Introduction to eLearning
eLearning leverages interactive technology and communication systems to usher in an improved and enhanced learning experience. Alongside existing methods, it transforms the way we teach and learn, enabling every learner to achieve their potential, regardless of time and geographical boundaries. Flexibility and cost-efficiency in eLearning support both an organization’s goals and learner’s development.
Online learning has paved the way for added flexibility and self-paced learning, improved virtual communication and collaboration, and helps in staying relevant from the broader global perspective.
Experts with industry experience and knowledge about what skills are needed to succeed can build online learning businesses to monetize their years of experience and knowledge and help individuals and businesses succeed.
Benefits of Starting an Online Education Business
There are some enormous benefits attached to the online education business. Let us look at them closely.
1. Demand in Current Times:
Over the years technology has furthered the education system to experience unexplored realms. The current COVID -19 scenario has made it amply clear that imparting knowledge digitally is the only way to save the day and keep the learning process ongoing, despite the challenges.
Related Read: Stakeholders in An eLearning Course Development Process
2. Minimal Setup Costs:
Infrastructure costs that loom large in setting up a traditional brick and mortar setup are replaced with contextual and relevant deliverables that do not require as much investment.
3. Convenience:
Learning and teaching done with the help of digital devices saves on time and allows the student to pick on topics that they want to learn and skip the familiar ones
4. Flexible Work Hours:
Online learning is not encumbered by time and space. It paves the way for prioritizing and creating a more engaging and productive learning outcome that is not bound by time.
5. Technology:
With advanced technology, everyone is aware of the digital world and its applications. Learning acquires a completely new look when armed with interesting features such as videos, images, whiteboards, chatbots, etc.
What an Online Learning Business Can Offer to its Learners
1. Blended Learning:
Learner’s attention span is always an area of concern for online learning businesses. As a result, the traditional forms of self-paced learning have been replaced with blended learning where part of the learning happens online and a part of it is conducted in a typical classroom environment. Typically, the teaching happens online while the assessments are conducted offline in a classroom.
2. Microlearning:
For learners who are already familiar with the basics of a program and need some assistance in understanding just parts of a program or want to take a refresher’s training in a particular area can be made to go through short 5 – 8 minutes learning modules also known as microlearning modules. These can be used as ready reckoners and quick reference material for learners who do not have too much time to go through the entire program to gain that little piece of information.
3. Certification and Continuing Education Credits:
Online businesses can offer certification programs or continuing education credits to learners who probably are into full-time jobs and wish to enhance their skillsets without impacting their jobs. It can also be offered as an option to students who want to pursue a certification program while they are studying in a college or high school.
4. Mobile Learning:
With easy access to smartphones and a stable Internet, connection companies can now offer courses to learners on the go. Typically, people who do not have desk jobs can quickly go through programs on their phones and need not be physically present at the office to attend a session.
5. Video Learning:
Some learners prefer to learn through visuals rather than text. Videos work very well in such a scenario.
6. Learning Assistants:
To engage students, companies can offer virtual learning assistants who can facilitate discussions amongst the participants to gather their valuable inputs and exchange ideas.
7. Personalization:
Companies can use data analysis and data-driven insights to personalize the learning experience for each learner. Personalized learning helps learners learn at a pace that fits their needs.
8. Social Learning:
Engaging in discussions with a wider audience ensures better engagement especially in an online environment. Social Learning techniques can lead to a change in attitude and behavior along with the exchange of ideas and perspectives.
9. Gamification:
Gamification is a very useful tool to make the eLearning process exciting and motivational for the learners. It is primarily the application of game design elements and game principles in a non-game context that potentially changes the way we train.
How to Start an Online Training Business
1. Choose Your Niche:
Once you have identified an area that ideally stems from your passion and interests, skills, experiences, and achievements you need to arrive at the next most important question that is, identifying your target audience. The more specific your line of business is the lesser are the chances of it getting lost with your target audience. A combination of passion, skill, experience, and target audience is the perfect mix for a winning idea.
2. Check out the Competition:
Competition is indisputable proof of market demand. If you do not find anyone that is profitably covering the area that you intend to, it should be considered a warning. The existence of competition validates the demand for your attempt at trying to address the problem. No existing competing services may also mean one of two things, there is a demand, but no one is serving that market or that there is no demand so pick another area of interest. A direct outreach via mails, social media, or cold calling is another way of assessing the demand for what you propose to bring to the table.
3. Decide How to Provide the Services:
Creating a compelling and unique brand is based on your conscious decision of how you would want to see yourself positioned in your industry. Being strategic with your positioning would mean that instead of trying to work on universal appeal you ensure that your target audience will find you immediately and feel like they have come to the right place. Identifying your unique value proposition will give you an edge over the competition. You should look for answers to the following questions:
- Who do you help?
- What do you help them do?
- Why is it beneficial to them?
Loyalty and engagement along with the consistency of delivering and the promise of helping the audience in getting from point A to B as quickly as possible without sacrificing the key concepts of what you are offering will help keep the business profitable and sustainable.
Managing an Online Learning Business
1. Building a Website for Learners:
Publishing content with regularity can help you with building trust and authority in your industry. Podcast episodes, videos, articles images, and infographics help increase traffic to your website and exposure for your business. Designing a website in which your learners can learn about your training programs, register on your site, or create an account, search learning resources, and enroll in your online courses will help with managing the business. Earning certificates and credits for completing courses is also a great motivator.
2. Publishing a Mobile App for Learners:
A mobile app keeps the learning seamless and ongoing. It is this anytime anywhere approach that propels the online learning business to convert legacy learning content to mobile learning.
3. Managing Virtual Classroom, Instructor, & Student Enrollment:
The transition to student ownership happens rapidly when teaching online. Online classroom management is a delicate balance. While a regular check-in can be scheduled once a week, the idea is to keep it collaborative and gradual as this facilitates the possibility that all involved will learn more responsibly, develop socio-emotional skills, and master more content than they would in a live classroom.
4. Adding Options for Business Clients to Buy Learning Programs:
The robust growth in the online learning market is primarily because of increasing accessibility, the cost-effectiveness of learning, and training initiatives. What needs to be factored in to draw the attention of your business clients are the following:
- Figure out the demand of courses that are selling well already,
- Make sure your version stands out,
- Finally, tackle a big topic.
5. Integration with eCommerce:
This integration has multiple benefits that you stand to gain from. It boosts sales by grouping your online training programs and offering a well-designed kit that most businesses are looking for. It also enables auto-enrollment and is perfect for B2B clients. Setting up a membership subscription site with recurrent paying options will enable your learner to subscribe to an entire library of resources, in addition to this they could purchase your premium courses.
6. Integration with CRM and Marketing Automation System:
ROI can be optimized by building a personalized customer experience. Setting up cross-channel campaigns that seamlessly communicate with your customers across the web, mobile, and email triggers personalized communication that drives them to the next step in the buying process. It helps measure the impact of every interaction and helps nurture, convert, and re-target. This integration assists with tracking buyer behavior, and engagement through email campaigns and promotions.
7. Reports/Dashboards, Feedback on Training Progress:
Proving to your client that their investment is paying off, by way of a detailed report pointing to the reviews received and even adding your notes will help explain the trends and feedback that they see. Quantifying qualitative feedback and research data helps with trust-building and keeps you invested in identifying areas that need improvement. Reports/dashboards aspect of the learning platform will provide you with data visualizations and drill-down reports about learner progress and eCommerce transactions.
Building the Content
Here are some simple tips and tricks that can help you with creating content for your online courses.
1. Choosing the Right Authoring Tool:
An authoring tool that is a perfect blend of flexibility and ease of use will lend your course the features and functions you need along with enhanced usability.
2. Researching your Audience and Subject Matter:
Effectively assessing and analyzing the audience will help with an in-depth understanding of what they hope to achieve and their expectations in general.
3. Links to add Multimedia and Resources:
If you are unable to create multimedia elements on your own, you can simply embed links to videos, presentations, and any other online resources directly onto your eLearning course. This helps with quick access to multimedia information that relates to the content. However, care should be taken to avoid cognitive overload.
4. Curriculum Design:
An effective design for the curriculum that you have to offer is a sure-shot way of achieving success. Setting up pre-requisites for the course to creating assessments that map with the objectives of the course will enable your learners to achieve what they hope to accomplish at the beginning of the program.
5. Instructional Design:
The effectiveness of a course is only possible by using Instructional Design techniques while writing the course. Instructional Design lays the foundation for a well-designed training program. If the design is weak, the course will not meet the training needs and subsequently fail.
6. Enroll Instructors to Teach Virtual Classrooms:
The absence of a teacher in an online environment can be a deterrent for many students who wish to join an online curriculum but hesitate to do so as they do not have somebody to communicate with in case, they need help with the subject matter. A virtual instructor fulfills this need effectively.
How to Market Your Online Business
1. Website:
While having a website should be a priority in promoting your online business, a large percentage of transactions in present times come from platforms other than websites. Therefore, ensure you have covered all such platforms to market your business.
2. Email Marketing Campaigns:
An email campaign serves as a reminder to your former customers of who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer. Prospective customers may also use your emails to figure the way forward. However, care should be taken in creating an email campaign that adds value and helps increase conversions.
3. Social Media Marketing:
Ensuring a presence on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram where people can submit reviews, find information about your business, ask questions and read your blog posts and product reviews keep the business collaborative and immersive.
4. Paid Ads:
Well-targeted advertising still drives the point home and serves its purpose. Experimenting with different ad copies, sizes, and placement and keeping a track of the same will enable calibration and improvement.
5. Affiliate Marketing:
Social sites are a great way of sharing and collaborating. Finding people and influencers who are active within your niche and building on it is yet another effective way of marketing your online business.
Conclusion
Given the unprecedented popularity and innovation of online learning, entrepreneurs can leverage this growth to build a lucrative business enterprise.
We have broadly covered the complex decisions that need to be taken to keep the business model enhanced, improved and relevant at all times. While online marketing can mean different things to different people, it’s almost always about communicating with existing and potential customers about what you have and what you can do for them additionally.
Goodwill and engagement help generate business that is beyond simply selling the product you have to offer. Generating this kind of response calls for research, strategizing, and planning, and while that may sound daunting, we hope to have gone over all the key points to help you with an understanding of how to start and manage an online training and learning business.
