5 eLearning Platforms From A Teacher's Point Of View
07/01/2015
We all know and face the fact that the digital environment is in continuous change and development. And, why not? The 3.0 consumer is reinventing him/herself and becomes e-venturous. Therefore, the traditional education is losing more and more ground, and teachers, students, and professionals focus on new ways to develop, improve, and share their knowledge.
The following table of comparison summarizes all the relevant and similar information I found on the eLearning platforms’ websites, with a touch of originality. By "originality" I mean custom questions that could help a teacher (but not only) reach the top information about the old/new e-teaching platforms.
The Table.
| questions | udemy.com | novoed.com | udacity.com | icompany.training | lynda.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What can an user do here? | "a) Learning new skills b) Teaching online c) Training employees" |
"a) Learners b) Educators c) Companies" |
"a) Open courses b) Nanodegree Programs c) Georgia Tech Degrees (here)" |
"a) Online courses b) Become a teacher c) Become an affiliate" |
"a) Academic b)Business c)Government + d) Call for trainers" |
| FREE / PAID (student) | paid/free | free/paid | free/paid | paid | paid (+ free videos)(here) |
| Fees (teacher) | "Become an instructor" program, no fee to create and host courses | Has no specific "teacher" program | Has no specific "teacher" program (here) | "Become a teacher program" | Has a "Call for trainers" program |
| Revenue share (for teachers, from paid courses) | "a) Instructor Promotion b)Udemy Organic" (here) |
Regarding Stanford University's policy | Regarding Georgia Tech's policy | 3 offers (here) | Regarding the amount of videos produced |
| Partners Vs. Affiliates | Has an "affiliates" program (here) | "a) University Partners b) Foundations and Other Education Partners c) Corporate Learning Partners" (here) |
For the "Nanodegree" program (here) | Has a "become an affiliate" program (here) | Has a "partner" program (here) |
| Courses - topics (IT Vs. non-IT) | Both (here) | Non-IT focused (here) | IT focused (here) | Both (here) | Both (here) |
| Various course languages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| College credits | An equivalent portfolio | Exams + Certification / College credits + Stanford LEAD Certificate: Corporate Innovation |
Verified Completion Certificates+ "Nanodegree" program - Internship offer at AT & T | Yes = Student practice equivalent | Unreported |
| Posibility of providing video content | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (video2brain) |
| Devices to learn from | Any device | Any device | Any device | Any device | Any device |
| Teachers' background | Experts of any kind | Experts of any kind | Silicon Valley experts | Experts of any kind | Experts of any kind |
| Countries worldwide offers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teachers can earn based on their course format | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teaching experience required | No | Not really | Yes | No | Yes |
| Is a teacher course exclusive? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| May a teacher delete a course? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Has a discussion forum | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Was founded in | 2009/2010 | 2012 | 2011 | 2014 | 1995 / 2002 |
| An Emotional Issue: | Modern collegiate coursework, friendship-based team |
Powerful partnerships, students collaboration (teams) |
A Silicon Valley company, lifelong learning, friendship-based team |
Young company, lifelong learning, personal development |
A LinkedIn company, old company, with vast experience |
The findings.
As you can see in the table, a user of any of these eLearning platforms has various opportunities to learn, teach, or train according to his/her needs, in a free or paid mode.
Here are some facts that emphasize the strengths of these platforms, along with their main focus activity, and that may be useful for a teacher:
- The majority of these eLearning platforms has a specific “teacher” program (e.g. Udemy, iCompany and Lynda), where “experts of any kind” could apply their courses, and earn money based on their course format (free or paid).
- Here (Udemy), here (iCompany), and here (Lynda) a teacher can sign up for courses they would like to share.
- All of them have a specific “affiliate / partner” program based on their own philosophy (e.g. Udacity has the “nanodegree” partnership; iCompany has an affiliate program).
- The teachers have also the possibility to sign up as affiliates or partners.
- Teachers’ background can be both from IT and non-IT areas (e.g. Udemy, iCompany, Lynda); NovoEd focuses on non-IT courses and Udacity focuses on IT courses.
- The majority has a restriction on the course mobility, in order to keep the information unique (iCompany allows teachers to also publish their content elsewhere).
As an emotional issue, those platforms have their own way of “being” on the market, so they address to visitors’ emotions through their stories (teachers could identify themselves in some of them):
- Udemy has a specific, modern collegiate coursework and a friendship-based team.
- NovoEd has powerful partnerships and allows students to collaborate in small teams.
- Udacity is a Silicon Valley brand with a lifelong learning orientation and a friendship-based team.
- iCompany is a young company with a lifelong learning and personal development orientation.
- Lynda is a LinkedIn brand, with a vast experience on the field, focused on video content.
To sum up, based on the previous facts and personal intuition, I think that if the relationship among the eLearning platform’s team, the teachers, and the students is based on a win-win direction, they will all benefit greatly from them the platforms. In that way, a complementary alliance among them all could be an awesome next step for the 3.0 adventurous consumer.
By Cristina-Maria Bălgărădean