Features to look in an online teaching software success in 2019

The year 2018 has been crucial for eLearning with lots of innovative trends coming to the market. Apparently, in 2019, the pace will be more elite with newer developments hitting the conventional sphere. Hopefully, the online teaching software solutions will grow to make eLearning portals more engaging and part of mainstream education.

I am going to share my thoughts on some of the interesting features to look at in contemporary eLearning software. If you are going to adopt one to build your own eLearning platform in 2019, this guide will help select the appropriate tool according to the trends.

It doesn’t matter if you are starting a tutoring business like Udemy or just incorporating eLearning to your corporate training modules, these features are a must to consider in every case. They will make the overall learning experience deep, broad, and multi-faced. The endeavor to create an effective online teaching platform will, of course, be fascinating with all these features.

Features of a competent online tutoring software in 2019

The growing demand for eLearning platforms is completely focused on user engagement, learner-centered, and competency-based experiences for favorable outcomes.

As the technology around us advances, learning abilities also evolve with it. Learning and technology are closely associated with each other. By analyzing the better findings of features on online learning, we can create a better experience for students as well as corporate learners.

If you want to explore all the features which will help you start an online tutoring business, keep reading this article.

1. Learning methodologies and technologies of the platform:

Learning technology has evolved from designing an LMS to managing the entire learning environment. The implementation of new technologies impacts new functionalities and capabilities for the software solutions to bring learners closer to their online tutors no matter what’s their location.

There is always a spark growing appetite for better online tutoring software for both the tutors and the learners. The wider acceptance of technology in learning provides new outcomes by driving performance tracking in an effective way.

The new generation of eLearning technologies has evolved with the inclusion of artificial intelligence for deep learning management. Developers have been able to create the platforms and solutions that can manage classrooms like schedules, attendance tracking, performance monitoring, assignment assessment, and allocation of learners and instructors to the online courses. AI is not a feature of the learning platform, but the fuel that powers the innovative features in LMSs.

LMS is now being applied to the complete eLearning platforms and also the solutions for blended learning in schools and colleges. Furthermore, the new techs have made selling and buying on online courses possible with the addition of LMS capabilities to the eLearning marketplaces like Udemy and Coursera.

E-learning authoring tools are coming with cloud hosting capabilities. Using this, the corporates are now able to create, edit, and share cooperate eLearning courses throughout the organization directly through the authoring platforms.

No matter where do you want to implement online tutoring software, there is always a personalized solution available for your cause.

2. Trends in assessment tools and assessment methodologies:

Online learning assessment tools can measure the learning progress using different metrics and activities at varying levels. Similar to the classroom environment, LMS-based assessment tools can create virtual activities to track the learning progress.

It actively includes online tests, related quizzes, assignments, and interactive activities that help students analyze their skills. In addition, tools provide additional practice for the students outside the normal real-time learning sessions. These assessment tools help students with unlimited questions, engaging item types, and real-world scenarios. Many websites like Khan Academy, IXL provide online assessments including a wide range of subject skills.

Their learning dashboards offer both learners and instructors a way to visualize the process through reports and assessments. The students and parents can also review the data in the dashboard. Canvas is a good example of a platform, which offers online discussion boards accessible during and after the class. The dashboard lets the learners visualize the overall assessments from a central location.

3. Trends and tools to boost engagement in learners:

Interactivity and focus are the two most important aspects of learning.  The instructor and learner must gather active engagement with multi-dimensional content. Like a tool for assessment, you also need the features and functionalities to build engagement in the learning process.

Social engagement

With the rapid increase and widespread acceptance of social media sites among the youth, there has been a high demand for similar solutions to connect learners and tutors internally within a platform. The social counterpart of an LMS should be dynamic, knowledge sharing, and should encourage collaborative learning.

You can learn from Brooklyn Laboratory School, which provides an open social platform for skill-building and standards-based projects for students. This platform helps in leveraging learning through online collaboration, where students share their ideas and contents with peer collaborators. The online interaction lets learners and tutors collaborate and connect in a 24×7 environment.

Online forum

Students struggle to gather at a physical library or some other places to share their knowledge with their classmates. However, building a similar community on an online platform would help students to connect with others in a 24×7 environment. It will enable a continuous interaction on different matters, no matter where students are located.

Online forums have been around for a long time. Forums are often used in e-learning as a convenient way to allow learners to communicate with each other, discuss questions, and interact with the instructors and peers. For example, forums like Stackoverflow in a corporate learning system or a school learning system will give better ways to connect and collaborate internally.

4. Trends for personalization and usability enhancement:

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous nowadays among everyone. Most users utilize their devices to look up information whenever they want. Mobile has become a lifeline for the modern world.

An LMS with mobile-enabled alignments will make the learning experience friendlier and seamless. With such implementations, you can get a next-generation learning system where anyone can access the course materials with 24*7 engagement from anywhere.

The next big aspect is course personalization. It plays a vital role in an LMS implementation as learners, as well as instructors, need a learning path based on numeric analytics. Minute personalization of aspects like colors, backgrounds, and fonts can make a better impact on the LMS’s accessibility for everyone.

Adaptive funnel:

Most modern LMS use built-in analytics capabilities like course alerts and learner progress tracking to build a technology-led learning funnel. Students can better understand how they are learning with the help of AI-based course personalization. They can easily judge their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses with data-backed feedback from the instructors and the LMS.

Communication channel:

Further personalization can be done through one-to-one interaction with the instructors and among peers. It would assist the students in better comprehension of the lessons. Online learning platforms should come with communication tools like live chat and messaging system to ensure this communication personalization.

5. Trends for learning analytics and adaptive learning:

As discussed, learning analytics in LMSs is crucial to find out the course progress. However, the adaptive learning pathways decide the new methods and lessons that should come next according to the learning analytics.

This actively includes integrated course and module planning and assessment of student’s performance in the previous modules. The learning software should be able to read to analytics and suggest structured assignments and schedules for different lessons accordingly.

Adaptive learning:

Adaptive learning is gaining widespread adoption for an effective way of teaching. With tools supporting adaptive learning, tutors can design study materials and courses based on new concepts in a hierarchical structure. They can browse the analytics to measure the performances at different levels of hierarchy.

Adaptive learning content preparation requires a modular approach where platforms should allow tutors to create independent micro-modules. The LMS then schedules and re-schedules the modules in an adaptive order based on the learning analytics.

With Panopto, we can integrate videos into LMSes (but we are not an LMS). We could also provide video analytics data, build quizzes into the videos.

Integrated Learning Analytics

Adaptive learning is incomplete without data and analytics. With a number of users using your platform, a competent video CMS like Panopto would be a plus point. You can integrate Panopto with your LMS and track deep video analytics through integrated quizzes and performance tracking. With these insights, tracking the entire learning process would be nothing but a seamless process. In addition, it equips the learning platform with a central dashboard, which manages video lectures and many other media assets on a secure platform along with your existing LMS.

 Takeaway

We are often asked what our next generation’s learning looks like. Well, you can’t be sure enough. However, we can make assertions based on current developments and trends. Ultimately, whatever it is, the future of online learning is indeed flexible, interactive, organized, agile, and more supportive. I have tried to recognize the trends and strategies you might need to build your own learning platform in 2019. In the end, we can say, you need an online learning software that is impactful and also transformative according to the changing trends.