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There’s no doubt that technology has changed the way we learn (and teach). Courses, university lectures, and even high school and primary school lectures are no longer limited to the traditional classroom setting.

Instructors and teachers, just like students, nowadays have a digital toolbox available which ranges from mobile devices to laptops and computers that can run software tools that allow attending online courses.

Online learning will be trending in the years to come and it will surely grow more and more as time goes by. So, let’s take a look and see what you should do to create your own online course platform if you want to break through into the growing e-learning industry.

Choose a custom LMS for your platform

Your online course platform needs to be safe, custom, and flexible.

1. On a dedicated server with approved access, the e-learning platform should ensure strong security. With so many copyright violations these days, it’s critical to protect your authorship. Many teachers have various backup solutions in place to restore their data.
2. The online course platform should be tailored to the preferences of a certain course structure, offer your learning materials their own voice, and provide round-the-clock support to address any concerns.
3. Learners can progress at their own pace, acquire all kinds of support from you and your team, and determine if they need more practice or more theory with a flexible design. As the learner demonstrates competency in the niche and/or chooses to explore the advanced modules, they will have access to more advanced content.

That is why you should use a good LMS WordPress plugin if your website was built in WordPress. This will make it easy to create a good course platform while meeting the three characteristics listed above.

Keep your UI simple

Your user interface should only display what is required on the screen. A good online course runs in the background and remains unnoticed so that learners can focus on their primary goal of learning. 

There’s no need to complicate things by using sophisticated words from the thesaurus in your lesson. It’s fine to use them now and then, but your main goal should be to make the interface straightforward and simple to use.

Use easy-to-understand terminology because respect and concern for the audience are also shown in written content.

Select great learning materials

You should have a strong sense of what kind of content and information your learners will find beneficial. Not to mention that the information provided must be accurate.

Attempt to include all parts of your course and remove anything that isn’t relevant or distracting from the general learning objectives. Break your information down into parts and develop an easy-to-follow structure. Next, make sure that those modules flow smoothly into one another, forming a coherent sequence of lessons for the full course.

Track the performance of your online course

You need to know how students learn and engage with your course while thinking about how to construct an online course platform. This is where SCORM and xAPI standards come into play. One of these standards should be compatible with your online course in order to assess its success.

1. The SCORM standard is gaining traction and is being more widely used in content delivery, particularly for quizzes and videos. It is easier for students to progress through the course because they can bookmark where they left off.
2. A direct successor to SCORM, xAPI, is another standard you should have in mind. It enables educators to monitor, personalize, and analyze their students’ learning experiences in a more timely manner.

Be smart with your pricing system

Figure out your fundamental pricing models because they will directly impact the revenue stream.

You can go for one-off payments. This model is very popular and it will do the job just fine as long as the price is affordable.

Also, you could use a subscription-based model. This way, your online course platform will offer a recurring payment plan to your students who will pay for their membership on a weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis.

Last but not least, you can introduce the premium model which promises your students more exclusive materials. Since fewer students will choose this model, the goal is to deliver a better learning experience. This allows educators to interact with their students on a deeper level. You can give individualized instruction to your premium learners to keep things exciting.

Final words

Ready to create your own online course platform? Go over the tips you have just seen here and be smart with your payment options. Do some research on your rivals if you need to to get it right.