Hello Friends.
Today we will discuss various methods to build elearning websites-with and without coding.
As an educational professional & businessman ,you would have faced the dilemma while launching
an elearning website, what tool and tech to use for it.
How much of coding skills are needed ? How the options compare in features & cost ? How
much customisation is possible ? What my competitors and similar sites are using ?
Here we present a brief guide on all the possible options.
The article is based on our experience with hundreds of e-Learning websites that we have
come across while working with them in our company and our technical analyses of some
globally prominent elearning websites like udemy, courser.
The categorisation of website development into 4 methods is primarily on the basis of
coding skills required to build a site.
We have then tried to explain pros and cons for each of them on the basis of following
- Technical Skill Features
Scale Customization
Cost Time
Inhouse/Outsource.
A separate section of video discusses options to use for course video streaming on your
e-Learning website.
So here are the four options to build a site.
First is
1.
Code From Raw usinf languages like PHP, ASP, JAVA, Node JS as options.
2.
Second is using open source options like Moodle, Wordpress, Joomla which require little coding
only.
3.
Third is to use Ready to launch generic website themes provided by sites like Weebly, Wix.
4.
4th is to use Ready to launch teaching template sites like Teachable, webanywhere.
1.
Code From Raw - PHP, ASP, JAVA, NodeJS This is primarily done by individuals or businesses
who have developer in their team or outsourcing it with major objective to to serve a large
number of students with lot of custom features in place.
Technical Skill Good level of coding is required.
Each part of site, user management, course pages etc is to be coded from scratch.
PHP, ASP, NodeJS all are good technologies to work in.
NodeJS is the newest one, while PHP is currently being used by lot of popular sites.
There is no strictness amongst choosing amongst the languages, it is recommended to go with
the language in which the development team is most comfortable and experienced with.
Server and Database has also to be setup along with these sites.
For large cases a dedicated server in your own country or something global like AWS will
be good.
For small cases, shared hosting by godaddy etc is also good enough.
Features & Customization Since entire site is coded by your team or
some outsourced company, time and cost has to go into development of all features.
But at the same time, it means that you can have everything you want.
As an example, you want your viewer to be logged out exact after 300 hours of their
total login time (this can be done to prevent login credentials sharing), then it can be
done here.
If you want to get the exact video time when each of viewer stops playing video, it can
also be done.
It is difficult to do these customizations with other options we are going to mention
after this.
Cost If you are outsourcing, the cost is considerably
higher than other options since it requires full development.
It is great if you have a developer in your team.
The cost of regular maintenance and support is generally not much.
Time It will generally take 2-3 months of time
to get ready with a full fledged elearning website.
Scale effects For less then 1000 expected users annually,
this option is not recommended as the costs and time involved do not comply with the risk
of starting up for such a small scale.
we have seen all the sites with number of annual customers in range of 10,000 - Millions
using this as option to build site.
Reason for this is that, as you grow in your customer base, you start to face feature demands
specific to your student demographics and course you are selling.
Then it is easier to customize if the site backend is in your or your outsourced company
control.
Again for annual customers going greater then 100,000 a year , it is recommended to have
one or two developers inhouse with you.
In case of urgencies, your own team will be better able to cope up with requirements.
2.Coming to second choice that is Open Source options like Moodle, Wordpress, Joomla & Drupal
etc.
Technical skill Apart from one time server setup which can
be done by a freelancer, these options doesnot require any coding skills.
we have seen independent artists, teachers easily setting up their sites on moodle, wordpress
etc and catering students.
Features & Customization Basic student and course management features
are already provided in moodle.
With wordpress, joomla; using themes & plugins like Sensei, Guru, e-Member & prevent concurrent
login; most of common requirements for membership management, course page customizations can
be done.
Many of good themes are paid, while lot of good plugins are free.
Very detailed customizations like restricting exact login time of student, getting video
playback time of students might not be possible with this.
But main offerings like restricting membership time, payment processing, drip content can
be done easily with plugins.
Cost These are opensource options.
It is free to start with and you pay only for the themes and plugin that you use, that
only one time.
It is quite affordable and we do not see generally educators bothering much about small costs
on themes/plugins that provide them major functionalities.
If you are not sure about how your business will shape up, how much students will signup,
it is better to use this option instead of coding from raw.
Time Time to launch can range from 15 days to 1
month.
Scale effects If number of subscribed students you expect
on your site are not going to shoot past 10,000, it is good to be on such platforms.
You might face scaling and customization problem if the number shoots past this range.
3.
Ready to launch sites: Weebly, Wix , Square Space
These are the easiest low cost alternatives to launch a website in very cheap prices within
a week.
There is very little customization possible and most of these tools are not particularly
built for e-learning.
Though some companies do provide certain customizations along with these to suit it with e-learning.
we have seen some independent teachers who dont expect more than 100 users to pay for
their course.
It is quite lot of hassel and no pain to wallet, thus can be used as a trial to start with.
4.
Ready to Launch elearning websites Teachable, Webanywhere etc
These are now a days quite popular tool to go live in few days with all feature sets
ready.
Sites like teachable, webanywhere offer ready to use elearning themes, student management,
media + text addition, membership access, server, database as a functionality.
Coding Skills There is no coding involved.
The costs are reasonable and are directly proportional to the number of students you
are going to have.
Features & Customization Though these sites offer a lot of features
which are sufficient for around 50% of the course creators.
But for many cases which require lot of small customizations on the UI front, security aspects,
these companies are not able to cater to specifically.
Like you cant restrict the login time, you cant custom set a particular student comment
section at the place on page where you want to.
Reviews should be taken before going for any of this option as your whole business then
relies in the fate of these companies.
Scale Effects Again as in second case it is recommended
to setup your own system on some CMS, if number of your students is going to shoot more then
1,000 or build a scratch coded site like in php, if number is going to be above 10,000.
Check what your competitors are doing Some times it is great idea to learn from
your friends and competitors.
If you see some one similar to you in same space and want to check out what they are
using for their course website , you can do with a very helpful tool - builtwith.com.
It analyses the tech stack on which any website is based and presents it to you.
If 8 out of 10 your competitors are using the same framework, then sure it is a good
thing to check out.
we are summarising the study with a matrix to compare the 4 possible ways to design an
elearning website.
You can have a pause to look in detail while I will speak of conclusions here.
First, IF you are looking to code a site from raw, then the choice of technology depends
on comfort of your development team.
Ideal for large custom required sites.
Open Source options like wordpress, moodle, joomla, optimizes cost , features and control
of all the options.
It is most popular option we have seen.
Options like Webanywhere, teachable are good for individual teachers.
You have to give up on customizations.
Affordable to start with.
Sites like weebly, wix are good for experimentation.
It is better to choose amongst other 3 options for full elearning portal.
Streaming e-Learning videos & Protection from piracy
Reason we are specifically including a different section on video streaming for e-learning
is because: ● Video courses are typically the lifeline
of any e-learning portal and second; ● Video streaming and safeguarding the video
content from piracy is a major technical challenge which the 4 options discussed dont solve inherently
themselves.
Most of e-learning sites use some premium video streaming provider to cater to their
streaming needs.
Streaming bufferless for HD wordlwide and ensuring smooth delivery to regions with slow
connections is a major problem.
Youtube is quite good in this aspect but lacks business friendly customizations.
Vimeo has a B2B offering that is quite popular and is decent in streaming experience.
Youtube, Vimeo use standard streaming protocols to deliver video content and thus lot of free
plugins and downloaders are able to grab and pirate the videos.
Thus, some thing more custom built for premium videos, providing higher security and flexibility
to manage video related features is needed.
Encrypted streaming with viewer specific watermarking on a multibitrate player is a good option
provided by VdoCipher.
No downloader or plugin can grab content streamed through us.
Our smooth streaming optimizations ensure that videos play smooth even in low Internet
speed areas of India, Africa.
Encrypted Streaming, Analytics, API, Custom Player, Dashboard all in one go.
We have elearning and media customers across 6 continents , 30 + countries.
VdoCipher was winners of prestigious Streaming Media Europe Readers' Choice Award for 2016.
You can visit our site to have a free full version trial.
We will be happy to have feedbacks and question in the comments section below or the site
contact.
You are also welcome to share your experience with above technologies and any interesting
insights.
Happy Teaching :)
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