E-Learning Web App Development Cost
How much does it cost to develop an elearning web application? Pandemic has changed the way we used to live, communicate or work. We are all familiar with the fact that the use of Smartphones and the innovation in technology have made a high impact on the users and have also boosted the sales of businesses and learning institutions.
In the past few years, eLearning platforms have gained popularity for offering a more productive and easier way to educate students and employees while providing practical knowledge and advanced skills.
We can take the example of the famous eLearning applications like Coursera, Udemy, Byju’s, Unacademy, and many more. These eLearning apps offer courses and study materials on every subject and the users/interested learners can buy these courses and acquire a new skill set with them. Additionally, they also provide test papers to examine their knowledge of the particular subject they paid for.
These eLearning solutions have catered to all the study materials necessary for the learners and have provided the best ways and methods to learn and acquire knowledge in the comfort of your home, anytime.
But what are eLearning platforms, why should you make one for your business, and how can it be beneficial for you.
In this article, we will get into each and every aspect of e-learning web app development. So let’s get started!
What is an eLearning Platform and its Types?
An eLearning platform is a software application that gives tools to create and sell online courses. It is an alternative to the traditional classroom experience and is often referred to as remote learning, online learning, virtual learning, digital learning, or distance learning.
In simpler terms, an eLearning platform is a one-stop destination to cater to all your learning requirements. It is a web portal for educational resources and content. These web applications provide all the necessary study materials required in the form of audio classes, videos, podcasts, PPTs, and PDFs. To make up an eLearning platform different elements like live or pre-recorded lectures, quizzes, activities, and other interactive elements are involved. One can manage and administer the eLearning courses through a learning management system (LMS).
Types of e-learning platforms
Before moving to the development of an eLearning platform for your business, it is important to learn the types of eLearning platforms available in the market and decide which one will be most beneficial for you.
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Open-Source eLearning Platforms
Open source eLearning platforms are off-the-shelf solutions that can be paid or free. However, if the platform is built on SaaS (Software as a Service) model, there would be monthly or annual subscription charges. Some of the open-source platforms for eLearning available in the market are BrainCart, Moodle, etc. which come with integrated several remarkable features such as file uploading, interactive exercises, books, online chats with students, and a support forum and so much more.
Using such a platform, you can create a profile, upload study materials, and receive fees from students who want to learn directly to your bank account.
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Online Courses Marketplaces
Online learning marketplaces are platforms that offer different courses from educational institutions. Using online courses marketplace like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, EdX, etc. Advanced tools allow teachers to upload interactive videos, grade students, create quizzes, and provide certificates upon course completion.
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Custom eLearning Content Management System (CMS)
The best option, if you want to generate huge revenue, is a custom eLearning CMS platform from scratch integrated with all the functions needed by your business. Besides education material, you can also integrate courses from partner educational institutions, charge monthly or annual subscription fees from students without intermediates, and run ads for extra revenue. Moreover, you can also charge from those universities or other institutions who want to promote their courses on the top results.
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E-learning platform market overview
You might wanna know, “ How can an eLearning platform be beneficial?” To answer that question of yours, here are some authenticated statistics for eLearning's global market size.
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According to Global Newswire, by 2026 the global market of eLearning is estimated to exceed $457.8 Billion.
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Global Market Insights projected that the market size of the eLearning platform will reach $1 Trillion with a CAGR of 20% between 2022-2028.
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Another to stats from Research and Markets, the global market size of eLearning is expected to exceed $521.8 Billion at a CAGR of 9.9% by 2027.
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According to PR Newswire, the eLearning market size will exceed $147.79 Billion between 2021 and 2025.
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Allied Market Research also predicts that the global market size of eLearning will reach $840.11 Billion at a CAGR of 17.5% by 2030.
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Benefits of Creating an eLearning Platform
Now that we know what an eLearning platform is, its types, and some stats around the market size predictions, it is time to learn the benefits you can achieve through the development of the eLearning platform.
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Wider Audience Reach
With the creation of an eLearning platform, you can reach a wide range of students around the globe. Apart from that, you can also reach corporate clients that will contribute to your branding.
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Time-efficiency & High Retention Rates
Although keeping a student engaged through the whole course is difficult, eLearning can increase the retention rates by 25% to 60% according to the Research Institute of America, compared to the 8% to 10% retention rates of traditional courses. Moreover, the eLearning platform also increases time efficiency as it requires 40%-60% less time from a student compared to the traditional classes.
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Content Reusability
eLearning web app development enables you to get the most from your content. When you create a course, it can be used again and again by new users, increasing the return on investment.
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Match Your Business Needs
Last but not least, creating an eLearning web app is reasonable since you can customize it based on your business’s requirements and needs. Therefore, you can easily provide additional services and values to the learners and at the same time use them for marketing as well.
Must-have Features of the eLearning Platform
Now that you might have decided on the type of eLearning platform that is ideal for your business, let’s check some of the must-have features for your business.
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Sign Up and log in through social media accounts or general details.
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As the home screen of the web app, the dashboard should be designed so that it can be used to track course progress, display new and popular courses, provide special offers, and provide discounts.
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Filtering and Sorting are another essential part of the eLearning web app as it helps in searching any course a student might be interested in, and filtering the duration, price, level of the course, etc. without getting overwhelmed with thousands of courses.
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The eLearning web app should also have special features like one-to-one and group calls, a share screen, quizzes, and tests, and file uploading.
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Features for Gamification of the course can help in increasing knowledge and optimizing the learning process while keeping the learners motivated.
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Push notifications are another recommended feature of the eLearning web app that helps in improving sales, creating personalized offers, and retargeting previous customers.
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The web app should also have secure and encrypted online payment systems that make it easier to buy a course or subscription or run ads.
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Other features that an eLearning platform should include are the teacher’s dashboard, review and ratings, admin panel, and categories.
Read: Payment Gateways for your Web Application
Things to Remember for UI/UX design of eLearning platform
The next thing to consider now is designing the user interface of the eLearning platform carefully. Here is a sorted list of things that you need to remember.
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Clean and Learner-Centered Design
While designing the UI of the eLearning platform, it is important to keep the interface focused on educational objectives while avoiding obstructive buttons, sections, etc. that can cause distractions.
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Responsive Design
The web app needs to be responsive regardless of the device it is being used by the learners. It will help them learn things while traveling to work.
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Suitable Colors & Fonts
Another important factor to consider when designing the web app is using calm colors, leaving enough white space, and easy-to-read font to serve as visual relief. For mental stimulation, you can go for colors like yellow and orange, for calming effects use green and blue colors, and so on. But there’s no one-fit-for-all solution, you can choose colors and fonts according to your requirements.
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Interactivity
Adding interactive elements, goal-driven designs, quizzes, and gamification to create an effective learning experience.
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Content Structure
To make it easier to learn and focus on the content, you must divide it into small paragraphs, keep descriptive titles, and make content easier to scan.
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Mistakes to Avoid in eLearning Development
eLearning platform development is a notable investment. But how can you ensure that the platform has minimum problems in the first attempt? To help you out, here is a list of some common mistakes made by entrepreneurs that you must avoid.
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Navigation Issues
Every eLearning platform should have easier navigation to quickly find the courses, and other details to help learners keep their focus on understanding concepts instead of trying to comprehend how the web app works.
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Low-Quality Content
The poor quality even on the most advanced platform cannot help users to learn anything. Therefore, the content on the web app should be effective, credible, and structured to make the learning experience a success.
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No Feedback Section
Without the space for feedback, it will become impossible to share the progress and mistakes of a learner. On the other hand, learners will also become unable to share their opinions on the educational content and teaching method. So, adding a feedback section makes perfect sense for both teachers and learners.
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Less Interactivity
The main aim of the eLearning platform is interactivity to help improve the learning process and engagement. Without interactivity, the engagement rate of any eLearning web app will reduce at a fast rate leading to the failure of the platform in the market. Hence, you must add interactive elements to the web app.
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No Offers
Users usually choose platforms that provide them with the ability to get a free trial or other offers on the courses. However, if your web app lacks any discount or offer, it can lead to the collapse of the web app.
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No Stated Eligibility to Become a Tutor
For any eLearning platform specially designed as an intermediary between student and teacher it is essential to check the qualifications of the teachers so that they can offer better content to the students.
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How to develop an e-learning web app
Moving ahead, it will be better to understand the developing process of an eLearning web app. So let’s get into the workflow before we move to the development cost of the platform.
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Idea Creation
All the projects begin from the idea creation stage. To get the idea, it is essential to conduct market research to find out the pain factor that your platform will solve.
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Project Research
To streamline the process of development you need to understand the market, analyze available platforms, try & test different assumptions and learn the scope of promotions, marketing, and development. Besides, understanding the competitors will help you generate basic features, and find unique marketing focus and positioning to develop a strategy to beat the competition.
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Choosing Monetization Strategy
If you are about to develop the eLearning platform, you need to decide the way to monetize it. You can choose among paid certifications, monthly subscriptions, ads, premium accounts, or a blend of them.
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Design & Development
The next step is to create a prototype for designing the UI/UX that engages the users instantly. To ensure it’s easy to use, you can draw the workflow, create a digital wireframe and develop mockups. Then develop a strong brand identity by designing the logo, and creating a UI kit including typography, colors, elements, etc. that will be used while designing the web app.
Once you are done with designing the UI/UX (frontend) of the web app, it is time to develop the backend of the eLearning platform. For that, you need to execute the business logic and features of the workable product. The different stages of development include deploying servers, developing scalable server architecture, integrating third-party APIs, incorporating payment gateways, and implementing social media.
Lastly, you need a quality analyst team to check out the web app, figure out bugs, make a detailed list of errors & bugs, and re-check everything after debugging.
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Defining the Tech Stack
Now the most crucial part of the eLearning web app development process, find a suitable tech stack for front-end and back-end development including programming languages, frameworks, databases, and other essential tools.
Cost to build an e-learning web applicationRead: React Native- Getting started with a brief guide
How much does it cost to develop an elearning web application? To develop an eLearning web app it will cost around $20,000 to $80,000. However, remember that the total cost depends on different factors like the number of developers you are hiring, time that will be invested in the development, features you want to integrate, and the monthly or yearly subscription charges of different cloud storage providers.
Conclusion
We hope that the blog has helped you understand the basics of the eLearning platform development and determine whether you wanna develop the web app for your business or not. If you are interested in building an eLearning web app for your business, then you should hire developers from reputed and authenticated software development companies like Decipher Zone Technologies.
We work with a team of experienced front-end and back-end developers who have expertise with different technologies and tools used for the eLearning web application development. Ready to take over the eLearning market? Get in touch with us now!
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