Education has always been an integral part of our development. As children, we went to schools and listened to teachers instruct us in different disciplines. From the hunting grounds of pre-history to the four walls of a modern-day elementary school, these places allowed us to explore and experience the world around us. As adults, our formation and learning continue—though in a different manner entirely. With the advent of the Internet, our access to information and knowledge has increased tenfold. No longer did we have to wait for a traditional school year to start to earn a proper degree or certificate. In the same manner, teachers no longer had to look for schools to make a living. Academia is now online and within reach.
According to Research And Markets, the eLearning market is set to reach $235 in 2025. People are only beginning to recognize the wonders of electronic learning aside from it being an alternative to traditional sources:
Customization
Students, parents, and workers can learn new skills in their free time. To get a degree from a university, most programs require years of unhampered studying. Online, people can do it are allowed to follow at their own pace and have time for other courses they are interested in. This also allows people to save money on transportation, food, and miscellaneous expenses for school. In effect, people become more independent learners, creating a routine they can follow themselves.
Connectivity
While traditional learning centers offer a more local experience, eLearning connects people from different parts of the globe. With healthy discourse with different cultures and backgrounds, students become well-versed in various fields and grow to respect other nationalities.
In line with this, students gain access to updated content when modules have new videos. This ensures that students know modern concepts and apply them right away.
If you or your business is becoming a thought leader in your trade, creating and selling courses online is a good marketing strategy. Topics that inform, inspire, educate and entertain increase your credibility and authority–especially when you use the right platforms to share them. With the variety of CRMs and software available, you may even choose to run your website’s courses via an external provider. Here are the two formats and some examples:
Online Course Marketplaces
Marketplaces are more of eCommerce sites that sell online courses, allowing people to upload a class under a specific topic. While there isn’t much room for customization and limit your classes to several formats, these sites are free to join and don’t usually require any payment up-front. Once the video is up, they are also responsible for promoting and selling your course to its users. Though this takes some work off your shoulders, you will not nurture the leads you gain from your course. Because you don’t have access to your students’ information, you cannot create more marketing strategies tailor-fit to their needs. Here are a few examples:
- Udemy
Because the courses sit in the affordable range, Udemy has about 30 million students signed up on the platform. This is a great way to gain exposure to the eLearning community, especially if you’re interested in a hands-off approach. Being one of the more popular eLearning sites, however, Udemy also takes a large percentage from your sales and is not ideal for those who are looking to make revenue.
- Skillshare
Another popular eLearning site, Skillshare, is more of a creative learning community. It has attracted around 7 million students so far and has 28,000 classes available using a subscription service. They invite instructors to sign up for free. However, making your courses sell will depend on how many students you bring to sign up for a membership and how many royalties you earn. As with Udemy, it may take a while before you earn.
Course Creation Softwares
What Marketplaces could not offer, the software has. Instructors can customize their classes, upload them in different formats, and export analytics. All of this comes with a fixed fee every month–which might be worth the pay. Here are some examples:
- TeachinGuide
The Teachable vs. Thinkific debate has long been ongoing. However, there is another software in the market: TeachinGuide. TeachinGuide offers its services to teach other instructors to succeed on other learning platforms like Udemy. Mostly for startups and SMEs, TeachinGuide has a robust dashboard that measures KPIs and your course ranking. All in all, this website teaches you how to set up and sell your courses online.
- Teachable
This website is beginner-friendly, having a simple drag-and-drop interface so instructors can customize their sales and course pages. If you’re a pro with code, you may also try Teachable’s Power Editor to create the look down to a tee. As you will also have reigns over your marketing, you may add coupons, affiliate programs, and other pricing options to your course. You may also send our emails with pixels to a segmented contact list.
- Thinkific
When comparing Teachable vs. Thinkific, the previous offer better analytics. Thinkific allows you to customize the look and feel of your web design by altering the code. Not only will you have different templates to aid your content production, but you will also receive guidance when planning them out. Apart from the interactive quizzes and content that will help you manage your classes, you can also bulk sell your courses in one go.
References –
- https://elearningindustry.com/outstanding-benefits-of-elearning
- https://www.miva.com/blog/the-history-of-ecommerce-how-did-it-all-begin/
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education
- https://growfox.co.uk/topics/how-to-create-and-sell-online-courses
- https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/02/06/914187/0/en/Global-E-Learning-Market-to-Reach-325-billion-by-2025-Rapid-Growth-in-Online-Content-Digitization-Innovations-in-Wearable-Technologies-are-Flourishing-the-E-learning-Industry.html
- https://www.learningrevolution.net/sell-online-courses/
- https://www.thinkific.com/create-and-sell-online-courses/
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