The Essentials Of eLearning Development
The eLearning industry has been rapidly growing throughout the recent years, and in 2020 it became especially popular. People are now used to the fact that they can study almost everything online—and it opens a whole load of new opportunities for developers who want to create a valuable product. Now is a good time to develop an eLearning portal, but you have to take care of multiple aspects before designing an online course. To help you, we’ve collected the best practices on eLearning development, that will ensure that your eLearning portal attracts many students and provides them with all the needed services.
Different Models Of eLearning Portals: An Overview
Before jumping to the development of an eLearning portal, it is important to know the differences between the various models and their approaches. Below are some of the most common examples of eLearning websites.
1. A Self-Learning Platform
This type of platform offers a self-learning approach. This implies that a user can choose their own courses and a convenient learning pace, can pause and come back whenever needed, and can monitor their own progress. The content provided on such a platform comes in different forms: audio and video lessons, vocabulary, downloadable content, etc.
2. An Online Tutoring Platform
This platform offers individual (or group) tutoring with a teacher. If a user opts for this way of learning, they will have more strict and structured learning and will be graded by the teacher. The user will also be able to receive personal feedback throughout the learning process.
3. A Web Conferencing Platform
These platforms are used to facilitate the online learning process for a group of students by providing them with a centralized eLearning environment. Such platforms are especially popular with universities and colleges and are designed to seat big groups of students.
Of course, you can combine these options as needed, but still, you need to use one of these models as a base for creating your eLearning platform, as it will impact the functionality and User Experience (UX).
The Essential Features That Any eLearning Platform Needs To Have
Whatever the platform that you are going to choose, there are some essential features that every eLearning portal has. These features ensure great User Experience and contribute to providing value to the users.
1. Secure Authentication And User Cabinet
One of the most important things that you need to take care of is secure and multifactor authentication. Multifactor authentication requires two pieces of evidence (i.e., a password and a code sent to the phone) to prove that the user is who they say they are. It is a secure way to guard one’s personal information and credentials and is widely used by websites. It’s also always a good idea to include several authorization options (via email, social networks, etc.) to provide users with a choice and save their time.
Another feature related to the user’s data is the user cabinet. A user needs to have an option to create and customize a personal profile, manage its settings and privacy as needed, and see all the courses and related information in there.
2. Easy And Advanced Search
Whether you decide to create a self-learning portal or the one that offers personalized tutoring, a user will need to search through the eLearning courses and be able to find the most suitable one. Therefore, a portal needs to have really good search filters and user-friendly navigation. The portal should provide options to filter the courses by:
- Languages
- Price
- Levels
- Categories and subcategories
- User ratings
In this way, a user will be able to quickly find a course of interest among the variety of options. And obviously, you need to wisely categorize the courses, so that the users do not get confused.
3. Dashboards
There are two types of dashboards—a student dashboard and a teacher dashboard—and both should be present in any eLearning portal. A student dashboard provides a detailed overview of the current courses, received awards/recognitions, interaction with the teacher, and other useful information relevant to eLearning resources. With the help of the dashboard, a student can easily manage their courses, change the subscription plan, contact the teacher, and monitor progress. As for the teacher dashboard, it helps tutors monitor the number of students enrolled, check and manage the course fees, see the statistics for each course, and set up and edit courses and notifications.
4. Various Interaction Options
Whether a user prefers a self-learning course or one with a tutor, they will still need to interact with the portal and other students and/or tutors. Thus, a good eLearning platform has to provide numerous interaction options. These options may include:
- A forum for topic discussions
- A chat with the portal representative
- An option to leave comments under lessons
- A video/audio call option
By providing various interaction options, you create a real classroom-like experience in your eLearning classes. This also adds to the personalization, which equals better User Experience.
5. Different Payment Options
An integrated payment system is essential for any eLearning portal. In order for both students and teachers to conveniently manage their payments and earnings, it is important to implement numerous payment options to your portal. The most popular payment methods include:
- Credit (or debit) cards
- PayPal
- Stripe
It is important to consider who your target audience is, as different countries may have different preferred payment systems. In the US, for example, PayPal is incredibly popular and common, while European users may prefer paying with a credit card. All these aspects have to be considered when planning the payment system integration.
6. Customization
Customization is a really important aspect. It contributes to user satisfaction and shows that you truly care about the diversity of your students and are ready to offer different eLearning methods to them. Here are some customization ideas that you might want to incorporate:
- Support for multiple languages
- An option to turn on tracking notes
- Integration with social networks
- Synchronization with the calendar
- Profile customization
All these things help make the learning process more enjoyable and personalized. As a result, students are happier with it and hence will be more likely to stay on your portal and explore more courses.
Things To Consider Before Developing An eLearning Portal
We’ve walked through the essential features of an eLearning platform, but there are also some things to keep in mind before designing eLearning courses. By taking these aspects into consideration, you will be able to design a high-quality product that caters to the needs of the users.
1. Know Your Audience
Researching a target audience is critical as it serves as a base for adding functionality and working on the UX. When designing an eLearning product, you need to consider what are the preferences and habits of your potential students, what courses may interest them the most, and what method of studying they prefer. All these things must be considered when planning your eLearning program, and the defined target audience will also dictate the choice of tutors and the overall learning process.
2. Engage Good Teachers
Once you understand your target audience and its needs, you can start looking for knowledgeable and professional tutors to work with you. Of course, you’d expect all the tutors to show a high level of expertise and knowledge so you can ask for certifications and hold interviews to see whether this person will fit in the team. Depending on the portal model, you will need to collaborate either with an educational establishment or assemble a team of freelance tutors who have the required certifications and experience.
3. Make The Portal User-Centric
Usability is rule number one for those online products that are aimed at conversions. And the concept of eLearning implies offering students an option to choose the most comfortable studying pace and program. Therefore, when creating an eLearning portal, try to make it as user-friendly and intuitive as possible. Enable clear and intuitive navigation and categorize the courses wisely. Work on your call-to-action buttons—try personalizing and optimizing them in order to increase the number of conversions. And don’t forget to invest in high-quality video production for the lectures, as poorly filmed lectures can discourage the users from engaging.
4. Enable User Ratings And Feedback
Testimonials are really important, as they greatly impact one’s opinion about an online product. Hence, if you want to increase reliability and trust in your courses, it will be a good idea to enable user ratings and reviews. By doing so, users can not only search for the courses by their ratings but are also able to see the comments and opinions of real users, with all the pros and cons. This, in turn, will greatly increase the level of trust and will serve as an additional factor in attracting the user to enroll in the course.
5. Find An Experienced Development Team
When creating any software product, it’s not enough to have amazing ideas only. You also need to find a reliable development team that will realize them as needed. Thus, we recommend looking for a service provider on websites like Clutch that offer testimonials and reviews from the past clients of a company. When looking for a development agency, look at their portfolio to see whether the company worked with eLearning projects in the past. You can also request an interview with the team and ask them more about the way they can design your product. Look for a team that offers transparent communication and a flexible approach, and you will be rewarded with a high-quality eLearning software product.
Originally published at softteco.com.
