DON’T SELL YOUR COURSES

With the recent proliferation of e-learning sites, people can brush up on their skills or learn a new one.  Sites like these are created to offer a vast choice of topics and courses at affordable prices.  The severe competition the content creators experience incentivises them to create, eye-catching, quick fix, click-bait courses.  This “hit-and-run” approach makes one wonder if these courses have lasting value for their users or if they are just another method of exploiting the masses?

How do you offer effective e-learning to your learners? Where do you start? How can you make it meaningful and how can you stay in control?

Don’t sell courses, sell your expertise.

When you sell your expertise, you create a journey for your students instead of a mere course. For a company’s training programme, you want to test your staff’s involvement and comprehension. The life coach wants to lead their students on a road of self-discovery and training centres needs to gauge and report on the students’ progress. A standard of the shelf course is not the right tool for this.

An LMS is the solution.

A Learning Management System will allow you to provide e-learning courses on virtually anything with the added ability to manage your user interaction in a well-organized manner. You could publish tutorials, academic courses, online classes, etc. all in one place. Learning management systems has become one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and there is a myriad of options out there, but herein lies the problem. The setup time and cost can become quite daunting. But like always, there are other options. You could develop your own LMS or use a readymade LMS.

How to create your own LMS

You will need the assistance of a web developer to create your own LMS. A proven route is the use of the WordPress platform where different plugins can be purchased, installed, and customised to create your LMS.

Step 1 – Get the right hosting.

If you plan to have video courses and streaming content you would need to acquire access to a high-quality server with unlimited bandwidth. At the time of writing this article, a typical cost would be around the USD 900/month at muvi.com.

Step 2 – Set up your WordPress website for LMS

This can be quite challenging. First, subscribe for a business account or an e-commerce account depending on your requirements. WordPress offers different solutions, that would range between USD 25 and USD 45. Consult with your web developer for the right solution for your needs. Plan, design and develop the basic structure of your site, including graphics and other content.

Step 3- Install Plugins

Select the desired plugins you require including the LMS plugin. Two of the most popular are Moodle and LearnDash. These are mostly monthly subscription-based and would cost in the vicinity of $200/month. You would also need to install additional add-ons to customise your chosen LMS to suit your needs. These additional addons could easily double your Plugin costs.

Step 4 – Setup, configure and test.

Together with your web developer, refine the system to suit your exact needs. Once you completed your setup, create a fully-fledged course on the system and register a few Beta Testers. These users should include both instructors and students. Have these students and instructors extensively test and use the system. Once all the wrinkles have been ironed out launch your system.

Step 5 – Continuous maintenance.

You can not only manage your courses once the system is complete, you have to actively maintain and update your plugins and system itself. Set a schedule with a designated team to monitor your LMS.

Readymade FREE LMS

A much easier solution would be to use the 100% Free service of a readymade LMS like THE NEST LAB. This solution trumps building your own LMS by far. You can cut out the time and cost of the development and purely focus on your expertise offering to your users. Setting up the system and integrating it into your existing webpage is extremely easy, and you could start creating your course content the same day. The only costs a minimal fee for each student enrolment.

Step 1 – View the free demo.

Access the free demo [here] and familiarise yourself with this FREE LMS.

Step 2 – Subscribe for FREE & create your first course.

Just below the demo window, subscribe for the “no-strings-attached” trial account. This full-feature trial account gives you all the functionality and access to a Pro-Account.

Step 3- Enrol your first student.

As soon as you enrol your first student on one of your courses you will be upgraded to the Free Pro-Account.

Compare LMS

Conclusion

It makes little sense to go through all the pain and expense of creating your own custom LMS when there are FREE Readymade LMS solutions like THE NEST LAB available. THE NEST LAB has resolved all the development issues for you, including the protection of your video content.

Should you have a special need that only a self-developed LMS can provide, I would advise that you publish your courses on a free LMS like THE NEST LAB while your team develops your system. This will allow you to sell your expertise in the meanwhile.