Today e-learning applications are gaining popularity, as ever more people would rather take online courses than enroll at a university, not least because many universities are providing their own online educational programs and e-learning software. In this regard, a lot of trends in education software development have emerged for recent years, and organizations must keep up with them to win their customer and facilitate user experience. The following list was prepared by Eleanor Herbert, Elinext’s company team member with a vast experience in education software development. Ready for the 10 must-have features that any e-learning platform can’t do without?
1. Data and analytics
When used smartly, user data and analytics applied to it will let you know what the users want from your content and personalize online lessons in an intelligent way. For example, let your learners express their demands with their peers’ by conducting social multiple-choice surveys. Then, on the basis of their results, you can personalize the content for each of the users by providing the features that they voted for by selecting from 2-4 options.
2. Video
Video content today is the king. No doubt that you should embed some in your e-learning app. The question is, what format you will choose to deliver the information in the most efficient way possible? Video lessons are the must but what do you think of training boot camps or webinar sessions? This may be a good fit for corporate learners for some company. Follow them up with the group discussion online, invite guest speakers, challenge learners with the relevant task and gather feedback afterwards.
3. Certification
People want their achievements to be recognized and proven in black and white. That’s why adding the e-learning certificate is so important. We suggest you the idea to make certificates customizable for users and track their performance while they are still attending the course, thus keeping them motivated.
4. Gamification
The tendency for e-learning gamification has arrived a long ago for children education. However, it can be considered as a strong strategy for adults as well and increase the immersion into the learning process. Add e-learning badges, scores, levels, social competition or games into your platform and stir more interest by users.
5. Socialization and community
The next thing that can bring the power into your e-learning platform is a social community where the learners taking the same course can share their opinions, rate courses, separate lessons or teachers or just chat. Creating tools for a community will not only entertain your user but let you sync with their changing needs and understand their learning path.
6. Mobile devices
With about 70% of learners accessing their online courses via mobile, the popularity of m-learning is growing. Some experts are still skeptic about the future of mobile apps but e-learning ones are definitely at no threat, and the increasing success of the mobile products of Udemy and Coursera is yet another proof of this trend.
7. Localization and translation
If your app is to be distributed on the international level, localization procedures are inevitable. This can be limited by the translation of the content, including audio and video voice-over or at least subtitles for them.
The other elements that should be localized include:
- User Interface and its elements.
- Images with text and graphs.
- Help or Q&A section.
8. Intellectual property
The protection of the intellectual property rights is mostly limited to copyright. The e-learning content developers strive to have the control over the distribution of their works. The other areas of intellectual property include patents and trademarks protection which spread over your unique explorations, audio, video content, and even virtual reality environment, if any.
9. Confidentiality and data security
Often overlooked, a privacy policy agreement which is signed during the registration process may be a great helper in stating your policies regarding data usage.
The other advice is to use the encryption ensuring that only authorized users can get access to your data and no other can manipulate it.
10. Monetization
The last but not the least point is monetization which can be implemented in two ways: by advertising or by the paid subscription. What’s good for you?
Advertising is definitely the easier way to start monetization, however, it will take a lot of time, even years, to start gaining real profit.
Subscription, in its turn, must be justified by sufficient materials and quality content for users to understand that it’s worth their money. If your product is new on the market, offer some trial courses for free to engage the users and let them know who you are and why they should buy a subscription.
In general, if you have all the above issues in your e-learning software, you will find your users sooner or later. We hope our tips will help you to launch a new app, enhance the current one or plan for the future.
