Contact us anytime to know more — Amit A., Founder & COO CISIN
The rising expense of colleges and institutions makes it more difficult for many students to afford the education of their dreams. Additionally, professionals who want to upskill to advance in their career, find it difficult to manage both - the work and study.
As a result, online learning has gained popularity as a means of providing high-quality education and training to individuals worldwide. To fuel the growth in the E-learning industry, even the global COVID-19 pandemic has contributed a lot.
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the rise of online courses and e-learning platforms, making online courses websites like Coursera a highly sought-after business option. If you are looking to invest in a growing business, an online learning platform is a good option for you to invest in.
In this article, we will discuss what makes Coursera the best online learning platform among its competitors. Also, we will discuss specific problems that arise in the development of an e-learning website like Coursera and show how our experience in creating Coursera-like websites can provide solutions to overcome these issues. Continue reading as we take you through the steps to give you the confidence to move on to an effective and seamless eLearning experience.
E-Learning Portals Market Overview
Especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals have resorted to online learning as a means of self-improvement and distance learning, resulting in rapid growth in the e-learning industry.
According to Statista, the online learning platforms industry is expected to generate $58.45 billion in revenue by 2024 and is expected to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2029) of 5.26%, resulting in the projected growth of US $75.52 billion by 2029.
With this rate, the E-learning industry is expected to amount to 1 billion plus active users by the year 2029. In this duration, the average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to be $74.59.
China has the highest user penetration rate in the E-learning platforms with 21.9% share globally, and the projected revenue generated by China in this sector is 40.60 billion.
Having a unique value proposition, offering dynamic and engaging educational platform opportunities, and implementing a strong marketing strategy are essential to stand out from competitors in the marketplace.
Why Create An E-learning Website?
The first time the term "e-learning" was used to describe online courses was at a CBT Systems Symposium in 1999. Since then, the concept of MOOCs, or massive open online courses , has gradually improved from e-learning to allow students all over the world to learn courses from renowned institutes and get a master's degree.
Online learning environments are referred to as e-learning websites. They provide educational content and a wide range of virtual lessons. Students can take part in online classes, submit homework, and communicate with fellow classmates as well as teachers through these sessions.
These platforms use conferences, virtual classrooms, videos, quizzes and multimedia presentations to offer various courses and grades levels with flexible means of acquiring knowledge at any particular time.
Here are some of the advantages associated with the construction of an e-learning platform.
- Worldwide Coverage and Market Growth: An e-learning portal can cater for a global audience thus expanding its potential market size. Furthermore, entrepreneurs have access to niche markets.
- Affordability: The cost of setting up a physical classroom can be avoided by starting an online learning platform.
- Scalability: E-Learning sites that grow in size will reach many students at once.
- Steady Income: Online education ensures a steady stream of revenue through tuition or subscription fees.
- Professional Branding: A website focusing on e-learning acts as a trust mark enhancing credibility and brand perception.
The students of these online learning platforms select individualized approaches which cater to their needs. Online learning platforms can create an adaptive curriculum that can be accessed by the students at their convenience and provide study materials for students based on their specific requirements.
The online education industry is an industry with the most excellent user experience and flexible learning methods. Despite such hurdles as addressing the digital divide and maintaining learning quality, technology-driven changes in student needs will determine the future of online education.
The Secret Success Of Coursera: Main Features
In order to create a website like Coursera, it is important to understand the basic factors and functionality that makes it a successful platform. This entails having a large course selection, easy for users to interact with interfaces and prices that are straight forward. In addition, there are interactive options such as live lectures and discussion groups available on websites similar to Coursera where students can feel part of a community.
Coursera Magic Ingredients
Let’s check out Coursera’s main features:
- Great classes due to its alliance with renowned universities and institutions.
- Then again, it has a useful and flexible learning environment which enables learners to learn at any time and anywhere they want.
- Thirdly, students can easily explore Coursera and locate the courses they need because of its friendly user interface and responsive design.
- In addition, there are gamified components in this program that help keep students interested as well as motivated.
With the combination of these factors and the fact that the platform gives value for money, Coursera has become popular among online learners.
How Does a Website Like Coursera Make Money?
After you have decided to build a website like Coursera, there are several things that you must consider about generating revenue options:
Donation
To generate revenue from the donation model, the e-learning portals can give free training materials as well as allowing people to contribute whatever money they feel like. As an owner of an online learning platform, you can earn some revenue from organizations who want to do charity for students. But, this model isn’t the most reliable for revenue generation.
Premium Services
Elearning platforms working on this model offer paid classes and charge for additional study materials or special 1-on-1 teacher’s consultation services. These premium offerings could include more audio and video content, longer courses, remote learning, etc. This approach brings in steady income while satisfying students who are ready to pay extra for such premium services.
Corporate Partnerships
Offering employees opportunities to grow their careers is invaluable in today’s world, and this may be beneficial to the organizations as well. You can also raise a good amount of money for your online learning website while attracting people by collaborating with companies and offering them special discounts. This model works very well in training or business-related courses.
Verified Certificates
Though the course materials and classes are sometimes available for free, users must pay a fee to earn a certificate that proves they have completed it successfully. Such an approach will appeal to people who want to showcase what they have achieved through the course and upskill in their careers.
Paid Subscription
Paid subscription is the easiest way to generate revenue for eLearning portals like Coursera. In this model, the portal fixes a particular fee for students to join their platform and access their courses and other study materials. The website owner can offer deals, coupons, and other offers to attract more students to be able to sign up on their portal.
In the above section, we explained the revenue models for E-learning websites like Coursera, but there’s no one fix model to generate revenue. As an E-learning platform, the business should adopt either a combination of multiple models, or even all of them combined to generate more revenue, and become a successful E-learning website globally.
Read More: E-Learning Websites: The Future is Here - But at What Cost?
How To Build An E-learning Website Like Coursera?
A website like Coursera needs to be mindfully planned, developed, and executed at different important stages. Developing an online learning website like Coursera requires several crucial elements to be a successful website in the education industry.
In this section, we will explain the basic steps to develop a best-in-class educational website like Coursera, ensuring the entrepreneurs success with the online learning portal.
Continue reading to explore the essential steps to build a successful website like Coursera:
Preparation and Research
To create a platform like Coursera, the first thing you need to do is research the industry, evaluate what your target customers want and figure out what kind of courses they are looking into the most. This will help you identify your platform’s USPs and ensure that it stands out from the competition.
Business Model
After you have analyzed the market, it is time to choose a business model that will generate revenue to keep the platform running for the long term. Some common models include donations, corporate programs, premium access, validated certifications and paid memberships. It is very vital to select a model that is in line with your business objectives as well as to target the market of your platform. When planning to build a platform like Coursera also remember about the payment system you are going to use in your platform.
Technology Stack
The technology stack that you choose will have a significant impact on the scalability and performance of your e-learning platform. It is important to choose a strong, latest technology stack that can handle large quantities of data and traffic. The tech stack may include popular web development frameworks like React, Ruby on Rails and Node.js.
Design And Development
After selecting the tech stack for your website, the next step is graphic design and the front-end development process of the platform. This involves putting all the planned features and services into practice while designing an intuitive user experience and user-friendly interface as well. It’s very important that the website should be highly responsive across all devices and operating systems.
Content Management System
A content management system (CMS) is needed for a website like Coursera since it simplifies administration, organization, and publishing of content. When choosing the content management systems, consider those that keep sensitive user data under protection, and have strong security features.
Marketing and Promotion
The target audience marketing and platform promotion are the last stages before release. This involves creating a marketing plan utilizing strategies such as email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).
Launch an MVP Model
For entrepreneurs, launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for an e-learning website can be an exciting and smart strategy. With an MVP, early consumers will receive value but the product may be launched more quickly and affordably by concentrating on its most essential features and functionalities.
Important elements such as content distribution, user registration, a course catalog, and fundamental assessment tools should be included in the MVP. Based on the performance of the MVP model, the entrepreneurs can test their idea, get user input, and analyze the market for the launch of their full version website.
With an MVP model, the entrepreneurs can ensure they offer a service that satisfies students and learners' needs and lays the groundwork for future growth and success.
Continuously Improve Your Platform
After launching your MVP, you can analyze the user behavior with your website and continuously update it from time to time based on changing requirements of customers.
Although it may be tough or complicated to build a website similar to Coursera, it can also be a very lucrative business venture if done right. Here is some advice from expert team of CISIN based on their extensive knowledge and years of experience:
- Do So Directly: Please, design an easy-to-use, understand and navigate platform.
- Add Value: Ensure that your individual courses are valuable to your students and help them achieve their objectives.
- Form A Strong Community: Make teachers communicate with learners and provide them with a channel to interact.
- Be Patient: Building an e-learning platform takes time and effort. Do not lose patience in the process of seeking for this goal.
- Be Flexible: Be open to criticism and ready to revise your platform whenever it is necessary according to users’ needs.
- Build a Good Team: Surround yourself with smart people who are passionate about what they do and can help you towards realizing your dream.
How Much Does It Cost To Create a Website Like Coursera?
Creating a coursera-like website is not the same as baking a cake with a box mix. This, of course, needs a lot of work, dedication and money. The cost of developing an online learning platform is unpredictable. It depends on what features and functionality you want to use and whether you choose to build it in-house or hire an expert learning portal development company.
To be more specific, you can expect to bear a development cost for a website like Coursera of anywhere between $40,000 to $100,000 depending on the features and level of customization you want.
In short, it might seem like a costlier deal to enter a business that requires an initial investment of thousands of dollars, but in the end, the return on investment is also huge with e-learning platforms and websites. Adding some extra features to generate an additional revenue can also help you in increasing your ROI.
That is where CISIN’s discovery phase might come in handy. We will engage our expert team of professionals so as to help you define requirements, scope and possible costs for this project during the exploratory phase. It helps optimize budgeting and prioritizing the functions while clarifying vision. During our discussion, you will also be able to concentrate your investment on those vital aspects of E-learning platforms used by many people. This will increase the chances of a successful launch and long-term expansion.
Cost to Develop an MVP For Coursera
Building a Coursera clone MVP is an important factor if you want to avoid pitfalls and chances of failures with your final digital product. Depending on the features you decide to use and the degree of customisation you need, the price might change dramatically.
Typically, an MVP for education websites like Coursera can be developed for as little as $40,000. But keep in mind that this is only an estimate, and the final price may vary depending on your particular needs.In order to test the market and get input for upcoming updates, Coursera initially debuted with a basic set of functionalities. Similarly, your MVP of the E-learning platform should be budgeted focusing only on the most important features and functionality that your users will most likely be involved in.
You can make sure that your MVP concentrates on essential features and lays a strong basis for future custom development and enhancements by collaborating with an experienced team like CISIN.
Post Launch Support and Maintenance Cost
After you have successfully launched your online courses website, it will now require maintenance and upgrades. The cost of post launch support will rely on a number of variables, including the size, complexity, and rate of user acceptance of the platform. Server upkeep, security updates, bug patches, feature additions, and the integration of cutting-edge technology are few other factors.
Setting up a separate budget for maintenance expenses is important to keep the platform updated, safe, and user-friendly. At CISIN, we have expertise in developing online learning platforms for over 12+ years. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with ideas related to online learning management business, and want your business idea to become a reality, connect with us and we would be pleased to assist. Since every project and situation is unique, it will be important to first understand your needs.
Conclusion
Many individuals ask us how to make a website like Coursera. It can be a difficult process, but it can be successfully executed with the correct tools and preparation. Understanding your target market, deciding on the features you want to offer, and selecting the appropriate technology to construct your online learning platform like Coursera are all crucial factors.
Our web development company can assist you in creating a website similar to Coursera since we have the knowledge and experience working with a variety of technological stacks. Having a capable development team that can manage any technical and development problems that may come up during the project is also crucial. You may build a website that is entertaining, easy to use, and provides users with a smooth learning experience by following the above steps.
