How to Create an eLearning Platform Like Coursera?

With the evolution of the tech industry, the norms for education are also redefining. Not just the tech revolution, but COVID also played a major role in the evolution of education app development.

The phenomenal demand for online education over the last few years has transformed eLearning platforms like Coursera into favorites among students across the world. Greater demands for digital learning tools are requiring stronger and more agile platforms to accommodate more and more people and organizations using these tools.

In this blog, we will take you through the major steps involved in creating educational apps, review the benefits of educational app development, and give you an estimate of how much it would cost to create an app like Coursera. With the help of dedicated developers for hire and the right mobile application development company, you can create a profitable, scalable, and user-friendly platform that serves students all over the world.

Coursera: An Overview

Coursera is one of the most popular eLearning sites in the world that is changing the way people learn. From a small startup to the well-known international platform, the company has grown in rapid growth since it was founded in 2012 by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera has become one of the excellent examples of how online learning enables students to learn new skills and knowledge at their own pace since it now has more than 100 million users worldwide.

It allows users to enroll in classes, work for professional certifications, or even finish their degrees from their desktop or mobile device using the Coursera app. A comprehensive learning experience is provided due to the support of interactive projects, peer reviews, assignments, quizzes, and video lectures. Whether business, technology, and data science; arts, humanities, or personal development types of interest or even industry, Coursera serves it all.

Knowing Coursera's core features, user interface, and business plan would be vital information if you ever intended to build your online learning site. The website features a strong revenue stream by taking advantage of paid and free courses and purchasing certificates. Moreover, one critical aspect of its validity and success is that it can engage with high institutions professionals and business giants.

It provides students with verified degrees and certifications. Thousands of courses are provided in multiple disciplines. This platform is the best because it encourages flexibility. The reason it encourages flexibility is that it allows its customers to move through the courses that they prefer at their own pace. Coursera also allows mobile users to access learning on the go. It further encourages teamwork by bringing peer-reviewed assignments along with creating plenty of scope for community involvement.

How to Build an e-learning App Like Coursera?

This section shall guide you on what you need to create an educational app to contend with sites such as Udemy and Coursera.

1) Market Research

Knowledge of what the target audience demands must come before actually starting the development of educational apps. Identify the most important groups, either professionals or students, or those who use their apps to support hobbies, and determine what benefits they're looking for in an online learning application like Coursera.

Analyze the sites of competitors, including Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas in which you can have a competitive advantage. Understand what your target users would want most. Would they pay much value for access to experts, peer grades, interactive content, and certifications? Knowing this will support the development of key features for your site.

2) Choose a Business Model

Your eLearning platform's business model is its heart. Some popular models are:

• Freemium Model: Charge for the advanced certification courses, but make introductory courses free of charge, as Coursera does.
• Subscription Model: In this model, you can charge a monthly or annual subscription fee to provide access to courses.
• Pay-Per-Course: Here, customers need to pay for every single course. Expert certificates or some premium features would be charged as paid services.

The cost of the development of an app like Coursera will also depend on the revenue model used.

3) Select Key Features for Your e-Learning App

To build a platform like Coursera, provide quite a few necessary functions that improve usability and the result of learning. As a base for educational programs, a user profile allows users to establish their accounts to watch data, contains a large variety of courses in different fields, and guarantees that video content is produced with high quality. Give course teachers the ability to add additional interactive tests and assignments besides videos and the capacity to upload and manage videos. Encourage learning in groups by adding peer reviews, providing certificates to users once they complete courses, and creating a Coursera app that can provide the means of accessibility to cater to people's flexibility for learning and the ability to take courses in offline mode wherein downloaded materials would be able to view it even on the go to give people more flexibility for learning.

4) Designing

Visually appealing, easy to navigate, and intuitive—this is how you design your eLearning app like Coursera. to make an interesting and user-friendly interface, you might want to hire UI/UX designers or directly collaborate with a top app development company.

5) Developing the e-Learning Platform

In this stage, the development of determined design and essential features begins. For you to be successful at this step, you will be required to associate with the best app development company.

• Frontend development: You can use the latest technologies like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, or React Native, amongst others, to make it smooth and interesting for user experiences.
• Backend development: It includes tasks like management of user information, course materials, etc. Consider using reliable technologies if you have complicated tasks like Ruby on Rails, Python, or Node.js to handle them.
• Cloud Storage: To ensure safe storage of user data and video courses, use the cloud, such as AWS or Google Cloud.
• Database Management: You'll need a database system that can reliably store details about user profiles, their level of progress, and course information, such as MySQL or MongoDB.
• Security: Protect the data of your users by setting features of advanced security, which may include encryption, two-factor authentication, and secure payment channels.

This process will be much easier if you hire a business developing mobile apps that has previous experience creating educational apps or specifically recruit mobile app developers who specialize in education.

6) Testing and Launching the App

Ensure that your application, just like Coursera, was tested sufficiently in terms of bugs and performance issues before release into the market. For cross-platform consistency, development versions on mobile and web should test against several hardware and browser combinations.

Also, do a beta test with several real people before publishing the application officially to get their feedback and solve any issues that might be noted. Use feedback from beta testers for changes in performance, content delivery, and user-friendliness of the platform.

7) Post-Launch Support and Maintenance

Once you have developed your eLearning app, including new courses, features, and upgrades based on user feedback is also important. With regular upgrades, your app will remain interesting and appealing.

• Adding New Topics/Courses: To cater to a more expanded base of audiences, regularly add new topics and specializations to the course catalog.
• Technical support: It should provide teachers and users with technical support at all times in case the problems have to be solved immediately.

Cost to Develop an App Like Coursera

The cost of developing an app like Coursera depends on the following factors:

• App Complexity: The higher the number of complex features, such as an AI-based suggestion or live interaction with peers, the more it would cost.
• Platform Selection: This would again depend on whether built for the web or mobiles, both iOS and Android.
• Development Team: It would be relatively cheaper to find dedicated developers for hire from India, for example, rather than from Western states.
• Maintenance and Upgrades: Continued upgrades and support would increase the general cost of the platform in the long run.

This is the reason why the cost of creating an application like Coursera depends on the complexity of the platform and the experience of the development team. Generally, its price falls in the range of $45,000-$200,000. Hire mobile app developers in India for the most cost-effective solution.

How to be a Step Ahead of Coursera?

Use AI for personalized learning—this shall be an effective way of being ahead of Coursera. Your platform will offer customized routes, adaptive content, and course recommendations using the latest AI algorithms following a student's preferences and performance. Personalization will then give them a better feeling and will motivate them to go further to have a special experience that would be different from Coursera's system of recommendations currently in place. This is further enhanced through the use of chatbots with AI in providing instant instruction and support to the clients in their quest as they provide the help needed right in time.

The other strategy would be to include real-time collaboration and engagement tools. Due to the self-paced nature of most Coursera classes, you can make the learning environment more dynamic and interesting by providing live video lectures, instant feedback, and cooperative group projects. These features will simulate the typical classroom setting, giving students a feeling of community while making the learning process even more appealing to those in search of more stimulating learning opportunities.

Benefits of Education App Development: Why to Invest?

• Increase Accessibility of Education

An education app breaks all the geographical constraints, which allows people across the world to access education from their homes. It makes learning more accessible.

• Personalized Learning Opportunities

By using AI, eLearning apps can help in personalizing courses based on users' previous courses and interests. It helps in improving the user-retention ratio and engagement.

• Flexibility and Scalability

Scalable online learning platforms like Coursera or Udemy, for example-mean that it is possible to reach a much larger number of students without having to be bound by physical infrastructure.

• Improved Engagement

By increasing the involvement of students with inclusions like gamification, live chats, quizzes, and many other more interactive features, you can engage more students. Hire dedicated developers for customization in your education app development.

• Easy-on-the-pocket:Cost-effectiveness

Developing an education app is often more cost effective than traditional educational methods, reducing operational costs while offering a broader reach.

• Data-driven Analytics

Apps can help schools and institutions optimize their services with more helpful information about the activity of the user, engagement, and course performance.

• Generating Revenue

The education application has the potential to be a source of stable revenues for developers and teachers through a variety of monetization strategies, such as pay-per-course, subscriptions, and certificates.

• Availability on the Go

Development companies will assist in developing applications that students can access on their cellphones, facilitating learning away and simultaneously increasing user comfort, along with the website like Coursera.

Partnering with a Mobile App Development Company

With a top mobile app development company engaged in your education application development project, you can rest assured that the process will be undertaken with precision and aptness. We have experienced engineers, designers, and AI experts who are professionally close to you to understand your vision and bring it to life using state-of-the-art technology and user-centric designs.

You work with a team of experienced experts along with our history of successful delivery of web and mobile solutions. Hyperlink Infosystem offers smooth servicing from the concept to launch, no matter how much development you require on end-to-end services or how many special expert services you want. We are your perfect match for creating a successful and attractive eLearning app since innovation, swift delivery, and value-for-money solutions all form an integral part of our services.

Conclusion

It takes careful planning, feature-rich development, and continuous maintenance to build a successful e-learning platform like Coursera. With the right approach, people, and technology, you can create a platform in the growing online education sector that will benefit students and offer huge commercial potential.