There are so many reasons why so many people are looking for online courses now. The easy availability of digital devices and the rapid shifting of higher education to virtual classrooms are certainly contributing to this trend. To meet this demand, individuals and businesses are making a lot of online courses. The goal of this post is to help you choose the best course platform.
If you want to build an online course, you have to choose a good Course platform. But making a choice is harder than it sounds, partly because there are too many options to choose from.
What Is An Online Course Platform?
An online course platform is basically a learning management system that provides access to online classes. The courses are virtual, but they are not very different from offline classes. The content is provided by an instructor in the forms of text, video, audio, image, etc.
Students study the courses, perform exercises, and take part in exams. The best online course platforms come with amazing features. Ideally, a course platform should provide a great web experience. It should also come with features such as easy editing and a sales funnel.
The Best Online Course Platforms
Teaching your audience is a lot easier if you choose a good platform. Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Learnwords, Podia, LearnDash, and Ruzuku are some well-known course platforms.
What features should you look for in an online course platform? Well, it depends on your particular requirements. Now we are going to discuss some of the most well-known platforms, and hopefully, this discussion will help you choose the best platform.
Thinkific
Thinkific comes with lots of user-friendly features, membership site integration, and email marketing tools. This platform is also known for providing 24/7 customer support. If you do not want to spend time researching all other options, you can choose Thinkific. Chances are that you will never regret the decision.
Thinkific has a popular Pro plan, and you can get a free trial for one month. With this plan, you get started with your courses. The service also offers advanced pricing options, memberships and bundles, certificates, marketing tools, and landing pages.
Thinkific can be easily integrated with more than 1500 apps. For this, you will have to use Zapier. It allows you to target the right audience.
Teachable
Teachable is another great e-learning platform. You can join thousands of other instructors by creating a Teachable account. They have 3 premium plans, but they also allow you to use the platform for free.
The Professional Plan costs only $79 per month, and it involves no transaction fee. It also allows you to offer graded quizzes, theme customizations, and course completion certificates. If you are looking for the best course platform, Teachable will not disappoint you.
Learnworlds
The developers of Learnworlds have figured out what you are going to need to create your online course. Creating the look of your course is the first step in the process. Learnworlds has numerous responsive templates that are easy to customize. They allow you to create additional pages such as Pricing, Contact, About, etc.
The theme editor of Learnworlds can help you customize your templates. You can do all these things with very little coding knowledge. There are course catalogs where you can add your content. The catalogs come with features such as online tests, interactive video players, downloadable attachments, and interactive e-books.
Kajabi
If you are looking forward to creating some in-depth courses, Kajabi can be a good choice for you. It comes with useful features such as email marketing automation, course site themes, blogging functionality, and a customizable checkout.
If you subscribe to the basic plan, you will get one website, three pipelines, three products, 10,000 contacts, and unlimited marketing emails. You will enjoy more of these features if you subscribe to a higher-tier plan.
LearnDash
This impressive course platform can be easily integrated with WordPress. Many famous websites such as Infusionsoft, Yoast, and WP Elevation use LearnDash. “Focus Mode” is a very helpful feature of this course platform. This feature can effectively block out distractions.
Its course builder can be easily integrated with email drip campaigns. The service has added a new dimension to LMS by using their Gradebook technology. Based on their homework scores, students are given an overall grade. Points are awarded for actions, and certificates are awarded for course activities.
Podia
More than 11,000 users are creating, hosting, and selling lessons with Podia. Preparing your course website is a very simple process, and it requires no transaction fees. However, you will have to pay some transaction fees for their payment processors.
Podia also allows you to pre-launch courses, add membership coupons, and add sales pages. You can teach your students in the correct way, thanks to the individual sections. The membership options are really amazing. You can easily interact with your audience and grow your community.
Ruzuku
Ruzuku makes it extremely easy for you to create your online course. You can greatly benefit from their learning platform. Ruzuku provides instructions for everything from creating your course outlines to generating sales.
It can be easily integrated with Infusionsoft, MailChimp, and other tools of this kind. You can also easily integrate it with PayPal, Stripe, and other payment gateways. Better yet, you don’t have to pay transaction fees. In this sense, Ruzuku is the best course platform.
They also have a community that is very helpful and friendly. So, if you want your students to learn from a friendly community, joining Ruzuku can be highly rewarding. The highly advanced features of Ruzuku will make you smile.
Academy of Mine
This high-end platform is highly praised for its features of customization. With this platform, you can launch your course in a relatively short period of time. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are other great advantages of using the Academy of Mine.
They have analytical dashboards and other marketing tools that help you with the process of selling your course. Academy of Mine puts a lot of emphasis on personalization. They can assist you throughout the process of creating a full curriculum.
Many users think that the Academy of Mine is the best course platform. Whether you are an insurance company or a healthcare company, you will get the help you need. Businesses of all types and sizes can benefit from this service.
How to Choose the Best Course Platform
When it comes to choosing an online course platform, you have to take a few factors into consideration. If you take your time and learn about different platforms, you will be able to make an informed decision. You also have to know what you actually want. Here are the things that should be taken into consideration.
Know your requirements
Before you choose a particular online course platform, know why you need one in the first place. If you are going to get in touch with primary school students, you should choose a tool that is very easy to use. You have to make sure that your audience has a positive learning experience.
In this regard, you should also focus on aspects such as brain games, flashcards, quizzes, and other assessment functions. As a user of a platform, you should have your strategies for teaching and learning. So, make sure you clearly know why you are going to use such a tool.
Compare
In order to choose the best course platform, you have to make a sensible comparison. But make sure you are comparing apples with apples. Otherwise, you will not be happy with the result. When it comes to choosing the best course platform, being able to compare platforms is very important.
Compare a platform with similar platforms, not with others designed for completely different purposes. For example, you can not compare the ProProfs Training Maker with NEO LMS. Why? Because they have very different target audiences.
If two platforms are in the same category, you can compare them. It will save you time, and hopefully, you will not end up making a wrong decision.
Check the features you need
What are you going to do with the tool? Well, you want to make an online course. Before you choose a platform, make sure it meets your particular requirements. Don’t choose a platform only because you find it attractive.
Identify your pain points, and you will find it easy to make an informed decision. Recognizing your pain points means what features to focus on. No matter what platform you choose, chances are that you will get free trials for a certain period of time. It allows you to test the water before choosing a particular platform.
Customer support
The quality of customer support to some extent determines the reliability of an online course platform. Once you have bought the software, you may often need support. Customer support can help you install, maintain, troubleshoot, and upgrade your software.
To learn about the customer support of a course platform, read online reviews. Most online course platforms provide customer support via live chat and email.
Other Things to Consider
Apart from the factors mentioned above, you should take some additional factors into consideration. Whether you are using a free or paid course platform, make sure you pay attention to the following things:
For the faster implementation of your course, choose a cloud-based architecture. Always choose a course platform that is easy to use. If you have to spend a long time trying to understand its mechanism, you will end up wasting your time.
A good course platform should also have the feature of virtual classrooms. When you use this feature, you are educating your audience, not just selling courses. A centralized online classroom helps you stand out as an authority.
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best course platform, you are not alone. Businesses and entrepreneurs all over the world are using many different types of online course platforms to disseminate their knowledge. Before you choose a particular course platform, you should take your take and learn what the platform can actually do for you. We hope the discussion in this post will help you make an informed decision.