What is eLearning? What are the 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 have become an excellent form of providing education since the advent of eLearning, LMS, and the internet. 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 a Learning Management System (LMS) originated around the year 2000, along with eLearning and the internet at around the same time. There are three aspects to the idea of LMS viz Learning ie., gaining knowledge through courses and training programs, Management ie., organizing and managing 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 paths.
features of eLearning apps can vary according to the target organization and the purpose for which it is used in the institution like eLearning apps for schools and colleges, corporate eLearning, training institutes, etc., but there are some common features spread across all major platforms. Although there are a 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. 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. , 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 the environment by printing books and course material, power consumption, and carbon emissions.
7) Diversified Learning
Must have features of eLearning apps:
1) Have a separate panel for Administrators, Teachers, and Students
- a) Administrator Panel:
– Sign up/ Login
– Managing Site, upgrades, plug-in installations, integrations like a chatbot, gamification, CMS, etc
– User and access control
– Learning Management System (LMS) and Database management
– Manage contents and filters
– Student and Teacher management
– Design curriculum
– Enrolment and Payment
– Manage Virtual Classroom, Schedules, and Time Management
– Planning and acquisition
– Internal communication, personalized notifications, Zoom meetings, video conferencing
– Quality Control and maintenance of resources
– Reports
– Feedback
– Management Subscriptions, certifications, and credits
– Settings
- b) Teacher/Tutor Panel
– Signup/Login
– Student Profile
– Teacher Profile
– Courses
– Student management ie., conducting virtual classes, Audio/Video Streaming, queries, feedback, etc
– Schedules
– Upload content
– Provide Quizzes and Tests
– Task Evaluation and Checking Progress
– Learning Materials
– Analysis for tracking student’s progress
– Gamification
– Push Notifications
– History
– Chat
- c) Student’s Panel
– Signup/Login
– Student profile
– Courses
– Enrolments
– Payment and Subscription Details
– Schedules
– Learning Material
– Quizzes and Tests
– Push Notifications
– Chat
– Exam Preparation and Question Papers
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 content while creating/updating the course. Thus, there is a need to have proper functionality for file storage, access to resources, sharing the resources, etc., Make sure that you infuse the micro-learning features 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 requirements and different groups 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 provide summary and analytics on the dashboard and keep track of events on a daily basis. These types of apps make learning easier and provide various options on podcasts, smart watches, smartphones, tablets, etc.,
6) Provision to upload contents: Various document 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, and 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 learners where they develop the right skill set in a virtual environment. Gamification options like leaderboards, ranks, and puzzles do help boost learner motivation.
8) Push Notifications: Push notifications are effective remainders to students and teachers where messages are sent periodically on the happening of a specific event such as student absenteeism, fees payment, the remainder of a new course, assignment, exams etc
9) Query Resolution: Trainees can discuss course contents, participate in discussions, raise queries and receive solutions from the teachers.
10 Mobile Apps: User-friendly mobile Apps that support push notifications, content sharing, and communication, to deliver eLearning seamlessly.
- 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) E-commerce: helps to sell your course material online by providing payment support online by integrated with payment gateways using dedicated APIs.
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 learners. They allow students to leverage the content and features based on their preferences. 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 a better learning experience.
16) IoT and Wearable devices: Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and VR headsets can be integrated with eLearning applications 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 into 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 are the most needed features of eLearning apps. Corporate would like to induct all the fresh employees as quickly as possible and be familiar with all the work processes. Also, upskilling the existing employees with new skills helps improve overall productivity and enhance their skill set. It is difficult to provide training to each and every employee through classroom training. This is where the online Course Management System on the LMS platform comes in handy. Hence, using a corporate eLearning platform for compliance training helps the learner equip with the 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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