It is no secret that the growing demands of e-learning platform development keep rises in every part of the world. And to be honest, when a global pandemic takes place in the world it becomes a key solution for learning.
What is the E-learning and E-learning platform?
E-learning or online learning is primarily internet-based learning. It harnesses the power of information and communication technology to share information and develop knowledge and skills.
E-learning platform provides a flexible and learner-centric approach to learning. It enables anytime and anywhere learning that goes beyond the four walls of a classroom. This means the learner is free to pick their convenient time and place to learn, and pause it and resume whenever they want.
Determine Why need an e-learning platform?
Many small companies want to train their employees, and some schools want to teach their students, and any pre-customized eLearning platforms can do these types of activities. Furthermore, many online platforms give free access to small businesses and schools, so first define your specific goals and see if it’s relevant or not.
A clearly defined goal can save you lots of time and money, hugely beneficial for companies and future projects.
Benefits of the E-learning platform
- Anyone with a reliable internet connection can participate from anywhere in the world.
- Learners can access modules and programs anytime, anywhere, using a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
- Elearning ensures a consistent learning experience, and learners enjoy engaging with a range of media like quizzes, audio, videos, and learning games.
- Instructors can teach as many learners as necessary without time and space restrictions.
Cost Of an E-learning Platform Development
One of the common questions we get quite often from our clients that “How much it costs to develop an e-learning platform?”
There are hundreds of thousands of e-learning platforms and online education providers serving millions of people and many of them convert into a massive educational platform that maximizes student revenue and increases their income streams.
In a highly competitive business landscape employers seek refining skills to hire. E-learning platforms enable organizations and business owners to achieve better and professional employees.
Developing an e-learning platform requires lots of time and effort. Usually, not everyone wants to build a high class or international level e-learning platform.
Some just want platforms that teach their employee or students to experience new things, teach from it, and develop a new skill or enhance the existing one.
How much do you want to use the learning platform will ultimately determine what kind of solution you need, but it is important to find out about the prevailing pricing strategies.
The cost of e-learning platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, and other online learning platforms depends on many factors. You need to try them out and see if they are the answer to your needs for your primary education program.
Some elements may affect the cost of an e-learning site, but before you start an all-encompassing method of determining your development costs for an e-learning platform, you should look at the total cost of your primary school program and the role it plays in the range of educational value your organization offers.
Feel where it makes the most sense to you, then plan accordingly and put it into practice in the pricing of your online learning.
You do not want to go into creating online training courses without knowing what time and money cost. Before you start looking at the costs, it is crucial that you understand what an online learning platform is and what it does for your program.
The cost of e-learning depends on the UI / UX design of your app, so if you rely on venture features, you should opt for a small app (e.g. a mobile app) rather than the size you want to add to your website.
There are some factors that affect the cost of e-learning platforms, take a glance at it.
Factors determining e-learning platform development costs.
There are two major factors that determine the e-learning platform development cost are as follows.
Content
- Resources and Rates
- Content Creation
1. Resources and Rates
Technology evolves every day and when the uses keep rising so the price for it. When you try to build an E-learning platform it is required to collect all the important resources and organize them in order. In resource you’ve to look for content, hosting, domain, server, etc.
The rates of creating e-learning platforms are various in every country. It depends on with whom you’re creating an e-learning platform and what’s their rates. Harold Jarche has provides significant details on the resources and rates in his article published in eLearn Magazine. To check the latest prices you can also check on several freelancer platforms like Upwork, Trulancer, freelancer, etc.
Controlling resources and rates is one of the core components that has a high impact on the cost.
2. Content Creation
It is the heart of the e-learning platform. Content creation takes a long time and more research with accurate data. The charges of content creating can be varied; some charges per month or year and some charges per course.
Creating content requires an instructor who has to develop a skill or knowledge in particular fields and come up with more appropriate resources and guides to take a course to the next level. Many e-learning platforms collaborate with universities and institutes to generate content with the help of the professor.
You also need to update content when it’s necessary or things have changed in trends. It’s absolute to hire a professional content writer and course creator to come up with the best content out there.
If you cooperate with the university they also offer you free content to add to your platform which eventually reduces your cost.
Technical & User Experience
- Learning Management System
- App Development
- Video Hosting
- Development Model
- Project Duration
- Day-to-day Maintenance
- Team size
- Complexity
1. Learning Management System
The learning management system is a complete solution for an effective learning strategy. The learning management system enables tracking and deploy online training. Usually, contents are uploading on LMS and make it easily accessible for remote learners or students.
Some learning management system also provides tools and materials that have pre-built e-learning platform which saves you some extra time and bucks.
LMS can store and track all the information and anyone with the login and password can access it. When you choose a self-hosted LMS, it’s necessary to install LMS software on the hard drive or organization server.
LMS relies on two types of user
- Learner – Who takes several courses in the platform
- Team – who create, update, and distribute content over the learner
Research by Brandon hall group indicates that 54% of organizations that have invested in learning technology have seen engagement and productivity among their employee.
2. App Development
A report by Compuware indicates that the user prefers the app (85%) ahead of mobile. The main reason for this is that apps are easier to browse, faster, and convenient. Any e-learning platform requires an app, so users can easily access the content remotely. It doesn’t need to be advanced and complex instead it’s should be easily accessible and navigator.
App development requires extra cost and effort to build and it’s slightly different from the web version. The prime benefit of the app, it increased the number of users and makes it more easily accessible on any device.
In-app development you’ve to build an app for a different operating system like android, iOS, windows. So, it can work on each device.
3. Video Hosting
The Internet is filled with video content and if the E-learning platform doesn’t integrate videos then it lacks a crucial component of modern education. Videos help in keeping students engaged with the course, far better than simple page-turners. Further, videos are very demonstration friendly, explaining a complex concept in an in-depth and easiest possible way. Many research indicates that video learners store information easily.
An e-learning platform content mainly depends on videos and requires powerful hosting which works without interruption. Video hosting prices are higher than any other hosting because it requires lots of space and fast speed to work with.
Many companies provide video hosting which comes with customization options, the ability to provide fast speed, and a well-described API. In general, most of the video hosting platforms charge around 25$ per month which is a pretty decent amount for hosting videos.
4. Development Model
The development model cost will depend on how you want to develop your model. If you prefer to build an e-learning platform on your own, the cost can be expensive. You’ve to purchase advanced tools, resources, and the cost of hosting traffic and training staff.
When you choose a partner who’s already experienced in the field, you can distribute your cost with him and develop a better and modern e-learning platform. An experienced partner also leverages economies of scale, established new methods, and provides efficiency to your projects.
5. Project Duration
Advanced and modern platforms require lots of time and take several hours to accomplish it. The more complex the project the more times it required. Some projects can complete in a month and some require a year. Project duration has a direct impact on the cost of an e-learning platform.
E-learning platform needs are high-end design along with the contemporary environment which requires a long time and eventually increased the project duration. Project duration also depends on the skill level of team members. If a team has a high skilled member it can complete the project in twinkling instead if a team has a beginner or learning member it takes a long time than usual.
You can accomplish a project in a short duration but its take more individual to work with and the cost will be simultaneous.
6. Day-to-day Maintenance
One of the common problems with online platforms, that it’s requires time to time to implement, security updates, designing changes, and much more. Sometimes you need to upgrade the platform with more advanced resources and tools, all of this action requires a maintenance team to look after.
Some algorithm updates from a search engine can load up your platform and need to implement immediately. If you don’t change the necessary requirement it becomes harsh for your platform and impacts the revenue you generate from it.
7. Team Size
Every project or program needs a team to build a high-end e-learning platform. The team determined how well the project structure and time take to accomplish the project.
Every individual who’s part of the team has adept a skill with highly advanced tactics. Every member put their precious hours to full fill the task. In E-learning platform development required couples of high skill individuals to design a perfect manifesto. Every team has its programmers, manager, designer, data analyst, and app developer to integrate modern and high tech platform.
The cost of their hours and knowledge adds some extra bucks to your budget list and increased the cost of E-learning platforms.
8. Complexity
The complexity of the e-learning platform development depends on the need of learners. Complexity depends on some factors:
- Strong and safe design of the platform
- Content that put on the platform
- Personalization for learner
An instructional designer helps to understand which types of interactivity are truly required to accomplish your goals and what other important features need to update.
How to hire a dedicated team for developing an e-learning platform?
The search for hiring the best eLearning developers is a tough one, though, especially if your technical skills and knowledge aren’t quite up to snuff. Here are some tips to employ the best team of developers for your project:-
- Analyze the market and check the reviews on the website
- Choose the right technology stack
- Ask your professional circles for a referral
- Attend tech events to pick high skilled developers
- Estimate your budget
- Go through the portfolios
- Ensure the necessary resources exist
- Have trust coding expertise
- Consider employees personality, not just skills
- Put technical knowledge above personal convictions
Frequently Asked Questions
Creating e-learning platforms requires clear goals, the right developer’s team, skilled educators, and the correct approach. A great platform requires inclusions of tools like automation, gamification, responsive design, secure cloud, wearable E-learning tools, and so on.
It’s challenging to find the right team and high skills educators who can develop well-defined content and creative ideas. Finding users for a new platform is often quite tricky and needs exact marketing.
Elearning platforms allow effective complete control of the administration, communication with users, teachers, trainers, and content management. Learners can engage with other learners and enhance their skill levels.
Coursera, Udemy, Linkedin Learning, skillshare, Udacity, and Edx are some of the best and popular learning platforms that offer various courses and professional certificates.
At Knovator, we’ve high skills individual team which helps you to build your dream e-learning platform in an advanced and high-end way. We are in a position to do much of the higher cost front-end analysis work on over selves and we also tend to deal with lower cost. If you’re looking for a complete solution for your e-Learning platform development you can contact our team through mail or direct call.
14 Oct 2021
