How To Choose an Online Platform for Teaching

Have you ever imagined that one day, businesses and even educational institutions may be closed to ensure health and safety? I had not expected it either until the Covid 19 pandemic appeared and forced a lockdown. 

For some people, as well as for me, it was terrible, but from another perspective, this situation became a reason for various inspirational solutions. One of the biggest and effective changes was in the improvement of online platforms for teaching.

It was this period when various businesses extended their services and started offering new solutions. The greatest thing was that this referred to any business regardless of the industry. Life goes on and the human brain tends to think about growing the means to reach better results and provide effective solutions.

It is good to follow all the current trends and stay up to date with the trends. In this article, I’m going to focus on the educational field - one of the industries that are possible to fully complete through online channels. 

If you are interested in having your own online platform for teaching then you will face a lot of challenges. But do not hurry to overthink and leave your dreams or goals. In this piece of content, I’m going to focus your attention on points that are worthy of consideration. 

Accordingly, you will learn what to do and how to make the right decision when there are various software e-learning solutions for teachers.

So, let’s go on and start the discussion of the points to take into consideration. In the end, you will learn what the best online platform for teaching is.

#1 Choose an Easy to Use and Comfortable Online Platform for Teaching

As an online education provider, most of all you want to implement your responsibilities, work and earn income from your comfort zone. The platform should be more than clear and you will use it without any difficulty. Even if you have some misunderstandings or complexity to go forward with, there should be a support team that immediately helps you, and provide the best solutions.

The best online teaching platforms for teachers should be clear and simple for teachers, students, and administrators. There should never be any difficulty when customizing the educational material and making it available for potential learners. 

While making a decision, consider that the platform provides intuitive systems, clear controls, and meaningful support options should all be an essential part of your selection criteria.

#2 Find the Features You Require for E-learning Software

Probably, the most essential point that requires significant attention is the consideration of required features to organize the teaching process effectively. You should identify the preferable teaching style and think about what solutions may be good for you. 

However, you do not have to be technologically ready. In such cases, get in touch with companies that are experienced in providing similar solutions and may help you to choose the best possible option that fits your needs.

With the current development of technologies, you will have a wide variety of features and solutions to choose from and you don’t have to be a specific subject teacher to need this or that functional feature. 

For instance, you may be an online yoga tutor and want to check out the features of the best platforms for teaching yoga online. The most widely used features are:

✓ Video Courses

Probably, the most common feature the online education providers make use of is the possibility of publishing online video courses. This way, you may create and publish content on your platform as well as make it accessible for sales. 

Online video courses are preferable for the audience. They are free to get education from their comfort zone in their preferable time. On the other hand, the trainers make efforts for once. They record, edit, and publish courses once, but the income continually comes every time learners buy the course.

✓ Live Calls and Automated Live Training

Even during the online educational process, there comes a time, when face-to-face communication and real-time communication is required. Live calls are the best medium to get in touch with the learners. Besides, you may organize automated live pieces of training. 

For instance, it may be a monthly training that covers 3 lessons each week. You will need a feature to schedule the lessons, create a timetable, present the topics, introduce short descriptions and make it obvious for the audience which points will be discussed during every lesson.

This feature will also help you automate the process, inviting the students. You do not have to get in touch with every student and let them know about the upcoming lesson. They will get automated email letters with all the required details.

✓ Quizzes and Tests

Education is nothing without good results. People who learn something want to test their acquired knowledge and evaluate the results. And, as an education provider, you should work to satisfy the learners and make their requirements be met in the best possible way. 

And still, the online quiz feature will help you automate the test checking process. When creating quizzes, you will set the right answers to the questions and the system will automatically calculate the results when students pass on the tests. 

Different quizzes may cover different options of questions such as short or long, yes or no answer questions, multiple-choice questions, etc. In some cases, you may even add videos or attach images as a question explainer or answer choice.

✓ Certification

Students who pass the tests with positive marks want to get certificates as proof of their acquired knowledge and skills. Do you want to disappoint them? I’m sure, you do not. 

That’s why you are highly recommended to take into consideration this feature as well. The connection between the test and certification features will make your work even easier. 

When students pass the test with positive marks the system automatically generates a certificate with the student’s name and results. These days, students pay great attention to this function. They want to become certified and have proof of it to use on their CVs.

#3 Focus on an Accessible Software in Education

Accessibility goes beyond any kind of technological device used by the trainer and trainees. Providing content that is accessible by the target audience is a great help to the overall educational process. The quality and features should never vary depending on whether the students use laptops, smartphones, or tablets. It should be available to organize and take part in the online classes with minimum possible effort.

Be critical and take into consideration utilizing assessment items related to graphs, tables, and other visual representations. Try to present deliver your message and stress the main ideas. Keep in mind that when we speak about digital learning, more does not always mean better. 

The reflection items are great to make the process sticky for the learners. Choose a platform that is comfortable and accessible first of all for you. Make it easier for the platform users, add texts, visual elements, icons, use colors and make the ideas easily catchy for the visitors.

Besides, focus on the functionality as well. All the buttons, icons, and any kind of links must work properly and take to the required pages.

#4 Put an Emphasis on the Security

The most critical thing to focus on when teaching online is the security of your platform. This is essential for online teaching platforms for schools as well as individual trainers. First of all, it must be secure for the education provider and then for the students. This security is essential both for peace of mind as well as for conforming to laws about personal information security. A VPN establishes a secure connection between you and the internet. Via the VPN, all your data traffic is routed through an encrypted virtual tunnel. This disguises your IP address when you use the internet, making its location invisible to everyone. A VPN connection is also secure against external attacks.

As an education provider, you share a lot of data for instance, in the form of video content or pieces of private live training. In this way, you sell skills and knowledge. People should never have access to video courses until they buy these pieces. 

Also, if you have private live training, nobody must be able to join it without your permission. 

Not only must any online platform you choose keep personal information for students and instructors safe, but you will also need to choose an online learning platform that can keep class time safe from threats like Zoom bombing and other disruptions.

On the other hand, your e-learning platform must be secure for the students. When buying video courses or paying for booking a seat for the live training, students provide credit card details that most of all require security. 

You should choose a platform that provides this security, offers trustworthy servers, and will help you satisfy the learners.

#5 Is it Possible to Get Analytical Reports

In order to make the educational process effective, fix issues, and improve the quality, you need to analyze the user behavior on your platform. In this way, you will find the confusing points and features they do not like. 

Analytical reports will provide you all the required information to effectively manage the process.

When choosing an online teaching platform, you will also want to consider the availability of analytics. This will help you, for instance, learn whether or not the students watch and complete all videos. 

Is there specific content that seems to cause students to stop engaging or makes them re-watch the content multiple times? The analytical features on your online learning platform will help you refine both individual classes and your virtual classes overall. 

Additionally, it can provide instructors essential data that helps them evaluate student performance and provide more support to specific students as demanded.

Ready to Choose Your Platform Today?

We have already discussed the most essential features to consider while choosing the best online platform for teaching. Of course, you may require some more features and functionality in order to implement specific teaching activities. In this case, take into consideration the availability of these features as well.

The companies that provide the functionality to create e-learning websites, usually offer several pricing plans according to the available features. You should also compare the cost and find an affordable option that covers your preferred features.

In the end, there is nothing to say but just letting you know that with the help of Uteach, you may start your online teaching career or prompt it forward. Here you get a lot of useful features at an affordable price. All you need to do is to check out the features, choose a subscription plan, and START A FREE TRIAL, or schedule a free demo and let the specialist explain everything and presenting in detail.

A free demo is a more recommended choice. You will get familiar with all the functionality of the platform and you will not waste your time of free trial on learning and testing.

Book a FREE Demo