4 Ideas to Help You Choose an E-Learning Platform CareerMetis.com

4 Ideas to Help You Choose an E-Learning Platform â€" CareerMetis.com There are 4 ways of choosing an e-learning platform Source â€" Pexels.comWith the digital mode of learning becoming popular among the students and corporate organizations, the demand for eLearning platforms is also booming. If you are a business organization and looking to adopt corporate eLearning for your employees, you have an array of software solutions to choose from. However, not all platforms are suitable for every kind of eLearning implementation.For instance, by selecting a good eLearning solution for the company, businesses save around $13.5 million each year. This saving is because of by-passing the physical classroom training and using eLearning software to create and share corporate training courses.If you know the benefits of corporate eLearning and willing to implement an e-learning platform in your company too, you are not alone. You are among that 77 % of wise U.S. organizations who are using online courses to train their employees.evalToday, there is an abundance of software solutions available for implementing eLear ning methodologies in an organization. As a result, it becomes very tough to decide which solution fits best for your kind of organization. Adoption of an inefficient solution can lead to severe setbacks as it is a time taking process.Hence to help you go through an effortless transition from physical classroom training to eLearning platforms, we researched and analyzed some popular eLearning and online teaching platforms in the market. We settled on the following factors that you should necessarily consider while choosing a good online learning and training solution.There are 4 ways of choosing an e-learning platform 1) Self-hosted e-learning platformSuch platforms are developed by a third party and then hosted on your web-server under a separate or sub-domain. These are well suited for all those organizations who want to implement online training for their employees, and also have absolute control over the platform.Benefits evalAbsolute controlOpen-sourceFree-from recurring charge sFully customizableDownsides TimeRequire significant technical knowledgeRequire a dedicated team of developers and site admins.Not all tutors possess technical knowledge.Examples:WordPress CMS, JoomlaLMS2) Third-party hosted e-learning platformThese solutions are developed, hosted and managed by the software vendor itself. We can also call them SaaS-based solutions. These are suitable for companies and individuals who do not want to handle the technical parts by themselves and can afford the cost of recurring charges for SaaS-based subscriptions.Benefits No technical knowledge required.Managed by the software vendor itself.Receives regular updates.Faster to implementDownsides evalNo control over codes.Closed sourceNo control over customizationNo white-label branding.Recurring subscription charges.Limited featuresExamples:Udutu LMS3) E-learning marketplace platformsThere are dedicated websites that sell courses online. Corporate managers can upload the courses on these websites and e mployees can access them from anywhere.evalDepending on policies, these websites can be free or premium as well. These are suitable for all those companies who do not want to invest in a dedicated online teaching platform and can afford to purchase already developed courses by third-parties.Benefits No need to build your ownAccess to the millions of already developed courses.Zero cost of development, implementation, and management cost.Created courses can also be hosted for selling on these platforms.DownsidesThird-party websiteLimited featuresNeed separate eLearning authoring tool for course creationCan only host courses, cannot author one.Have to purchase courses to access them.ExamplesOpen Sesame, Udemy.4) Ready-made self-hosted eLearning softwarePopularly known as an eLearning authoring tool, a turnkey software offers all that you need to create, upload and share online courses. This software is highly suitable for implementing a dedicated eLearning platform within your organiza tion and having full control over it. You can call them a combination of all three above solutions.BenefitsAbsolute controlBoth Open-source and SaaSOffers tools for course creationSeparate tools for course sharingFaster to implementEasy workflow and collaboration management with access control.Easier to set up, manage and update.Integrated LMS.No technical knowledge required for management and course creation.It comes with supported mobile apps.DownsidesMany solutions in the market, it is tough to choose one.Some of them are not easy to use. g., Windows-based applications are tricky.The availability of both SaaS and self-hosted options make selection complicated.Recurring charges may occur in SaaS-based softwareCustomization charges may occur in self-hosted solutions.Examples:Articulate StorylinePinLearnConsider the following features as necessary in an eLearning platformTools to design a course: Audio editing, video editing, image editing.Tools to Share the courses: Cloud hosting a nd CDN.Tools to track a course: Integration with Google analyticTools to track learning: an integrated Learning management system.Supports multiple formats: text, video, audio, PPT, PD, HTML.Allows monetization of courses: options to sell courses and receive online payments.Supports Paywall: Integrated payment gateways like PayPal.Allow user collaboration: multiple users with different levels of access such as learners, tutors, and admins.Supports gamification: interactive games and quizzes.Supports learning assessments: Quizzes, MCQ tests.Supports learning report generation: Generate learners’ progress report.Generate reports in different formats: Certificates, Grades, Progress report card.Choosing an eLearning platform is a tough job without proper research on all the options you have in the market. It is always a wise move to first research about all the free and paid options, and then test out as many options based on your requirements.evalConsider, pros, cons, and necessities of a useful eLearning platform mentioned in this article, selecting an efficient one would not be a tough job for you.