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The go-to option for both getting a top-quality eLearning platform and saving money on hiring the required specialists is outsourcing custom eLearning development to a professional eLearning company. We create/customize and implement eLearning systems for businesses from the USA, Canada, Israel, the UK, and other European countries and provide full-cycle e-learning development. Have an idea or a current project? Talk to our eLearning expert to see how we can help. An eLearning platform is a piece of web or mobile software designed to deliver and manage the learning process in a manner that boosts its effectiveness to the maximum extent. For learners -> it helps develop skills and accomplish learning tasks at their own pace and from any place. For training staff -> it’s a gateway for creating and delivering content (video, text, podcasts, etc.), keeping track of the results and assessments, and pulling reports to measure the business impact of learning - all in a more convenient, adaptable, and accessible way. The competitive advantage of eLearning platforms is delivering a comprehensive learning experience online, through any device (mobile phone, PC, or tablet). It should feel like a classroom experience where traditional instructor-student interactions like Q&As, discussion, games, collaborative projects, quizzes, etc. are achieved thanks to innovative features and tools that engage students (chatbots, game-based programs, awards, interactive content, etc). The most popular types of eLearning platforms are  Talent Management Systems for corporate training; Learning Experience Platforms/LXPs (Degreed, Cornerstone);  Learning Management Systems/LMSs (JoomLMS, Docebo);  Education marketplaces/MOOC platforms (Coursera, Udemy); Language learning platforms (Duolingo, Mondly); And some others. Example of what a learning platform for corporate training may look like. Designed by Belitsoft. Customizing vs Building an Online Learning Platform from Scratch If you are considering how to develop an online learning platform, you have two options here: creating a new platform or customizing an existing one. Choose to develop a new online learning platform if you prioritize: Scalability. If you expect millions of users on your product, you can design the architecture and structure the code to ensure it is ready for the high load; Unique process. An eLearning project which differs from the competitors by unique instructional design should likely be developed from scratch to meet your learning goals; Budget and time flexibility. A completely new eLearning system usually has a higher upfront cost and may take a few months to build, and you take it into account when planning the development process. Customizing an existing learning platform is right for you if you have: Lower scalability requirements. The learning platform would have features that are excessive for your product. This tends to make customized solutions more “heavy” and harder to scale than their turnkey counterparts; Unique features. It would be easier to implement the majority of lacking features by customizing an existing solution. For example, you can add a live chat, the leaderboard and awards, in-app payment, and many more; Limited budget. Typically, existing learning platforms already have the basic and most demanded functionality a learner and instructor might need. This helps cash-strapped startups save money on development and customize Moodle or JoomLMS instead to get the necessary functionality at a lower cost. Either way, you need to follow an elearning software development strategy that includes: STEP 1. Make Proof of Concept.Requirements analysis, detailed specification, learners’ needs and goals analysis, and success criteria are necessary so that the software development team has got the full and clear project vision and business stakeholders know what to expect in terms of budget, time, and outcomes. STEP 2. Choose Core Features. Add to your eLearning platform the features that favor learner engagement and boost learning efficiency, for example, gamification, social learning, and personalized content recommendations. STEP 3. Develop Learning Content. Either content creation from scratch or digitization of existing materials is a go-to option. At this step, you should make sure that the used content format is widely used and compatible with other platforms. STEP 4. Create Instructional Design. You should decide which learning methodology to follow when organizing and delivering the learning content in a way that favors its faster acquisition and overall learner engagement. STEP 5. Work on UX/UI Design. To create a great first impression and user experience, think over the page hierarchy and structure, font and color palette, the strategic use of white space, and CTAs. STEP 6. Develop and test an eLearning platform. Choose a tech stack based on your project specifics and your current IT infrastructure, develop the software, ensure its security, and test the result. STEP 1. Make Proof of Concept POC is the process meant to determine the feasibility of the idea or to verify that the idea will function as envisioned. To ensure that you timely detect and remove all the possible limitations and flaws from your idea, at this stage, we recommend: 1. Decide What Learners’ Problems and Needs You Are Targeting Learners are your paying customers, so understanding what they expect to achieve at the end of a training program should be your primary goal. To understand what problem they are trying to solve or what goals they have, start by segmenting and choosing the right target use case for you. Most Popular and Demanded Corporate Use Cases Onboarding An eLearning platform is meant to speed up pre-hire skills assessment, new hire orientation through policies, working processes, and culture, as well as safety training and more, depending on the industry. If a platform for onboarding is your case, you might be interested in an LMS that provides immersive content. So apart from the ability to deliver and track the completion of required training modules, it might include a virtual office tour or a welcome video. Retaining top talent An eLearning platform is meant to help recruit and retain top talent by providing opportunities for self-directed learning in pursuit of professional development and individual growth. If a platform for talent retaining is your case, you should look for an LXP that includes an off-the-shelf course library for soft skills development, upskilling, reskilling, or cross-training. Such platforms should also have social learning features (communities and knowledge sharing between learners) as a source of motivation and engagement. Certification and Compliance training An eLearning platform is meant to automate certification or licensing, initial and ongoing compliance and regulatory training, continuing education credit, re-certification, and skills training. If a platform for compliance training is your case, your go-to option may be an LMS with well-structured training modules that include various types of content and assessment modules. 2. Define Success Criteria Software development becomes much easier when you have a definite vision of your goals and corresponding success criteria. So don’t skip business analysis and market research before starting the development. It will significantly optimize your time, expenses, and developer team efforts. When defining success criteria, you may rely on the proven S.M.A.R.T. approach (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely goals). Based on this approach, an example of your success criteria might be: “XX% of enrolled learners complete the course.” “The product gets XXX users in the first year.” “New employees successfully pass onboarding online in X weeks.” 3. Layout Your Timeline and Milestones The last step in your Proof of Concept is to define milestones, specifying start dates and end dates. Also, schedule your objectives for each milestone. Typically, there are no more than 4 milestones, each no longer than 1-2 weeks. STEP 2. Choose features for your eLearning platform The must-have feature set for any eLearning product comprises such functionality as: Single Sign-On, Course builder, Assessment tool, Learning analytics, In-app payments, etc. Together with core functionality, consider including some advanced technologies that favor user engagement and retention. Let´s mention the essential ones: Personalized learning path Personalizing learning experience helps learn faster and more efficiently, which results in faster knowledge acquisition, better knowledge retention, shorter training time, and reduced training costs.  For example, learner A has more years of experience and a higher skill level than learner B. Based on the previous learning activities, data about job experience, position, goals and interests, learners get personalized curriculum within the same course. A dashboard with a personal learning path for employees’ professional growth Tasks Automation The purpose of task automation is to refocus educators’ time from manual, repetitive admin tasks to teaching. An online learning platform should automate such activities as group enrollment, task assignments, assessments, notifications, and more. A dashboard with several options of automated assessments Content recommendations Content recommendations in an eLearning platform are based on learning goals. For example, an employee indicates the position of a senior accountant as a goal. Based on this goal, the platform automatically recommends relevant training content.  The eLearning platforms can also personalize recommended content types. For example, some learners get information better when watching videos, while others prefer learning through reading. So the suggested content will be majorly adjusted to these preferences. A dashboard of a learning platform with recommendations based on individual interests and goals Gamification Gamification includes elements that motivate users by making the learning process fun and competitive. The approach has proven to be effective and is widely accepted among the top e-learning companies. Some of the popular features are: Progress bar showing how much the learner has already studied; Badges as a reward for achievements, like 10 successful answers in a row or 5 tests passed. Leaderboard which lets learners compete with friends Experience points and levels showing the user’s expertise in a given class; The in-app currency which could be spent on bonus lessons or cosmetic elements. A personal profile where the number of earned badges is highlighted Mobile-friendly design Regardless of your industry, make sure that your learners can access training content on the go. It will give them absolute flexibility and freedom in the self-learning cycle. It’d also be smart to add the ability to save courses on learners’ devices to take them when offline. A mobile design of a learning platform Social learning A learning platform that allows discussions and collaboration is a good way to motivate learners to share their knowledge. Add communication tools, such as groups, private messages, chats, and forums.  Another great idea is to implement mentorship when more experienced employees help their peers to advance. The learners who have accomplished their learning goals can perform as mentors. Thus, the eLearning platform suggests struggling learners contact those who have completed the course and ask for help. As a result, admins or L&D specialists don’t have to do it manually or force learners to collaborate. A dashboard with mentors that less skilled learners can address to Third-party learning content Access to 3rd-party content, like LinkedIn Learning or Udemy, is a must for creating a rich content library. Such an approach allows admins or instructors to skip creating all courses from scratch. Besides, it allows diversifying training materials to cover various employees' needs. A dashboard with courses from various content providers STEP 3. Develop Elearning Content The most appealing design and attractive platform are useless if the content is bad. Content includes the learning materials and tests/quizzes/exercises. There are two ways to get content for your eLearning platform: digitize existing content; create content from scratch. To create content yourself, you need authoring tools. Their purpose is to help prepare all kinds of learning materials, games, animations, and tests. Many learning platforms include authoring tools to help training staff create learning materials fast. Alternatively, there are companies specializing in eLearning content development. But you should clearly state your preferences and goals and participate in regular meetings with the team to make sure everything goes as planned. The easiest way to create learning content is by digitizing existing content. Note that in this case, you should be especially attentive to content formats. Among the typical eLearning formats are audio, video, PDF, XML, MP3, MP4, SCORM, AICC, Tin Can, and more. To avoid dependence on specific formats and software and corresponding risks and expenses, check that your online eLearning platform supports the major ones. If you have learning content in some other format, apply industry standards that are aimed at unifying learning materials. Among the most popular eLearning standards, there are: SCORM. A SCORM standard makes your learning content compatible with almost every learning platform on the market. So even if you decide to use it on another platform, your content will stay compatible with a new platform. xAPI. An xAPI standard is aimed to gather structured data and track the learning statistics from your eLearning platform. LTI. An LTI standard suits for connecting a third-party cloud-based course or tool (“tool provider”) with your LMS, LXP, or an eLearning app. STEP 4. Create Instructional Design Simply put, instructional design is a framework for building content. It goes beyond simply creating learning content, it considers how users learn and what materials and methods will most effectively help them achieve learning goals. So the instructional design boils down to the way how educational tools should be designed, created, and delivered to learners for the most effective knowledge acquisition. Having a subject matter expert would be of great help at this stage to understand: What do we want our users to do? How should they do it? What should happen after they do it? After replying to these questions, you’ll be able to see the whole picture of how your platform would work. Here is how a standard instructional design in corporate training looks like 1. Reveal skill gaps by defining current knowledge and setting a target level A skill gap is the disparity between the current knowledge level of an employee and the target level. The current level can be measured by a certified examination, an AI-powered assessment tool, or self-assessment. The goal of corporate training through a learning platform is to close skills gap by upskilling employees.  A dashboard with skills that an employee has to master to achieve their learning and career goals 2. Deliver the training through a personalized learning path according to the revealed skill gaps To effectively address the revealed skills gaps and educate employees faster, a learning path should be based on the current knowledge level, employee’s interests, preferences, and the learning goal. A personalized learning path that a learning platform offers to an employee with the aim to achieve a target skill level 3. Promote internal mobility based on the training results Once the target skill is mastered, the information gets into the HR software, where an employer and the HR team gets information about top performers to promote them or offer available positions. A dashboard with learning results that demonstrate to the employer and the HR team which employees can fit the open position STEP 5. Working on UX/UI Design The research by Google discovers that people form a stable first impression about your website within 50 ms. That’s why your eLearning platform's homepage should make it immediately obvious that the users have come to the place where they can get the knowledge they are looking for. Besides, we should take into consideration short attention spans and busy working schedules that leave little time for learning, people won’t spend more than a few moments searching for the necessary content. So no matter how good the content of your eLearning platform is, if learners can’t quickly find what they need, they won’t be able to consume it. That´s why great User Experience (UX) takes the lead. An easy-to-navigate and engaging platform is what makes learners come back. To provide employees with easily searchable and engaging learning content, consider applying 5 key UX/UI design tips of eLearning platforms that convert visitors. 1. Create a well-balanced hierarchy To create a design that converts successfully, it’s critical to think over the hierarchy of the layout elements, starting from the position of the login form and CTAs to the video player size. By creating a balanced elements hierarchy, you favor an intuitive user journey and seamless UX. As a result, visitors coming to your platform will easily find what they need and be more likely to convert. Option 1: Symmetrical design. The experts with years of hands-on experience in the eLearning industry suggest aligning layout elements with each other to create a symmetrical design. Important content, like the course or lesson collection, should be presented consistently in symmetrical blocks, which makes them easier to identify. Option 2: Grid Design. This type of design separates the platform wireframe into straight rows and columns, generating modules of equal or similar size. Grid alignment creates a sense of order and guides visitors’ gaze to move naturally across the screen. The modular grid layout inclines users to stay longer on your platform. For example, the course pages work best with a hierarchical grid layout, when the content is hierarchically structured based on visitors’ views, completion rates, or other criteria. 2. Follow the “F” heatmap pattern An eye-tracking study has revealed that people typically follow an “F” pattern while looking for information on any website. So when organizing the layout of your eLearning platform, place the most essential and helpful information where visitors look the most - at the page top and going all the way from left to right, then down with a focus on the left-hand side of the screen. For example, organize your homepage following this pattern. Consider using “hot” spots for placing a brief tutorial video, social proof, and enticing statistics (how many students your platform has, what renowned brands use your platform, etc).  3. Leverage white space for better UX The challenge any eLearning platform development team should overcome is to create a UX that minimizes the mental and physical effort that massive amounts of content may cause.  On eLearning platforms, the purpose of white space is to help learners gain new knowledge without mental and visual stress. Thoughtfully used white space also reduces distraction and focuses the learners’ attention on important pieces of content. 4. Use fonts and colors that attract and improve readability A visitor’s decision to stay and use your eLearning platform, which literally means paying you money, also depends on the fonts and colors. They impact on the perception of information and website’s legibility, subsequently improving your conversion rate. Font. The best practice is using typical fonts that are already familiar to visitors, for example, Sans Serif fonts like Roboto and Futura. Excessive experimenting may alienate visitors.  Size. You should also pay attention to the size of the font, which should not go below 12px or exceed 18px for the main copy, although this really depends on the font. Headlines, of course, can and should be much larger in size. Color. Using the right color palette favors creating an appealing and engaging experience. The most widely used colors in eLearning are blue, orange, purple, and yellow. According to color psychology, these colors are subconsciously associated with feelings of trust (blue), mental stimulation (orange), wisdom (purple), and optimism (yellow). 5. Use CTAs to create an efficient user journey  Call-To-Actions are meant to trigger conversions, whether it is a subscription, course enrollment, or any other action.  Tips for creating effective СTAs: Use a bold button design with vivid, contrasting colors to display these triggers clearly and make them stand out against the background; Match the CTA buttons' color and style with your logo to highlight your brand consistency;  Create a short, to-the-point message that motivates users to make the conversion decision;  Use words that inspire and entice.  Leverage a smart trick by preceding your СTA with a course preview or the learning curve to boost interest.  Add a social proof (like an authentic learner review) before a Call-To-Action button for improving conversion. Check out the examples of what an e-learning development company can do. STEP 6. Develop and Test an eLearning Platform 1. Choose the tech stack. To decide which technologies will meet your goals best of all, it’s necessary to evaluate: the size and complexity of your project; the platform functionality; system load requirements; timeline of the project;  the existing IT infrastructure; availability of specialists with the necessary tech skills. 2. Ensure reliability and security. A security breach may cost the company's reputation and brand image. So handling sensitive information is one of the more important tasks when building an eLearning platform. Ensuring that the eLearning platform has the proper security level includes: setting up security protocols,  using firewalls and SSL; data encryption;  two-step verification;  biometric authentication, etc. 3. Develop your platform or its MVP. After defining all the details, you can start the development process. It can be performed either by your in-house developers or by a dedicated team. Consider starting by developing a minimum viable product (MVP) as the first step to save money, minimize time to market and get feedback from the first users that will give you valuable insights for building a full-fledged platform. Developing an MVP basically means building the core features (including the ones that differentiate your product from the competitors’) and launching them in the shortest possible term. Then, with a functionaning product that gains money and valuable feedback, you continue the development of a full-scale version. 4. Test the eLearning platform quality. After the development stage, QA specialists test the product and remove bugs and technical glitches еo ensure the quality and integrity of the platform. Following a QA checklist, they test every function, element, compatibility, etc. Such a procedure guarantees that all other functionalities are in place and work properly. As shown in our guide on how to build an online learning platform, the process requires a mix of skills in instructional design, programming, content creation, UX/UI design, media production, and more. This is why outsourcing this job to a team with real-life domain expertise can be a decision that will save your business time and money. ORDER FROM US Cost of Building an eLearning Platform Before you start the development, estimate the cost of your project, leveraging the following 4 factors that influence the cost of building an eLearning platform: 1. Complexity Depending on the use case defined in a POC, the learning goals and the needs of your learners will differ. It directly impacts the complexity of an online learning platform. The more personalized, interactive, and automated platform you build, the more specialists you’ll need and the more hours you’ll have to pay, which translates into higher development costs. 2. Developers' Rates Depending on whether you have an in-house development team or search for a vendor, your expenses will significantly vary. The rates of dedicated developers from Eastern Europe can be 3 times lower than the US developers, for example. 3. Development Team Size and Skillset Based on your project requirements, choose the necessary developer roles. The more specific and complex your technology stack is, the more you spend on corresponding specialists. The more complex the software is, the more working hours the development team will require to deliver the expected result. Outsourcing developers would be a good option, as you can get all the necessary technical expertise in one place and at a significantly lower cost. 4. Content Creation Efforts If you digitize your hard-copy content, it’ll be a more affordable option. If you need customized content, the expenses will increase. The cost grows even higher when you contract a subject expert to create the content. Whichever your option is, consider including images, videos, animations, and other interactive content to get high engagement rates. 5. Must-have Features You can significantly reduce the cost of building an online learning platform and time to market by creating an MVP with core functionality first. As described in our step-by-step guide, these decisions should be taken before the development starts. As you can see, the development cost depends on various factors and differs a lot for each project. Let’s evaluate your project to define its development cost. DISCOVER THE PRICE

How Belitsoft Can Help Need assistance with launching your course? This is what we can do for you: Content development. We can prepare any kind of learning content: diagrams, videos, educational games, etc. Just let us know what you need. Ready-made LMS. We have an LMS that we’ve been supporting and updating for over a decade. If you need to start quickly, this is your best bet. LMS customization. We can adapt an open-source LMS to fit your needs - from custom branding to new and unique features. Turnkey course development. We have experience in making and launching successful standalone online courses. This includes a driving theory course, touch-typing lessons, exams preparation, and others. Our eLearning software development expertise will ensure the technical implementation is aligned with your course objectives. GET A FREE QUOTE What is a Learning Platform A learning platform, while similar to an LMS, is a wider term. Just like an operating system provides a basis for the other applications to run on, a learning platform does this for courses, games, and the like. There are several telltale features of a learning platform: SaaS model. It should be accessible via the internet and support many simultaneous users. Interoperability. The whole point of a learning platform is to seamlessly work with multiple applications. Social learning. The software of this kind promotes communication between learners to share knowledge and increase motivation. Self-guided learning. Learning platforms support user-generated content and allow learners to discover new materials on their own. There is a wide variety of options available, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can choose the one that fits you best. On the other, having so many things to choose from can be overwhelming. We will give you some guidance. Specialized Learning Platforms Services like Thinkific, Teachable, or Learnworlds allow you to conveniently create, market, and sell your courses. They are a relatively simple solution, as these platforms handle much of the technical overhead you might have. Moreover, they allow you to start making and selling the courses quickly and at relatively low upfront costs. However, they have inherent disadvantages. Platforms like these are limited in their feature set. In addition, having your course on a third-party service makes you affected if the platform owners decide to change their policies.  Thinkific This platform has been on the market since 2012 and prides itself on providing good branding options, solid userbase, and ease of use. Thinkific. Source Here’s what the users like about it: Newbie-friendly. “For a newbie like me, I began setting things up months ago while I was working on my course. As I completed it, I began uploading the lectures and made some changes to my text and landing page and other info. Easy to make it your own. I am happy with how professional it all looks. Now I will get busy with the marketing end and Thinkific can help with info about that too!” Good user interface. “User and admin interfaces are easy to use and very intuitive. I feel like it's much better than Teachable or Kajabi in terms of UI. Also very easy to design your curriculum and draft your courses.” All-in-one. “I liked that you could design the access portal, the courses, and the payment methods all in 1 interface without any needs for additional products. I particularly enjoy how easy it is to set the courses up if you have your curriculum designed.” Branding. “Better yet, I LIKE how it looks to the user. I LIKE how the site can look like mine -- not another platform. It does look different, but MY site name is on top, visible, so users know where they are immediately.” Some reviews, however, were less favorable: Bad customer service. “While they are friendly and say they hope you are having a nice day, they do not answer questions (or apparently read email chains). There is no support for European customers I fed this back to them when I first signed up around 2 years ago and nothing has changed.” Video issues. “Uploading video content is limited to size and file type. A few times certain videos would not play or only play a few minutes and crash.” Underwhelming analytics. “Reporting leaves much to be desired - best count on using Zapier to pull data into a 3rd party for analyzing user progress and completion rates. It's also frustrating that I have to wait for some reports to be emailed to me after requesting them.” Teachable Teachable was launched in 2014 and has enjoyed steady growth. To date, it has served over 83.000 instructors and more than 23 million students. Teachable. Source Among the positive aspects that the users mentioned were: Integrations. “First of all, you get a lot of options to integrate with 3rd party software which is great since you don't have to start from scratch in some aspects.” Streamlined payments. “I found that building a sales page was not difficult and sending people to the sales page with discount coupons was a smooth process. Payments were collected and paid out promptly at the end of the month (for my plan).” Easy to use. “My favourite thing about Teachable is it 'just works' out of the box. Most of its functionality is intuitive and it doesn't try to add a million features that most people won't use. It's a software tool that knows what it is and who it's for. It makes it very easy to make a good looking site and get a course up for sale.” Still, not all is sunshine and roses: Built-in email troubles. “I have experienced serious problems with their built-in email application. Since this is the primary way teachers communicate with students, it should be a priority for them. There were days when it wasn't working when I needed to send links to live classes and webinars. It's difficult to customize "Welcome" emails and there's no way to schedule sends or save drafts.” Payout delays. “The timing of payments is in the USA which means users in other countries need to wait for the USA opening hours to get support. In a company such as this, you would expect 24/7 international support online at least. Money is not paid regularly and you can be waiting for months to receive the money from your courses. Not worth it at all of this income is important to you!” No built-in contact form. “No built-in contact form capabilities and I don't know that you could code your own (if you're tech-savvy enough), so that leaves you with a cheesy free embed form that will have someone else's branding on it, or paying at least $10 a month for a white-labeled contact form.” Poor mobile app. “The mobile app is non-functional. Try to do the same things you do on a browser using the same interface and you'll probably uninstall the app as I did. It just doesn't work.” Learnworlds Learnworlds is a cloud-based eLearning platform that positions itself as a one-stop solution for all the user’s course-related needs. Learnworlds. Source The users praise it for: Understanding the pros. “My courses are serious investigations to make a sizable income. LearnWorlds has so many professionals on staff that they understood that concept and are helping me to attract those who need CPD credits as an ESL teacher or a respectable career as an English Tutor in as little as a week." Easy to use.  “It is very easy to use, flexible and intuitive. The value/price equation is excellent. The app allows you to grow with it. It is very powerful and has many extras that most elearning platforms don't have, like the interactive videos app included with the subscription.” Good support. “Lots of articles explaining how to use and make the best of your school and you can always reach out for support and they are very responsive.” However, it has certain flaws: Lackluster gamification. “The platform offers gamification but it is not completely developed so it is not very useful. However, they stated it is in the process of being improved.” Limited reporting. “There is no overview of student progress and activity. If you need to know when a course was completed you have to search through the activity log. So far the integration options are also very limited.” Hard to manage uploads. “I wish the uploading system had the option to organize your files in folders. I use a lot of images in my academy and it can become hard to find what you're looking for after a certain number of uploads.” Self-Hosted LMS Another option for getting your course online is hosting it yourself. You need to pick a suitable self-hosted LMS and a reliable hosting provider. The advantages of this approach are: More control. There are no third-party policies and limitations. You are the owner of both the content and the platform it is on, so your word is the law. More customization. While the platforms allow a certain degree of branding, with your own LMS there are far more options. In addition, the LMS’ can do many things that the boxed platforms can’t, like quick content uploads with SCORM. Better long-term value. Having your own LMS and hosting is cheaper in the long run than paying for a license over and over. This is especially true in case your course is feature-rich and requires an expensive subscription plan. Blended learning. Self-hosted LMS’ can function in both wholly online and blended environments. If your course contains practical exercises that are better guided in person, this is a better option. Still, there are certain drawbacks of this approach: Technical overhead. Your own system gives you more control, but also more responsibility. Keeping it accessible and functional is your job now, which can require technical skills or keeping IT-talent on retainer. Higher upfront costs. Customizing an existing LMS takes time and money. The expenditure of both is higher than just slapping your logo on a template and changing colors to fit your brand. Turnkey Solution The third option is creating an eLearning platform from scratch. While it can be based on an existing LMS, it is reworked enough to be unrecognizable. This approach is the best fit for unique courses that use a methodology that is not supported by the major platforms. The benefits of custom learning courses are: Feature freedom. Depending on your needs and your budget, your turnkey platform can have any features you need. This includes both learning functions (e.g. unique quiz types or exercises) and business-related ones (analytics, payment, etc.). Flexible pricing. A custom course could be a well-disguised LMS. Using the premade features will save a lot of time and money while still giving you something unique as a result. Total control. In this case, the only limitations your course can have are technical and financial ones. Everything will work exactly how you want it, and the information you receive is yours to use however you want. Best long-term value. There are no license costs to pay in this case, so once you’ve recovered the initial investment, the course will bring profit for years to come. There are a few things that can give you pause, however: High upfront costs. Building a new eLearning platform from the ground up or extensive customization of an existing system requires technical know-how and skill. Such talent can be expensive. Longer time-to-market. With a ready-made platform, you can start making courses right away. A custom one requires time to be designed, developed, and tested. Conclusion If your course is structurally simple, doesn’t need advanced authoring tools to develop, and has to be launched ASAP, an existing eLearning platform is your best bet. If you want to strike a balance between flexibility, control, and costs, you should choose a self-hosted LMS. If your course needs extensive preparation, uses a unique teaching approach, or requires uncommon features to reach peak efficiency, you should go for custom development.

How Belitsoft Can Help We are ready to bring our eLearning experience to assist you. Here’s what we can do: Consulting. Assessment of your current training program, selecting the best tools, designing gamification, and more. Course development. Creation of quality eLearning content in any form, from text and videos to learning games and simulations. Custom LMS development. We can provide you with a ready-made learning management system to host your new digital course or develop a new one from scratch. GET A FREE QUOTE What is Instructor-Led Training? Instructor-led training (ILT) refers to all kinds of learning where knowledge is transferred from person to person: school classes, university lectures, tutoring, webinars, etc. This includes both group and one-on-one training. In the recent decade, the use of ILT has been steadily declining, while all forms of purely digital learning grew. However, it still remains widespread: 94% of the companies use it in some form, while fully digital training is utilized by 77% of firms. This is due to a whole slew of factors: Some practical skills (e.g. first aid) are better taught by an actual person. Corporate inertia. People don’t switch from the models that are already working. Learners’ preference for communication with other people. Effectiveness. ILT still ranks pretty high in terms of knowledge retention Why You Should Switch to eLearning There is a reason why the most effective companies include eLearning methods in their learning and development (L&D) programs. A number of them, actually. Benefits for Business Low costs. There is a number of examples demonstrating higher return-on-investment (ROI) in eLearning compared to live ILT. A computer storage media company converted its live course for technicians into a digital format and saved about USD 1.5 million over the next three years, decreasing their costs by 47%. A large consulting company developed an eLearning course that ended up costing USD 106 per user, instead of USD 706 with live training. Over five years they saved USD 4.5 million. The fact of the matter is, eLearning is much cheaper than live training due to the lack of many expenses: teacher salaries and related costs (benefits, taxes, etc.), classrooms, and other factors. Scalability. eLearning is much easier to scale than ILT - just have the extra people access the same materials. Live training, on the other hand, requires extra classrooms and teachers, which makes it less cost-effective. New methods. eLearning is head and shoulders above traditional training when it comes to using the cutting-edge instructional design methods. Gamification, microlearning, on-demand training, and other new approaches have proven their effectiveness in both knowledge retention and motivation, bringing value to the companies that use them. Benefits for the Learners Convenience. eLearning allows employees to study whenever and wherever they want, as long as there is a device with an internet connection. The top programs allow on-the-job training, which helps both solve pressing problems the learners might have and improve their skills at the same time. Effectiveness. As shown by a number of studies, eLearning leads to better knowledge retention. The exact numbers vary from one research paper to another, but the trend is definitely there. The only caveat here is that the improved effectiveness only holds true when the eLearning programs use the new teaching methods. Less training time. On average, an eLearning course is shorter than its live counterpart by 40-60%. This means less time spent training and more time with the learners’ hobbies, families, and friends. Converting ILT to VILT Switching training methods takes time, money, and effort. Here’s how you should go about it to make your investments count. 1. Prioritize If you have several live courses that you need to quickly digitize, decide on what to move first.  Some options are: The course that brings the most money The course that will start soon The course that has the most learners Etc. While having the instructor deliver their classes online doesn’t take too much work, they still need to familiarize themselves with the software that you decide to use and maybe prepare the extras (e-books, quizzes, etc.). 2. Compensate Online training often feels more impersonal than its live counterpart. So some of the learners might rightfully request partial refunds or perks to offset that. You can anticipate this and offer something in advance for some extra goodwill. There is also a category of learners that need the certificate first and foremost. These include people who are legally required to engage in continuing education (e.g. doctors) or people who need compliance training. They generally feel less antagonistic towards the move to digital, as long as they still get to their long-term goal. 3. Prepare the instructors You should work with the people who deliver learning just as well as with your customers. For them, the move to digital can bring extra hassle (e.g. having to learn how to work with a new VILT tool or an LMS) but many benefits as well. Besides the professional advantages, there is a solid personal one: not having to travel to the classroom. 4. Restructure Online training, even if delivered by a person, feels different than in-class one. On one hand, the learners are more comfortable at home. On the other, they have a lot more distractions: pets, kids, social media messages on the same screen as the webinar, etc. This means that you might have to rethink the way that the people are taught. Perhaps you need to add more interactivity to keep them engaged. Or split the long lessons into smaller chunks. 5. Pace the transition There would inevitably be certain unexpected issues that will set back your digitization attempts. This is why you would be better off transitioning to VILT in increments. Lessons learned by moving your first couple of courses would help speed up digitizing the other ones. 6. Choose the appropriate tools If you only have one course, you would probably be fine with any popular webinar software. However, the more courses you manage, the better you will be served by an LMS. Who knows, maybe you will supplement VILT with completely electronic training, and then a learning management system becomes pretty much a must-have. Best Practices Here’s what you should include in your conversion program: Expert involvement. If you are training people to operate new coffee makers, for example, it would be best if an experienced barista is on board. They can give advice from personal experience and point out things that an outsider wouldn’t think about. Content transformation. Don’t just blindly copy and paste content, even if it is good. Sometimes it can be improved by converting it to a different medium (e.g. text into video or audio). Microlearning. Instead of having 10 hour-long lessons, have 40 ones that take 15 minutes each. Not only it will make training more convenient, but having more specific and condensed information on hand will improve learning outcomes. Checklists I’ve determined what’s working in the live program. I’ve determined what doesn’t work in the live program. I’ve determined the improvements I can make. I’ve rechecked the expected learning outcomes to fit with the new approach. I’ve determined whether the new program will be blended or fully automated. I’ve reviewed the material and picked the most important parts. Common Mistakes These are the typical mistakes that companies make when switching from ILT: Mindless conversion. Digitizing the live training program without making any changes is undermining yourself at best and a waste of time and money at worst. Many benefits of eLearning are realized only when the full extent of digital capabilities is used. Not using the new approaches. Gamification, microlearning, story-based training, and other innovative teaching methods dramatically improve the efficiency of an eLearning program and are very cost-effective. Trying to convert everything at once. Like any new endeavor, switching from ILT to eLearning carries risks. So it is wise to convert gradually, improving on things as you learn more about what works for you. The MVP approach would be helpful in this regard. FAQ What is the business case for ILT conversion? The most common cases for this are increasing the effectiveness of an existing program, saving money on training, and updating the information along with empowering the course with innovations in instructional design. What can be converted? Some forms of content can be converted more easily than others. For example, you can just upload PowerPoint slides to an authoring tool and turn them into a video. Other training, like practical first aid exercises, can’t be digitized at all, although digital tracking of live exercises is possible. Should you condense or expand content? eLearning content tends to be more condensed than the one used in live training. However, the main thing you should do is restructure it to better fit the new delivery model. As we’ve mentioned before, microlearning approach works best.