Must have features of eLearning apps
eLearning is the process of acquiring knowledge or some additional skill through the use of digital resources and technology. eLearning apps has become an excellent form of providing education since the advent of eLearning, LMS and internet. The technological advancements have undergone a massive change in the education sector over the past few years. Since then, eLearning has proved to be an alternative to traditional classroom education. But most significantly, eLearning has thrived to grow exponentially in the mobile Smart Phone sector as well.
The idea of Learning Management System (LMS) originated around the year 2000, along with eLearning and internet at around the same time. There are three aspects to the idea of LMS viz Learning ie., gain knowledge through courses and training programs, Management ie., organize and manage the course and System ie., a software used for training.
eLearning has introduced a wide range of educational and professional courses with certifications and credits from major universities. Businesses see eLearning as a great way to facilitate upskilling their employees. Students and Professionals are eager to acquire new skills and knowledge, get certifications and advance in their career path.
ELearning app features can vary according to the target organization and the purpose for which it is used in the institution like, eLearning app for schools and colleges, corporate eLearning, training institutes etc., but there are some common features spread across all major platforms. Although there are lot of eLearning platforms offering plenty of courses, still, many companies and training institutes opt to develop their own eLearning courses with provision for customization, setting their own goal and standards, branding, and providing features and functionalities.
Types of eLearning:
a) Synchronous Learning: In this type of learning, classes are held in real time, where the teacher and student can interact and have discussions with each other. Eg. Virtual classrooms sessions with Zoom
b) Asynchronous Learning: In this type of learning, students can access the materials provided in the app at their time of convenience ie., the teacher and student are not present at real time. Eg., video lectures.
Benefits of eLearning:
1) Easily Accessible
2) Cost Effective
3) Faster delivery of knowledge
4) Quick evaluation of performance
5) Increase productivity
6) Reduce the burden on environment like printing books and course material, power consumption and carbon emissions.
7) Diversified Learning
Features you should look for when choosing an eLearning app:
1) Have a separate panel for Administrators, Teachers and Students:
2) Authentication and Authorization: Authentication verifies the identity of a user or service whereas Authorization determines the access rights to the resources.
3) Content Management and delivery: Allows learners to choose their courses and learning paths according to their preference with provision to switch between the courses. The teachers may require managing contents while creating/updating the course. Thus, there is a need to have a proper functionality for file storage, access to resources, sharing the resources etc., Make sure that you infuse micro-learning feature in your eLearning app.
4) Role Management: Training pattern based on the roles and designations of employees in the company with access control features. Every organization has different learning requirement and different group of learners and creating a generalized program will not meet the purpose. Hence, personalization is essential to create organized and specific learning paths.
5) Intuitive User Interface and Dashboard: Enhance Learner interaction and providing summary and analytics on dashboard, and keep track on events on a daily basis. These types of apps makes learning easier and provides various options on podcasts, smart watches, smart phones, tablets etc.,
6) Provision to upload contents: Various documents formats like PowerPoint slides, pdf guides, charts and graphs, podcasts, slideshare, infographics, ebooks etc can be uploaded into the system. It is the duty of the teacher to create and update the course, provide quality and effective online assessments, quizzes, online exams, certifications etc. The students have to upload and submit their coursework assignments within the specified time.
7) Multimedia and Game based Learning: Studies have shown that, games help students learn quickly and retain information longer. Multimedia and game based learning can be an effective way to engage students in your course. Use images, videos, infographics etc to supplement your lessons. AR/VR can be used for gamification and creating unique opportunities for the learners where they develop the right skill set in a virtual environment. Gamification options like leaderboards, ranks, puzzles does help boost learner motivation.
8) Push Notifications: Push notifications are effective remainders to students and teachers where messages are sent periodically on happening of a specific event such as student absenteeism, fees payment, remainder of a new course, assignment, exams etc
9) Query Resolution: Trainees can discuss about course contents, participate in discussions, raise queries and receive solution from the teachers.
10 Mobile Apps: User friendly mobile Apps that support push notification, content sharing, and communication, to deliver eLearning seamlessly.
11. Conduct Live Webinar Sessions: Conduct webinars using Zoom and engage with your learners using polls and other interactive mediums.
12. Tracking and Reporting : Automated customized reporting helps track and monitor learners activities with regard to assignments , attendance, results, certifications etc.,
13) Ecommerce: helps to sell your course material online by providing payment support online by integrated with payment gateways using dedicated API’s.
14) Security: Maintain data integrity and security with SSL and dedicated firewalls.
15) AI and Machine learning for chatbots and content personalization: AI driven personalization creates a customized learning environment for the learners. They allow students to leverage the content and features based on their preference. Students can use a personalized dashboard with recommendations to pursue further courses to continue the learning experience. Machine Learning for chats creates the ability to drive human to human conversations, as the chatbot application is able to learn from the algorithms and the dataset provided by the system and interact with learners, and improve the interactive learning strategy with intuitive content delivery for better learning experience.
16) IoT and Wearable devices: Smartphones, tablets, smart watch, VR headsets can be integrated with eLearning application to create a comprehensive learning experience. With the help of IoT, we can shift beyond the limitations of a mobile application and enhance the learning process.
17) Cloud based LMS (Software-as-a-service (SaaS) LMS): LMS is designed to provide eLearning and enhance efficiency and productivity in training. Its simple interfaces help to create, manage, deliver and track courses online and support a range of features and integration abilities. Reviews performance and gain insight of your training impact with dashboard and reports. Gather feedback from learners, track and manage training completion and access various reports etc., LMS may also be integrated with built in authoring tools which can assist in the teaching process.
18) Social Media integration: Integrating social media tools in your LMS helps in increasing interaction among the learners which can act as a good medium for peer-to-peer discussions and resolving doubts.
The above features make eLearning applications a lucrative business opportunity. Corporate would like to induct all the fresh employees as quick as possible and be familiar with all the work processes. Also, upskilling the existing employees with new skills helps improve overall productive and enhance their skillset. It is difficult to provide training to each and every employee through classroom training. This is where online Course Management System on LMS platform comes in handy. Hence, using a corporate eLearning platform for compliance training helps the learner equip with necessary skills and boost their career and business advancement. Finally, if you would like your eLearning application to stand out and offer value to your learners, keep the above features in mind before you create your application.
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