The concept of online learning provides amazing opportunities for students to pursue education conveniently and for teachers to generate additional revenue streams. Investing in an online education platform will give teachers the freedom to share their knowledge with a worldwide student base. Educators who are considering building an eLearning platform must have an understanding of how to create an online education website like Udemy. An online education website is a powerful bridge that acts as a major point of contact between educators and students.
In this blog, let’s look into everything you need to know before creating an online education platform.
Begin with audience research
When you develop an online education platform, you must have a thorough understanding of your target audience, their requirements, interests, issues they face, and their goals. Consider the following questions about your target audience to draw a clear picture:
- Who is your target audience?
- Are they tech-savvy or prefer a simple interface?
- What level are you planning to teach?
- What are the learning formats your audience prefers?
- Do your target students prefer using a laptop or mobile device for learning?
Performing market research will help you answer the above questions and develop a strategy that suits your target audience the best. The primary purpose of this step is to develop the basic infrastructure of your online education platform. Assessing your target market will help you figure out the gap to be bridged.
Plan the online education platform
Now let’s take a closer look at developing your online education platform from an educational perspective. As a part of the planning process, create a list of your educational goals.
Some of the goals you can have are:
- Ensuring learners and tutors have access to instructions.
- Offering the best learning opportunities to students to assess their understanding of the subject.
- Supplementing your live classes with various practical activities.
- Improving student-student and student-teacher interaction both inside and outside the class.
After defining the goals of your online learning business, you must work towards accomplishing your goals. Know your audience, keep in mind your audience’s characteristics and requirements, and leverage diverse approaches to reach out to your learners and reach your educational goals.
Define the monetization strategy
When offering online classes to your students, you must think of innovative ways to monetize your services. The best way is to think about monetization strategy before developing your learning website and designing the features.
Here are some of the common ways to monetize your services.
- Pay per class
Perhaps the most straightforward way to make money with your online classes is by charging for a class upfront. Learners pay for individual classes and obtain access to a single class.
- Subscription
Charging a recurring fee or charging for a bundle of classes is another way to make money. Charge your students a recurring fee on a regular basis covering different types of classes under various subscription levels.
- Advertising and sponsorship
Depending on the type of courses and classes you offer, you can choose to run ads or provide sponsorship opportunities for brands and sell them the attention of your target audience.
- Commissions
If you are brainstorming about how to create an online education website like Udemy, where you allow other tutors to take classes and sell courses, you can earn commissions from each completed course.
Decide essential features
Online education platforms are meant to offer learners the right opportunities for gaining knowledge and mastering new skills. To help you target students to achieve this, your learning platform must showcase the following features:
- Authentication and user profile creation
Allow both students and teachers to register as separate users on your online learning platform through secure authentication methods.
- Dashboards for both students and teachers
A separate dashboard for students and teachers is an absolute must-have for an online learning site. Users can view their courses and access learning materials. If your online learning platform allows tutors to conduct live classes or create courses, you must also offer a dashboard.
- Intuitive search and filters
A simple and effective search system allows students to find the type of classes, teachers, and learning resources they need.
- Video conferencing system
Depending on your users’ preferences, you can integrate video conferencing tools and live chat to encourage communication between learners and instructors.
- Appointment scheduling with tutors
Integrate the options to schedule appointments with the teachers into an integrated calendar.
- Course page
Each course must have its own homepage that allows teachers to add course details, learning materials, and the respective schedule.
- Payment integration
Integrate a secure payment system to allow your students to pay for the live classes or online courses within the platform.
- Admin panel
An admin panel is another essential addition that offers complete access to platform settings.
Choose a website building method
Your online education website is the most critical element of your eLearning business as it is where your target audience would come in search of you. Creating an online education platform from scratch might be the obvious way, but it will be an elaborate process and cost you a fortune. The most recommended way to build your online education platform is to use tutoring software to create your virtual classroom and keep your learners engaged. Pinlearn is the best bet to create an all-in-one educational platform for selling your online courses and taking live classes if you are looking for professional tutoring software. The best online education platform can provide all kinds of learners the potential to pursue the desired education.
Build your classroom community
Online classrooms are not just educational and informative; they are also communities where both educators and learners connect with each other around common ideas and goals. While some students might be used to forging connections, not all learners would be familiar with it. As you set up your online education platform, focus on creating ways for your enrolled students to connect with each other. Consider integrating discussion forums, implementing group projects, debate sessions, etc., which will help with the engagement. Make room for your students to check in with teachers for observations, achievements, and other personal concerns.
Education once confined to traditional classrooms has changed its form irreversibly. Advancements in technology have opened up new learning opportunities through online education platforms to conduct classes and learn anywhere, and anytime. However, tutoring in a pandemic is not easy, but acknowledging the reality and investing in creating a full-fledged online education platform will help you offer the best possible online learning experience. If teaching online is your passion and priority-make it easy for both you and your learners.
