-quality educational tools and student plus instructor interaction.
Cons of Coursera
- It’s only available to instructors who are partnered with some institute.
- Compared to other platforms, its course creation options are not as flexible. (for instructors)
Who can find Coursera useful?
- Students: Anyone interested in learning from renowned institutions, whether they are looking for a one-off course, certification or an online degree.
- Instructors: It is meant for professors who are based at a business.
Coursera Pricing
Coursera offers free courses, one-time payments or subscription-based on the course that you opt for.
Skillshare
Skillshare is yet another online learning platform that has more than 25,00 courses in different disciplines and over 5 million students partaking them A series of small videos, class projects, and a student community encourage interaction in a course that lasts from 20 to 60 minutes.
The courses offered by Skillshare are intuitive and interesting in nature so you will definitely not get bored when learning. Classes are classified into four different categories so that it is easy for the students to navigate:
- Creative arts: deals with creative fields like designing, fine arts, music and cooking etc.
- Business: deals with accounting, finances and business management
- Technology: includes e-commerce, data analysis and science, web designing.
- Lifestyle: includes well-being, linguistics, gaming and learning.
Pros of Skillshare
- It has a good support forum where students can give their feedbacks
- You can take up a number of courses at the same price.
Cons of Skillshare
- The content is limited to only the four categories mentioned above
- No type of formal certification or completion form is provided.
Who can find Skillshare useful?
- Students- It is extremely useful for students or individuals who want to learn about creative arts, business, lifestyle or technology as mentioned above.
- Instructors- Instructors who are in the creative field can use it to make an extra income. Instructors can easily make money using Skillshare’s referral system or royalty program.
Skillshare Pricing
- Students- There is a 14-day trial period and after that, you can access all the courses by paying $15/month
- Instructors- They get to join it for free but certain class guidelines are needed to be followed.
Skillshare pays its instructors based on the amount of time that their videos are played and how many seconds are being watched.
EdX & Open EdX
EdX (course marketplace) and Open EdX are co-related and work side by side. EdX is a learning platform where students come to, in order to find a lot of different courses offered by various famous universities. Open EdX is an online management system. They were created with the aim to provide university-level of education to the masses across the globe.
More than 8,000 online courses from over 100 prestigious and world-renowned universities and businesses have been powered by EdX.org. Engineering, computer science, data science, math, humanities, business, and management are some of the sciences they specialize in.
Pros of EdX & Open EdX
- It’s free and open-sourced. (for instructors)
- It has an app for both the iPad and the phone, iOS and Androids.
- Students are able to chip into its online classes, hence making the class interactive.
Cons of EdX & Open EdX
- The discussion forum has been outdated, making it difficult to navigate.
- The need for a technological developer is important for hiring/ wen designing purposes. (for instructors)
- If you have a self-hosted server, the maintenance cost is relatively higher. (for instructors)
Who will find EdX & Open EdX useful?
- Students- EdX has a large variety of courses and learning programs that you can choose from.
- Instructors- It is a great choice for educators who have a business based on education and won’t find it too difficult to pay for server maintenance.
ExD Pricing for Instructors
It is free to join, but if you have a self-based server then the additional cost of server maintenance and system support may differ. Depending upon your need for EdX’s Open Service providers, each may vary depending upon your servers need and their own price range plus budget.
Choosing the best Online Learning Platform for yourself?
As you can see in the list of options given above, we have picked out some of the best online learning platforms for you that you can use. While it might get tiresome to go through every bit of detail listed in the articles, you will have to indulge in some kind of research and dig deeper into what kind, of course, you are looking for and what accommodate within the most favourable way possible.
You have to keep in mind all the important things like course plans, pricing, validity and reliability while choosing the perfect course for you. Almost all the good learning platforms offer a trial period and run-through of the course before you actually move forward to purchase it so be sure to give the free quizzes and trials a chance of all the programs listed upon and then decide what you want to invest in.
The end decision lies in your choice and personal preference about what are the qualities and things you are looking for in a learning platform and how you want to invest in it.
We hope you found this list useful. Let’s get learning!
