Lockdown brought a real boom in demand for comprehensive digital services, especially streaming and video conferencing, but even before that fateful date 😶🌫️ almost 2 years ago, there was one sector that had been transforming its business model in response to the unstoppable push of consumer habits: Education. And more and more we were hearing about online training platforms, the so-called eLearning.
And thanks to this forward-looking strategic vision of change, the education sector is highly advanced and developed on the Internet, to the benefit of millions of users. Today we can find hundreds of online training ecosystems offering courses on all kinds of subjects. To name just a handful: Udemy, Domestika, Coursera, Floqq, MasterD or Tutellus.
But to be more specific and avoid confusing users (the term online platform can refer to one thing or another), by online training platforms we mean, in Webbing Online the software that makes it possible to deliver online courses remotely to thousands of students.
Let's dive a little deeper into the world of online training platforms that allow any company to have an environment for outreach, communication and training on its own website 😎.
What exactly are eLearning online training platforms
While in the early days of online training platforms these digital environments were seen as complements to in-person training, today there are many business models that operate exclusively online thanks to these platforms. Of course, there are still businesses that continue to combine in-person and virtual training, but as a result of the pandemic and its restrictions, the rise of digital-only providers has skyrocketed (considerably reducing business costs).
And that is thanks to the dozens of LMS (Learning Management Systems) available on the online market today. eLearning systems or environments, which many call “virtual campuses”, where all the interaction between the user and the provider takes place.
Many of these online training platforms are 100% flexible and can be designed exactly the way you want. This means that not all of them follow the same structure. As we will see below, it will depend, among other things, on whether they are free environments (open source) or closed software (with a paid license).
Generally, eLearning environments are simple, intuitive ecosystems whose main elements are:
- Login: Access to the platform, which is usually integrated into the corporate website through intuitive buttons that lead to a simple interface with the usual username and password login box.
- User area: User profile accessed with a username and password, containing the required personal information (depending on each environment) and access to all the platform's features.
- Enrolled courses: Menu area where the course or courses we are enrolled in are located. When entering each course, the user accesses its structure and interacts with the different elements that make up the training: lessons, resources, calendar, tests, forums, etc.
These 3 common structural modules that define online training platforms will be as similar or as different as the educational creators themselves envision. Not all eLearning systems allow the same degree of modularity (we'll explain this in a moment 🙂 ) and functional flexibility, but they all share similar features:
- Teacher-student communication channels (also outside the online training platform, such as WhatsApp or Telegram groups, or through Google's collaboration tools)
- Grading system via the platform
- Personalized assessment
- Resources in different easy-to-use formats (PDFs, Excel files, videos, audio, images…)
Open source or licensed software
We introduced this just a few lines above. The degree of customization these online training platforms offer varies enormously depending on their type.
Open source
An online training platform with open source or free code means that it is software open to any user who wants to contribute to and modify its code in order to customize it further and fix any bugs detected. In other words, it can be modified and improved by any user with the right knowledge.
There are 3 major advantages with this type of platform:
- It is free.
- 100% custom configuration based on the owner's interests and needs.
- Its huge community of developers (any user with the right programming knowledge), which keeps developing and evolving the platform with valuable contributions, and also works as e-learning technical support for any technical or performance issue that may arise.
LMS with a paid license
These are third-party software products that recreate a course management platform with some of the standard features already built in, but not all of the ones online training projects usually need. In these cases, you need to look at what requirements the project will have and see which paid LMS on the market covers all or most of them.
The most advanced and proven programs on the market also come with addons or very useful plugins that, free or paid ( freemium or Premium models), can cover requirements that are not active by default. Commercial synergies between these online training platforms and the main digital tool providers are commonplace.
They are paid online training platforms, under an annual license, whose developers update the software through different versions as they see fit. Likewise, if there is an anomaly or fault in the platform, there is no choice but to contact its technical support to request a review and subsequent fix. It is therefore very important to choose an LMS whose developer has a strong reputation in both its technical and customer service departments.
Advantages of an LMS as an online training platform:
- Quick and easy implementation
- Seamless integration with WordPress and other environments such as WooCommerce, payment gateways or database software such as Mailchimp.
- Large social communities and forums on social media
Other sectors investing in online training platforms
We began this article by associating online training platforms solely with the Education sector. It is true that this is the most common area where these eLearning environments are implemented, but by no means the only one. While most universities in the world, and more and more schools, now have a virtual campus (usually Moodle), many very different sectors have taken advantage of their enormous potential to strengthen and improve their services and, consequently, their business models.
Some of the sectors we are talking about are:
- State Security Forces and Corps.
- Psychology
- Sports disciplines
- Cultural organizations
- Healthcare organizations
- …
E-learning projects by Webbing Online
When it comes to online training platforms, Webbing Online already has a proven track record as one of the few digital providers specializing in their design and implementation in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
Some recent examples include:
AJ FC. Barcelona virtual classroom
An environment that FCB and its Agrupació de Jugadors commissioned from us to give its ecosystem of members and players an eLearning platform where they could access courses, activities, workshops and conferences online.
Online education platform for the staff of a Barcelona hospital that receives dozens and dozens of patients of other nationalities and cultures. To overcome language and cultural barriers, the hospital wanted to create an agile, intuitive training environment tailored to its employees.
A virtual academy of padel lessons taught by Mauri Andrini, two-time world champion, who from Madrid set out to create a global platform to take the sport of padel to every corner of the world. Especially to the Scandinavian countries, where the boom of this racket sport has grown exponentially in recent years.
Personalized videos, videos featuring players from the current top 10 ranking, a Q&A area with the coaches, an individual folder for saving videos, etc.
The importance of hosting
One of the most important aspects to consider when designing an eLearning project. Without good, properly sized web hosting support, with the right technical configuration and resources, an online training platform will not deliver the expected results.
Especially if you want to hold classes via streaming or support a very, very high number of simultaneous student connections. You therefore need to make sure the servers can handle that entire volume of requests to access and interact with the platform. Nothing is more damaging to a brand and its corporate reputation than a service with constant server outages that prevent students from accessing the courses they have paid for.
In general, to ensure optimal eLearning performance, we recommend getting a web hosting virtual (VPS for short – Virtual Private Server), as they deliver higher performance at a more affordable price than a dedicated server. Among other things, you are guaranteed that all updates are current and that, if any issue arises, a technical team is on hand to fix it.
Conclusions
It is no surprise that there is such high demand for online training platforms in Spain today, given how users' needs have shifted regarding the online services they consume. And also given how organizations themselves, public or private, now approach their training and internal communication. More and more things are online, done online and run 100% online.
An eLearning environment is a multitasking solution that, in the hands of the right developers, becomes a flexible, scalable and cost-effective tool in the long run.
In Webbing Online we are specialists in developing and maintaining eLearning systems in Madrid and Barcelona since the very beginning of the service.