Current scenario of online education in schools

The crisis generated by COVID-19, which caused the closure of schools and put the world in quarantine, launched a new look at the digital market and distance education.

Projections prior to the crisis already showed that spending on e-learning initiatives was already on track to reach $ 325 billion in the next five years, as educators seek to leverage the growing impact of digital education.

– E-Learning Market Growth

What has changed is the inclusion of elementary and high schools in this scenario, since distance learning was more concentrated in universities and free courses.

The coronavirus crisis is expected to be an opportunity to bring more technology to the classroom, just as it has been in China, where around 200 million students have started using distance learning since February 9 and only will return to the classrooms in early April.

“It will be a meeting of a generation of children and teenagers who are already very digital with teachers who are still stuck in an analog teaching model,” says Mário Ghio, CEO of Somos, in an exclusive interview with EXAME magazine.

The biggest concern of schools is trying to avoid losing the school year, considering that they usually have a mandatory number of teaching days to complete.

For schools that are beginning their journey towards digital learning initiatives, there is no rule that describes the ideal processes for implementing and adopting this method of education. Which makes the challenge even greater, as significant planning and preparation are required to ensure that online education is effective.

“We are seeing a great commitment from everyone who works with education to face this crisis. Everyone will leave with a different mentality of this experience.” says Mário Ghio.

Online education as mean to provide a deeper learning 

The crisis of the new coronavirus has affected the entire world almost simultaneously, which is why online education in schools is being debated by the vast majority of countries, who present their impressions and experiences.

According to the North Carolina e-Learning educational initiative, E-learning is “utilizing electronic technologies to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom”.

“I have real faith and confidence in the future of electronic education,” says Jessica Millstone, co-organizer of the New York EdTech MeetUp, which facilitates industry discussion about what’s working and what needs work in education. “It’s useful for our entire lives, and there’s going to be a hybrid moment where all the technology we’re developing for consumer and business experience will become part of e-learning as well.”

But, Millstone notes, “the most successful versions of e-learning revolve around a split classroom. While some assignments are completed online, there’s also a certain amount of content acquisition — teachers then explore it more deeply in the classroom.”

– Blended learning: how your school can combine online and offline teaching

The result? Online education in schools is not a single service model. Instead, it is a dual-purpose approach that offers:

• Problem solving: Physical school infrastructure is not always accessible. As a result, some schools adopt digital learning days to allow instruction to continue during adverse weather conditions or amid serious disease outbreaks.
• Practical supplementation: Emerging technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, “provide a trajectory in which e-learning is integrating real-world experiences to provide deeper and more concrete learning,” says Millstone. With proper technological support, classrooms can be “incredible labs” that complement digital learning initiatives.

Millstone points to the advantage of a multimodal approach. In her experience, “the least effective model is to tell students ‘go learn this by yourself’.” Instead, she suggests starting with an independent technology platform, like Coursify.me, which allows teachers to connect with students inside and outside the school’s walls.

– What is an e-Learning platform

Advantages and difficulties of online education 

Both in online education as teaching in conventional classrooms, there are two types of students: assets, focused on learning as much as possible, and liabilities that do not show so much concentration or enthusiasm.

In both classes the task of promoting some change in this passive behavior and arousing the student’s attention and interest is largely up to the teacher. 

– Content for online courses

The good news is that when it comes to online education, there are several tools that can be used to achieve this goal.

– Tips for using eLearning in school education

To help make your online classes more interesting, we have listed four strategies that can make all the difference:

• Create an interactive virtual environment: create a forum or group on any social network that can be accessed by all the students. This generates a feeling of “class” that encourages interaction and helps teaching in a more relaxed way, eliminating that “obligation” character of the classroom.
• Allow the student to control his learning time: use tools that allow the student to pause the lesson and resume it from the same point whenever he wants. Providing flexibility for the user to access the material at the time that is most convenient for them is a great advantage of online education.
• Show that you are present: the figure of a teacher is very important for the student to feel supported and confident in learning something new. Make use of recorded videos or live streaming so that your students can see you and continue the relationship they have in the classroom.
• Encourage evolution: create a competition, a scoring system for those who finish each stage of the online class. Build a ranking. By transforming the learning process into something similar to going through the stages of a game, you make your lessons more fun and attractive.

Many people believe that when it comes to gamification in education, it is related to the complex task of developing a game. 

In fact, it is much more about taking advantage of some elements of this universe and applying them in the learning process, such as:

• Establishing missions and challenges;
• Scoring for each phase won;
• Ranking according to the score;
• Prizes: both at the end and throughout the game.

– How to implement gamification in eLearning

Currently, it is easy to connect the school to the universe of young people, as they are used to systems of ranking and distribution of rewards, present in the environment of games and digital media.

By promoting experiences that involve students, gamification helps to gain greater engagement compared to traditional teaching models.

Barriers to online education

For online education to happen, administrators need to think about the types of systems and devices needed for virtual learning.

It is essential to analyze and consider whether the student has the necessary technological infrastructure. For example, if not everyone has good access to the internet, schools may be better served by resources that have offline components or that require minimal connective bandwidth.

It is also necessary to verify that everyone has computers through which they can access classes, so as not to hinder the progress of any student.

Importance of the Online Education Platform

In order to effectively offer the benefits of online education to students, it is important that digital learning technologies work every time students try to access them.

“Reliability is as important as relevance,” Millstone says. “Teachers will try something once, and if it doesn’t work, they won’t try it again. A great product isn’t enough if it doesn’t work properly.”

For schools that want to successfully implement e-learning initiatives and learning management systems, this means carefully evaluating potential suppliers and products before closing any partnership.

Ask the following questions: Are they reliable? Do they have all the features I need? What kind of support do they offer? How quickly do they respond?

Attending schools, businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the Coursify.me is a dynamic Learning Management System, ready to serve you.

– Whats is a Learning Management System

With all the necessary resources to enable and facilitate online learning, the platform has a friendly and fully customizable interface, allowing each school to maintain its visual identity, facilitating recognition by part of the student.

The Coursify.me features integration with other content platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, which is ideal for teachers who want to provide lessons in videos.

–  Learn how to record videos at home

In addition, users can upload videos, texts, images, audios and any other material that is hosted on Dropbox or on their own computer.

There is no limit on the number of students allowed, and the school has full control over who has access to the classes, being able to monitor each student, to find out who registered, attended the classes and fulfilled the activities sent.

Visit our website, test the platform and bet on online education to continue teaching your students in the best possible way. 

The post How online education can support classroom education appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

To get good results, there are some steps that must be defined and enforced carefully.

Learn how to sell online courses

The elearning market is booming, with even more and more higher education institutions offering distance education courses.

Aware of this, many professionals are investing in the creation of online lessons, however, find some difficulties in the process, especially in relation to how to sell online courses.

– To do list to create online courses

First, you must remember that an online business needs good planning, like any other enterprise.

Even if the costs to advertise a product on the Internet are lower, to stand out is necessary to define a digital marketing strategy, produce content to attract qualified audience and invest time in creating a relationship with the customer.

Check out some steps and techniques on how to sell online courses, ensuring a good return and the durability of your business.

How to sell online courses: Content

A major benefit of teaching online is the large amount of resources that can be used to make the classes more interesting.

To attract students and stand out among the competition it is necessary to innovate how the content it is presented.

– Different types of content for online courses

– Learn what their personas seek and attract leads

Interaction

Distance Learning does not necessarily mean learning alone. To leave your lessons more challenging classes and pass confidence to the student, you can use features such as chats and hangouts to discuss the content and answer questions.

Give a “face” for your course makes the student feel more secure and confident during the learning process.

Videos

Want to know how to sell online courses? Invest in videos.

General preference, data indicate that traffic dedicated to the consumption of online videos will reach 80% in 2019.

The videos have a high power of immersion and it is easy to record a quality material using resources you already have or find for free on the Internet .

– How to record videos at home

Support materials

In online courses the student makes good part of learning alone, studying what was taught in the time they have available.

Therefore, well designed support materials as handouts, presentations, videos, among others, are very attractive to the great majority.

Also, materials that they can use in practice, such as spreadsheets, templates and independent software has a strong appeal at the time of purchase and you can arrange for an extra cost, offering as an option to the student.

How to sell online courses: Disclosure

There is no way on how to sell online courses without a good publicity campaign.

The good news is that advertise on the Internet is more practical and economical than through offline media.

Here are some resources that are at your reach, require little investment and bring effective results for your business.

Social Media

Important tool of relationship with the public, social networks should be part of your dissemination strategy.

Work the different channels in an integrated manner and disclose your online course on networks that have more users, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Google+.

– 5 tips to sell online courses using social media

YouTube

There are many channels for publishing videos, but Youtube is still the best for those who want to be seen.

In the US alone, the channel reaches more people between 18 and 49 years than any TV station, the second largest search engine in the world.

Publicize videos about your course and even some free lessons to increase student curiosity and create credibility.

– How to get more views for your lessons on Youtube

Blog

Write about topics related to your online course on a blog is a good way to show that you know what you are talking about.

Disseminate quality content proves that you are an authority on the subject, attracts qualified audience, improve the position of your site in search engines and generate conversions.

– How to use your blog as a marketing tool

Newsletter

A newsletter is a fixed publication sent by the company to its customers and potential customers.

Very confused with e-mail marketing, the newsletter is more focused on content than on sales.

Sent only to people who have opted to receive content, usually by completing a registration in an online form, the newsletter has a very high potential for conversion and customer retention.

– Step by step to create a newsletter that converts

Google Adwords and SEO

Google Adwords and SEO are the two main SEM (Search Engine Marketing) tools and aim to generate results for your business in terms of traffic and conversions.

Google Adwords is an advertising tool designed to generate revenue for Google. You create an ad about your business and pays an amount to it appears.

But the SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, requires a larger work.

SEO is a set of techniques that are designed to make your site more attractive to search engines.

Both strategies are quite useful. Our tip: start investing in the SEO of your website, making it more relevant by qualified content, and then start an Adwords campaign to boost its image on the Internet.

– Similarities and differences between SEO and Google Adwords

Webinar

Much used to promote and sell online courses, the webinar is an online seminar that facilitates communication between business/professional and consumer.

A webinar is an excellent opportunity to present your online course, talk about the content, interact with the audience and prove yourself as an authority.

– 5 tips for selling courses with Webinar

How to sell online courses: Platform

A platform for hosting online courses is also called Learning Management System (LMS).

A LMS, as the name implies, is basically a SaaS (software as a service) that functions as an online classroom.

Through a LMS, instructors can offer their courses and online lessons. By accessing the platform, students have access to the material and other resources that support learning, such as chats to discuss the content.

– Whats is a Learning Management System

The advantages of hosting your online course in a prompt and complete elearning platform as Coursify.me, include:

• Not need to invest in infrastructure, maintenance and updates;
• Tested and approved teaching model;
• Save time and money with system developers;
• Ease of configuration functions and layout;
• Specialized technical support.

Moreover, if you do not know very well how to sell online courses, hire the services of a LMS is critical because it will already have several features that your business will need, such as integration with other content platforms and means of receiving online payment .

See other tools that an elearning platform as Coursify.me offers for your course.

Customization

To create a custom image for your course it is important that the platform offers customizable features.

Create a page with the image of your business, using your own colors, logo and images.

Easy editing and management

Give preference to the platforms that are easy to manage and edit, so that you can make quick changes.

Also make sure that it offers resources to manage modules of your course, access, enrollment, students and sales in a simple and organized way.  

Security

Hosting courses with redundancy and backup is essential to ensure a safe and reliable environment.

Before worrying about how to sell online courses, ensure that they are on a platform that offers protection for your content.

Integration

Much of the content of your course can be hosted on other sites and you will need to upload into the LMS.

For this to happen, the Coursify.me provides integration and import content from other platforms, such as Dropbox, YouTube and Vimeo.

Online payment

Make sure the chosen platform already has an integrated payment system that allows the collection on a simple and secure way.

The Coursify.me allows receiving payments via PayPal or PagSeguro, customer preferred currency.

Support

If you have questions about how to use or how to sell online courses using the platform, it is necessary to have a support team.

The LMS must have support channels to remedy any technical issues and ensure the maintenance and proper functioning of the site.

Responsive

It is very important to make sure that your students have access to your course through any device.

For this, the system should be fully responsive, with optimized support for desktop, tablets and mobile.

Social networks and SEO

Another factor that helps sales is a platform that enables easy integration with social networks for the dissemination of the course.

It is also important that the entire site is optimized for SEO, improving its position in search engines.

Custom domain

The custom domain is the cherry on the cake of customization of your course page.

Choose a friendly address to your online school in the Coursify.me domain or configure your own custom domain.

How to sell online courses can be more difficult than you thought at first, but for sure is not impossible.

With a well planned strategy in a short time you will have your first students.

The Coursify.me is a completely dynamic and customizable elearning platform that provides features that make it even easier for those who want to sell online courses.

Visit our website, test the platform and find out why we are the best option for you.

The post How to sell online courses: Practical Guide to sell your course appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

Create Online Courses: Practical Guide

The first thing you need to do to create online courses is to start. Many people lose too much time worrying about details and how to solve difficulties which have not yet exist, and end up “killing” the idea even before it happens.

Like any new project, it is necessary to make a plan, but focus on the basics, what you need to take the first steps and make your course take shape.

Don’t waste time worrying about what might happen, solve every thing on its time. And believe me, everything can work better that you think.

So, put your mind on what you want to teach and begin to work, it is time to start to create online courses.

1. Use what you already have

If you are going to teach about something, it is because there is a subject that you really like, i.e., you surely already have a lot of material on it.

Time to search into drawers and folders on your computer. From material from other courses until printed content such as books, journals, articles written by you or third parties, videos, among others, can be leveraged to help you format the content of your course.

But don’t forget, all content must be adapted to the digital environment and the context of your course. Think about the language, design and other relevant points for the design of a didactic material.

2. Choose tools that are easy and available online

Thanks to technology, you no longer need expensive or complex tools to create online courses. There are several software simple to use and for free on the internet to help anyone to develop a course.

Who is starting and want to test possibilities can opt for the classic PowerPoint to create presentations, or record simple tutorial videos using the camera and features of your own computer.

There are also excellent exclusive tools to create online courses for an affordable cost, such as Adobe Captivate, iSpring and Elucidat. Research, test, find the best option for you.

3. Take advantage of ready templates

Another wonder of the internet for those who want to create online courses: beautiful and ready templates. You do not need to be a designer or hire one to start giving a pleasing and professional appearance to your course. 

Most of the tools already has ready templates, with layout, color palette and other related elements of creation. Everything already pre set for you enter your content.

Investing in a custom design is always a good option. But if there is no money in the beginning, don’t worry, the templates are easy to update and a LMS platform as the Coursify.me provides resources for you to customize your page as you prefer.

4. Offer support materials

Supporting materials attract students and give a lot less work than you think. They are a good option to create online courses more interactive and attractive.

A Storytelling is a great strategy to engage students and offer a differential for your course. Through a simple story that can be recorded by yourself, you can explain the content in an amusing way .

In addition, you can also create infographics using simple tools as Canvas, create a forum for discussion and to suggest links to research sources and other materials related to the theme of your course.

5. Do tutorials with screen capture

If all you have to start is a computer, great, started well! Videos are the big favorites of online education and it is possible to create one easily using screen capture apps.

Want to teach your students how to do something? Nothing better than recording a video tutorial that shows the process step by step.

With tools like Screenr and CamStudio, you can record everything that is happening on your screen, facilitating the learning and enriching your online course.

Following these five basic tips you have everything you need to begin to create online courses. If you want to dig deeper, browse our blog and learn how to record video at home, how to develop a storyboard, marketing strategies and much more.

Course ready, now host it for free on Coursify.me! Complete eLearning platform, Coursify.me has all the features you need to create your school and start selling courses right now. Visit our site and learn why we are the best option for your business.

The post 5 tips to create online courses appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.