Did you know that according to Skillscouter, 50% of students from various higher education institutions have taken an online course in the past year thanks to e-Learning platform software?
e-Learning – or online teaching – uses digital technology and the internet for course creation to educate individuals in virtual classrooms without geographical boundaries, because people can study from anywhere in the world.
It is popular because all that a student requires is a computer or mobile device, and an internet connection.
e-Learning Platform Software in Higher Education
More higher education institutions have started offering e-learning as an option, as it solves challenges for both students and institutions.
For example, the physical location of a college or university can only hold so many feet, so there is a limit to the number of students that may be accepted. e-Learning platform software addresses the issue, allowing millions of students around the world the opportunity to study. At the same time, the establishment is able to increase profit.
There are a lot of people who are in life circumstances that don’t allow for face to face training. For example, parents who need to stay at home for their kids but wish to learn a skill or those who work but wish to upskill. They would not be able to attend training on campus, but can easily accomplish it from home through e-Learning.
e-Learning is also more affordable for the majority of people and does not require travel.
For faculty, online teaching allows for innovation, flexibility, efficiency and it increases the potential reach of academic courses.
Evolution of e-learning
e-Learning began with the concept of distance learning, even way before the internet became a household word.
e-Learning began in the 1990s, with the increase of personal computers, and the understanding that online learning was much easier to achieve for many people than physically travelling to the location of a college or university.
It opened up more options for people wanting to gain new skills, and it also opened up a new world for higher education facilities.
E-learning was launched with interactive CD-ROMs and PDFs.
Between 2000 and 2005, innovative technologies provided more sophistication toward online learning.
The years 2006 – 2010 saw e-learning software become a standard, and advances were rapid, altering the way studying had always been done. e-Learning costs less for both student and establishment, and more people were able to upskill themselves, even if they were already in jobs because they did not need to travel anywhere.
Advanced technology brought about the ability to podcast, get analytical insights, and use AR (Augmented Reality), gaming, user-generated content and so on, for more meaningful and convenient online learning.
From 2011 to date, e-Learning has become popular, and the tools easy to use, and interactive. e-Learning is set to grow right alongside the growth of technology.
Adapt IT Education’s ITS Integrator is an advanced technology that works with online course processes in order to manage student data and provide rich user experience, for both students and the staff of an institution.
Adapt IT Education provides cloud ready and cost effective solutions for the sound management of tertiary institutions, with more than 30 years experience in the education sector Adapt IT understands the challenges faced by the education sector and enables it to design, develop, implement and maintain a range of education software products and services.
Adapt IT has added to its product offering, development of e-learning platform solution. The solution is developed and designed according to the client’s need to make teaching and learning interesting and interactive
Our ERP (ITS Integrator) is an advance technology that provides seamless learning management integrated solutions to our client using Blackboard and Moodle. We currently have a planned roadmap for enhancing the current interfaces and the new interface for Sakai. These LMS systems are fully integrated to Adapt IT’s ITS Integrator for student information and reporting.
Key features of the best e-learning platform software
There is an overabundance of e-learning platform software available today, and suitable for small or large institutions.
There are various types of platforms, and each will be suitable for one establishment while another may not, so it’s key to first understand what your institution wishes to achieve. These platforms can be split into five main groups:
- Enterprise learning management system (LMS) manages the entire learning process.
- Open source learning management system (LMS) is a free LMS.
- Custom built platforms are built for the institution from scratch.
- A learning destination site is a shared platform that offers courses from various providers.
- Learning management ecosystem is a platform that presents a custom front end, but integrates more than a dozen other software tools.
Depending on your needs, look for the following features, which are the most important:
- Must be accessible for students from any device, so it needs to include a responsive layout.
- It needs to allow embedding of links from Slideshare, Scribd, YouTube, Vimeo.
- It must provide the ability to offer public and private courses, tests, and live classes.
- Should be cloud-based and allow for you to grow by offering more courses and sophistication.
- Unified Content Management: all content of courses must be available in one place so that it’s easy and quick for the user.
- Multi-language support is important so that people of any language can get help, and with the least amount of trouble.
- It should offer a developer API, to make it easy to customise and improve.
- Tools for pre-hire testing.
- You must be able to upload any form of content such as DOC, PPT, PDF, MP4, MP3.
- It must provide data and user security, and be able to grow as the institution grows.
- It should come with a built-in collaboration layer.
- It must allow for the submission of assignments and feedback from students.
- It must be able to give you meaningful insights and statistics.
- It must work well with social networking tools for collaboration with other people.
- It should be completely managed and hosted, as this will take the burden off the institution.
- It is good if the system offers themed courses.
- It should be integrated with E-Commerce for ease of use.
Student management systems integrate into e-learning to further simplify and automate operational processes for both students and college or university.
In conclusion
Since the year 2000, the e-learning global industry has grown by 900%. This number is only set to increase as people become more familiar with online course content, and it offers solutions to some of the greatest challenges in schools, colleges and universities.
Look for the features that are most needed by the institution, and make sure you do your due diligence before forking out money for any e-learning solution.
Find out how Adapt IT Education can help you.
