Building an eLearning Website – From Ideation to Implementation

The eLearning sphere has shown significant growth over the last decade. With the outbreak of the pandemic, it got further increased as schools, universities, and companies got forced to operate remotely.

Consequently, the eLearning market registered a massive spike of 36.3% during this period. Now, this growth is projected to advance at a steady rate for another couple of years, making eLearning a very profitable business.

Image Source – Openpr

These numbers are a clear indication that it is the best time to leverage eLearning as a business.

But the question is – how?

In this blog post, we’ll discuss in detail about eLearning websites, their types, and features to help you build a successful online learning business.

So, let’s get started.

eLearning Websites – An Overview

eLearning websites are learning management systems that follow a one-to-one approach with the educators via online classes. Their key benefits include:

• Offering valuable educational material to students
• Providing unlimited access to content in one location
• Reducing cost and time of learning
• Allowing progress tracking in real-time
• Promoting collaboration and community building

Owing to these benefits, eLearning websites are quite popular among students and professionals alike.

Types of eLearning Websites

eLearning platforms can be classified into the following types based on their target audience and functions.

• Kids and Tutors (Fish School, Khan Academy)
• College/University Students (eDX, Coursera)
• Language Learners (Duolingo, italki)
• Skill Specialization (Codeacademy, Skillstone)

Categorizing on the basis of educators, these websites can be either of the two types:

• Tie-ups with Universities and Institutions where professors/subject matter experts teach their courses.
• Open Knowledge Sharing where anyone can create and offer their course to users.

Features of eLearning Websites

Now that we know the different types of eLearning websites, here are some of their key features that you must know in order to build a sound eLearning platform.

1. Profile Management: Firstly, both the learner and teacher need to authenticate themselves by registering their profile. A learner’s account should have details like:

• User name
• Profile pic
• Active/completed courses
• Certificates/credits
• Payment history

A teacher’s profile should include:

• Bio page
• Added courses

2. Dashboard: Dashboards provide useful insights to both teachers and students. Students’ dashboards can help them check:

• Number of courses enrolled
• Hours spent
• Completion status

While teachers’ dashboard has insights on:

• Number of students enrolled
• Course traffic
• Earnings

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3. Search Filter: eLearning websites have a variety of courses. So, a search filter is helpful for users to find a course of their choice. eLearning websites should include the following tools for facilitating search:

• Search bars to explore courses through keywords
• Categories on the main page
• Course recommendations
• Filters like levels, ratings, and price

4. Course Page: Course page includes course content like videos, interactive textbooks, recordings, and more. But in addition to this, a course page should have:

• Course description & curriculum
• Mentor’s info
• Student reviews

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5. Notifications: Notifications help in informing users about new updates and courses on your website. They also keep them posted about new activities on their profiles, be it a fellow user’s friend request or an addition of a new user to the course.

Notifications can be sent through emails or in-app. You can also personalize them with course recommendations according to the users’ preferences.

Image Source – uplabs.com

6. Payment Method: If the platform offers paid courses, payment modes should be convenient for students to pay and teachers to collect. The most popular and secure payment methods include:

• Debit cards
• Credit cards
• Mobile wallets

7. Admin Panel: An admin panel helps administrators manage website content, edit or delete courses, monitor statistics, and manage notifications from one place.

Steps to Build an eLearning Website

Building an eLearning website, like any other web development platform, requires a step-by-step approach. Here are some things to keep in mind before beginning with the website building process.

1. Define Your Target Audience and Niche
Every business idea and its implementation starts with research. You need to research about your target audience and niche. Learn about the current industry trends and topics that your target audience finds engaging. Accordingly, you can personalize your website content and find a team of tutors.

2. Choose Your Business Model
Before beginning with your commercial eLearning business, the most important question to ask is how to earn money through the platform. Here are some monetization models that you can choose from:

• Paid Certificates: The course is taught for free but users have to pay to obtain the completion certificate.
• Subscription-Based: The subscribers of the platform get unlimited access to all the courses till their subscription period ends.
• Affiliate Model: The courses are integrated with paid affiliate links for equipment and study material that users would need to progress in the course.
• Paid Courses: The entire course is paid and the revenue is shared between the teacher and the website owner.
• Corporate Collaboration: The website offers specific courses related to a company’s operations for their employees’ training.

3. Optimize the End User Experience
Other than the valuable content, it is the ease and efficiency of your website that will determine your success. You need to pay special attention to the UI/UX of your website as this will play a major role in persuading students to enroll.

• Simple Design: Keep the website design simple and easy to understand for students. Ensure that colors chosen are in sync with your brand image to establish credibility.
• Visual Elements: Images, videos, and illustrations are an integral part of your website to make it look interesting and engaging. Use high-quality visuals that are in accordance with the color psychology principles.
• Navigation and Loading: 1 in 4 visitors would abandon a website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load. So, it goes without saying that your website loading speed should be fast. Also, for website navigation, follow the three-click-rule where visitors can find the required information within three mouse clicks.

4. Plan Your Technology Stack
Behind every beautiful website, there lies the support of a solid tech stack. Here are some technologies you can consider for your eLearning website.

• Frontend: JavaScript, React, Bootstrap
• Backend: NodeJS
• Database: MongoDB, MySQL
• Cloud Storage: AWS, Cloudflare
• Framework: Express

Wrapping Up

Websites like Udemy, Coursera, and Khan Academy are the embodiment of the progress the eLearning space has made. You too can achieve success in this domain by developing a website that has the right mix of valuable content, an impeccable platform, and a strong business model.

Need Help Building Your eLearning Website? Contact Us.