A Quick Guide to Developing E-Learning Products in 2024

October 31, 2023

During the pandemic, the education sector globally has shifted to online platforms, with a striking 98% of universities transitioning to virtual classes in 2020, as reported by the Harvard Business Review. This trend has remained to this day. The e-Learning Market is now valued at over 325 billion dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow by 20% annually from 2023 to 2028. Positioned as an e-learning software development company, we are not mere spectators of this transformation but active contributors, steering the e-learning evolution with profound and enduring impacts.

At Geniusee, we embrace our role as catalysts in this digital education transformation, crafting e-learning solutions that are not only functional and engaging but also innovatively anticipating future learning ecosystems. Now, let’s examine some key aspects of e-learning products and understand how to approach their creation in the upcoming 2024 year.

Multiplatform Access

When it comes to online learning, convenience is crucial for students. They want to access their learning materials on Android or iOS smartphones, laptops, and Chromebooks.

As a developer, your job is to ensure your platform is user-friendly and compatible with various devices and operating systems. To avoid issues like compatibility conflicts between developer libraries, browsers, or device-specific settings, you can use tools like CanIUse or StatCounter.

During the testing phase of your e-learning projects, consider creating a compatibility matrix that includes different combinations of hardware and software configurations. This will help ensure a seamless experience for students across multiple platforms.

Video Connection Implementation

Ensuring a stable video connection is paramount for a successful online learning experience. No matter how engaging the learning materials are, if the video connection becomes unreliable, it can hinder the effectiveness of online training sessions.

In online learning, face-to-face communication and real-time multimedia content sharing are essential. WebSocket technology is well-suited for this purpose as it helps maintain a consistently stable connection.

Common Issues That Disrupt Video Connections Include:

  • Slow internet speed.
  • Bandwidth throttling or speed limitations.
  • Outdated SSL certification for WebSocket.

Solutions:

  • Tools like NetLimiter can simulate slow or throttled internet connections, allowing you to understand the user’s actual learning experience.
  • To address outdated SSL certification issues, consider implementing automatic SSL certificate renewal.

Payment System

Having a fully integrated payment system in your e-learning product is a time-saver for both you and your users. It offers the convenience of subscribing to courses without leaving the website or app and provides immediate access to transaction data within the same platform.

However, integrating a payment system can introduce security vulnerabilities, making your platform more susceptible to cyberattacks. To mitigate these risks, it’s essential to strictly adhere to security protocols when integrating external payment gateways like Stripe.

Common Challenges When Integrating a Payment System:

  • Integration-related challenges: Carefully align the payment gateway’s features with your business needs and user demographics to ensure a smooth integration.
  • Transaction-related challenges: Most payment gateways offer resources, such as Stripe’s Help and Support, to assist with transaction issues. Real-time transaction monitoring enables prompt issue resolution.

Calendar System

The popularity of online courses is driven by flexibility and self-paced learning. To enhance your course content, a well-organized calendar system is essential. It should enable users to schedule their learning modules based on their proficiency, progress, and personal schedules.

Two common challenges when implementing such a calendar system are scheduling conflicts and lesson cancellations. It’s crucial to find solutions that allow rescheduling without disrupting pre-scheduled time slots. To address these issues, consider implementing a real-time user logging system using third-party platforms like Amazon CloudWatch, which offers real-time monitoring of your e-learning tools and application infrastructure, aiding in calendar implementation.

Applying User Roles Logic

In an e-learning course, there are various user types, including trainers, classroom managers, students, guest lecturers, examinees, and examiners. These users require different levels of access to resources and content.

When implementing user roles based on permissions and user groups, two primary challenges arise:

  • Implementing permissions.
  • Managing user accounts.

Amazon Cognito, part of Amazon Web Services, provides solutions for user sign-up management with different authorization levels. It also allows you to establish distinct authentication rules for various user types. Moreover, you can seamlessly integrate social identity providers like Apple, Facebook, Google, or Amazon to streamline the login process for users. Additionally, Cognito offers connectivity through enterprise identity providers such as SAML 2.0 and OpenID, enhancing security and scalability.

Lessons Booking System

Simplify the lesson booking and registration process for your e-learning course, allowing participants to manage it themselves. Additionally, provide tech support access for handling complex issues manually.

Choose the registration and booking model that suits your client’s business model, course structure, and learning needs, whether it’s fixed payments, one-time payments, recurring payments, or subscriptions. Consider using AWS Lambda for testing. It allows you to simulate real-life scenarios, including scheduled actions, recurring payments, and automatic lesson extensions under specific conditions through its serverless architecture.

Timezones System

Expanding your e-learning reach to a global audience is advantageous but comes with challenges related to managing real-time interactions across different time zones. You’ll also need to handle daylight savings time adjustments.

To address this:

  1. Use browser tools and extensions that can emulate different time zones.
  2. Adapt your lesson booking system and calendar to accommodate dynamic time zone settings.
  3. Consider implementing a blended learning approach that combines pre-recorded lectures, interactive materials, live sessions, peer grading, and gamification to engage learners effectively across time zones.

Platform Security

Ensuring the security of your platform is paramount to safeguard valuable information, educational content, and financial resources. Users often connect via social accounts, making platform security essential to prevent potential cybercrimes.

Common attacks on e-learning platforms include XSS, SQL code injection, trojan file injection, URL SQL injection, and brute force attacks. Implement different user access levels, and multi-factor authentication during registration and login flows, and consider the following security best practices:

  • Re-authentication: Require users to re-authenticate after a predefined time to enhance security.
  • Password strength: Enforce strong password requirements, including a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters, to prevent brute-force attacks.

Implementation of Mailing Services

Integrating email services into your e-learning product enhances communication, facilitates promotions, and supports marketing efforts. Consider third-party providers like MailChimp, Slack, Tiny Letter, Paper.li, IFTTT, or LearnUpon for your online learning platform, focusing on communication and scheduling.

Determine your desired communication frequency and triggers, then configure the mail client to send emails accordingly. Different providers offer unique benefits for your e-learning company. For instance, MailChimp enables user segmentation and scheduled emails, while Slack facilitates real-time messaging for remote teams. Explore several options to find the best fit for your needs.

Essential features like multi-platform access, video connection integration, and a payment system are vital for a top-tier e-learning product. Geniusee’s experts have a proven track record of successfully implementing these features in various e-learning platforms. To gain a competitive edge in the market, reach out to our team today to discuss your needs.


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