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Education is probably the most important thing we need.
However, the traditional education system can get a little problematic. The growing cost of a college education is driving many to look for alternative educational platforms where they can get a high-quality education at no or low cost. And this is exactly why the craze to build e learning website like Coursera and Udemy have emerged in the market right now.
When we are talking about education, we don’t mean only the traditional subjects. The fun thing about the various e-learning websites is the fact that one can learn anything from there. From math to programming to pottery making, all kinds of knowledge is available on these platforms.
The rising popularity of e-learning websites definitely makes it a great idea for a business. Entrepreneurs are searching for a trusted web development company to get their idea manifested. However, the only question that remains is how to create a website like Udemy, Coursera, and alike? Well, if you are looking for answers, then you are definitely going to find them here. Let’s look at all the steps you need to follow to develop your e-learning website.
Learn The Steps To Build eLearning Website like Udemy
Before we start discussing how to develop an e-learning website, let’s take a quick look at the steps we would have to follow.
- Is your idea worth it? – Idea validation
- Learn how e-learning websites like Udemy work
- Choosing the business model
- The core features to implement
- Strategize UI/UX design
- Technology and tools you’ll need
- Know Your Competitors
Now that we have looked at the steps, it’s time to go through them to learn how to make a website like Udemy. So without much ado, let’s get started.
1. Idea Validation – The Global Market View
It is no secret that the rising demands for efficient and low-cost training and education system are driving up the demand for e-learning websites like Udemy, Khan Academy, Coursera, etc. but in order to actually validate your idea, we have to look at the numbers. According to the stats, the global e-learning market size is going to reach $300 billion US dollars by 2025.
North America alone is going to constitute 40% of the entire 120 billion US dollar e-learning market by 2025. Technology such as Artificial Intelligence, AR, VR, machine learning, big data, machine learning is helping with the growth of the e-learning market. As these technologies grow more, they will only help with the growth of the e-learning market. All these reasons make the idea to build e learning website a brilliant one.
2. How Websites Like Udemy work?
Currently, the market is full of e-learning websites. These websites are not only featuring lessons and tutorials from the individuals but also from various institutions as well. However, before we start with the development, it is important that we look at how online training sites like Udemy works.
The workings of e-learning platforms are pretty straightforward. The users simply sign up, create an account, and then they can start with searching for courses related to their field and interests and start learning.
Udemy, as a platform, approaches teachers and instructors, providing them with various tools to create and deliver content for their users. The rest of the marketing and distribution is handled by the Udemy team. You can approach this matter in the same way, or you can give the instructors freedom to sign up on your website as instructors and start creating courses. Now, let’s look at the business models available for these websites.
3. Choosing the Business Model to Build e Learning Website
Choosing the business model is the first thing you need to get out of the way because this not only determines how you earn money through your platform but also your features. You also have to choose your LMS – if you want to choose a pre-built platform or create your own cloud-based LMS. Below we have talked about the probable business models for your e-learning website in detail.
| Business model | Description |
| 1. Paid Certificates | Besides the course costs, the users pay for a platform verified certificate that is accepted in various places. Creating tie-ups with various universities and educational organizations and providing the learners with verified paid certificates will ensure that you have a continuous channel of revenue coming in. |
| 2. Subscription-based | With this model, the user buys paid subscriptions to the website on a monthly or yearly basis. Once they have bought a subscription, they can have unlimited access to the website and all its courses. This way the user will have to pay only a small amount of money to access all the information on the website. |
| 3. Affiliate Model | In the affiliate model, the courses can have integrated links for various books or equipment that the users might need to progress in that course. Once the user follows the link to the e-commerce platform and makes a purchase, your website will gain revenue from it. |
| 4. Corporate Collaboration | The corporate collaboration model is where you collaborate with any business organization to have some specific courses related to their operation. The organizations can train their employees in a centralized way. And not to mention, this will also earn you a lot of revenue for your website. |
| 5. Paid Courses | Last but not least is the paid course model, through which your website can earn serious revenue. When the students purchase a paid course part of the revenue goes to the instructor who uploaded the course, and the rest will go to the website owner. |
4. The Core Features To Implement
The core features are going to determine the success of your eLearning website. Carefully choosing and implementing the right features to your website is of utmost importance. While figuring out how to create an online learning platform like Udemy, you will realize that you can divide the core features into three segments.
The first being the common features, the second being the student profile features and the third being the teacher profile feature.
A. Common Features for Your Udemy like Website
The common features are the features that anyone using the website will find useful. The common features are going to be used by both students and instructors on your platform.
Account creation
The account creation feature is going to help the users, both the students and instructors to create their own accounts on the website and personalize their experience on the platform. It is a must-have feature, as it would help the users to manage the various courses they join and upload, and help the students to learn without any problem.
Profile management
Profile management is the next important and common feature you need for online training sites like Udemy. The users who create a profile using the appropriate information would be enabled to use the profile management feature to manage those details, add or remove the courses, manage the certificates and follow instructors as well. Look for ways to build e learning website with seamless profile management.
Customer support
The customer support, like any other service, is going to be extremely important for your website. The feature will help the users to contact the customer support whenever they are experiencing any kind of problem with the website, whether it is accessing their account or uploading a course. 24/7 customer support will increase the user-friendliness of your website.
Business collaboration
The online education websites like edX and Coursera have already benefited using this feature of business collaboration. Big companies and government organizations collaborate with online learning websites to introduce courses specific to that organization.
This way they can train their employees in a centralized way and track the progress data. Through the business collaboration, you would not only earn a generous revenue but also be able to work in collaboration. It is possible if you build e learning website with popular business organizations to help you to increase the popularity of your website.
B. Student profile features:
The students, who are going to sign up to your website to learn, need various features to make their experience better. Here are a few of the important student profile features you will need.
Search, Category, and filtering
With so many courses available on the website, the students need a feature that will help them to sort out and find their desired course on the website. And for that they need a search, categorize and filtering feature.
The search bar or the search feature will enable the users to look for a specific course using specific keywords. The category feature will sort out the courses in several categories based on subject, prices, certification type, expertise level, etc. through the filtering feature, the students can filter through the categories and find the right course for them.
Recommendations
The recommendation feature will show the users relevant courses to the ones they have already enrolled for. This will help them to discover more courses that can help them to advance their skillset.
Tag following Before You Build e learning Website
The tag system is also another part of discovering new course features. The students on your website for online courses similar to Udemy can follow tags relevant to their field and whenever there are new courses added with that tag, the students can see it on their homepage or recommendations page.
Easy payment options for enrollment
There are going to be some courses that will be a paid course. And to pay for these paid courses, the user would need a secure payment option.
Make sure that the payment options integrating on your website are easy to handle, and most of all secure.
C. Instructor profile features
To make a functional website such as Coursera, you will need instructors who will upload new courses and content on a daily basis. And to do so, the instructors would need some important profile features. Here are two of the most important instructor profile feature you will need for eLearning website development.
Course creation and updates
The first and most important feature is the course creation and updates feature. The instructor should be able to create a course based on their expertise and skills. Along with course creation comes the feature to update the course with new content.
Dashboard (includes- courses updated list/revenue/performance/insights)
The dashboard feature is necessary for instructors to keep track of the courses they have uploaded on the profile, the number of people who have enrolled for their courses, the amount of revenue that has been generated and an overall insight of all their activities on the website.
5. How To Strategize the UI/UX design
The UI/UX is going to determine the success of your website. The ease and efficiency with which the user can navigate the website will help them decide if they want to keep on joining courses. So
When designing the UI/UX for your website comparable to Udemy, make sure to consider the below-mentioned points.
A. Simplicity And Consistency
The first thing you have to consider when designing a website like Udemy is the simplicity and consistency of the design.
Complex design, despite being attractive, does not do much when it comes to attracting users. The main visitors on your website are going to be students and instructors. And it would be efficient for them if the e learning design is simple. With simple navigational pointers along with easy to understand interface for the first-timers.
Along with simplicity comes the matter of consistency. The website design, with its colors, themes and logo need to be consistent to give the user a sense of continuity. This will evoke a sense of trust among the users when you create a website like Udemy.
B. The Visual Design
The visual design refers to the images, illustrations, and animations you will be using to make your website look unique, fun and interesting to the user.
Even though it is essentially an educational website, i.e a website where users are coming for various skill training, it does not mean that the website has to be dull and boring. Through the use of colors and illustrations, you can make your website a fun and interesting one so that users want to visit every day.
However, you have to be careful about using colors and illustrations. There are distinct principles about color psychology you should look into before choosing colors. When it comes to the matter of images, refrain from using stock images. While these stock images might be of high quality and easy to acquire, they also seem unreal and therefore prevent the site visitors from trusting your website completely.
C. Typography to Build e learning Website
Typography is a crucial part of the visual design. Even after having your website extremely well designed you have to make sure that the typography of your website is not only readable but visually appealing as well. Never forget that the text you put on your website also becomes a part of the SEO activity on part of your website.
Make sure to create the right combinations of typefaces for design elements. This way your website will not only be legible, but it will also be all-around successful. For a detailed guide on UI UX made by elite designers, visit this page.
D. Ease Of Loading And Navigation
The matter of UI/UX design is going to affect the ease of loading and navigation a great deal. And that’s why you need to ensure that any design element that you use is not affecting the loading time of your website.
The images that are being used on your website should be compressed for faster loading time, while the use of animations should be limited, as they can affect the loading time as well.
Navigating your website should be an easy task even for those who are using the site for the first time. According to the study, the ease of navigation affects how long the user might stay on the website.
To create a better navigational process for your website you might use the “three-click-rule”. This way the user will get all the important information they need only through three clicks.
6. Technology Stack You Need to Create Platform like Udemy or Coursera
What kind of technical support do you need to build the backend? What goes into making the perfect MVC of an education website and launch it? Let’s find out the tech stack to create your own awesome eLearning solution.
| Requirements | Tech stack |
| 1. Frontend | Javascript, bootstrap, CSS3, Angular.JS/React.JS |
| 2. Backend | Node.JS |
| 3. Framework | Express |
| 4. Database | MySQL, MongoDB, |
| 5. Online payment | Paypal, Stripe |
| 6. Cloud storage | Cloudflare, AWS |
Added to the above tech stack, you will also need many add-ons, plug-ins, and the third-party tools that will let you add additional functionalities on your website. Give extra importance to your database for e learning website.
7. Planning to Launch Your Own Website Like Udemy? Know Your Competitors
Before diving headfirst into the market, you should find out about the big guns in the market of the online learning website. The below-mentioned websites have been around for a long time and have made a mark on the industry. Let’s explore why they are unique and users love to create a course and learn.
Name | Business model | Number of courses | Who is contributing? | Why is it different? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Udemy | Paid courses | 100,000 online video courses | Individual Instructors | Unlimited access to free courses, the paid courses are very reasonably priced. |
| 2. Coursera | Paid courses, Subscription-based, paid certificates | 3,600 (as of August 2019) | Universities | Besides small courses, there are masters and bachelor’s courses available from top universities taught by university professors. |
| 3. Lynda.com | Subscription-based | 7,961 | Individual Instructors | Courses created to enhance the real-life skills of the learners, helping them to get jobs in the relevant field of interest. |
| 4. Khan Academy | Donation-based | 10,000 videos, 3,000 articles and 50,000 exercises | Both Individual teachers and universities | Covers a wide range of topics, makes the learner complete tasks during lessons, learning through the practical method. |
| 5. Udacity | Paid Nanodegrees | 200 | Universities | Majorly focused on skill improvements, training programs supported by Salesforce, Facebook, Google. |
| 6. Codecademy | Paid advance courses | 66 | Individual Instructors | Focused on programming and coding, courses range from basic to advanced levels, includes certification based codes. |
| 7. Bloc | Paid courses | 5 | Individual instructors | Mainly focuses on skill-building in programming, courses last for several months, a better options for a career change. |
| 8. Skillshare | Subscription-based | Over 22,000 | Individual instructors | Courses based on activity-based learning, courses taken by industry professionals. |
Bottomline to Build E Learning Website
People are not solely dependent on schools and colleges to learn things. They are turning towards online websites to increase their education, and enhance their skill sets. And keeping that in mind, developing an online training site like Udemy is not a bad idea at all.
Not only it is going to be beneficial for you, but it will also help those who need specific education or skill training but can not acquire it due to circumstances. The online learning websites like edX and Coursera are the embodiment of the progressive outlook today’s world has towards education. And when you create an online learning platform, you’ll become a part of that progressive outlook as well.
