Choosing an Online Learning Platform is often difficult and depends on the expectations:

• What do Students want
• What do Students need to access and should be able to make changes matching to learning goals
• The learning skills of the Teachers using the platform
• The technical considerations of the platform

For most people, Online Learning is Synonymous to Learning Management System (LMS), although LMS is only a component of an Online Learning Platform/System.

Before choosing an online learning platform, there should be an option for a pilot testing – by Students, Teachers, Educational Institutions.

Many Educational Institutions examine use the following three as one or in combination:

• Learning Management System
• Social media platforms
• Web Conferencing applications

Let’s look at these in detail.

Learning Management System:

LMS functions like a virtual classroom where learners (students) learn via learning activities by making use of instructions from the instructors in digital rich formats (audio, video, discussions, assessments, grading and learning progress).

LMS syncs between synchronous and asynchronous forms of communication between Students and Teachers which can be hosted local or via remotely (in the cloud) with high speed internet connectivity and high bandwidth.

LMS comes with the following standard features:

• Learning resources
• Online Calendar
• Online Quiz
• Online Chat
• Assignment Submission
• Assessment
• Upload/download capability
• Discussion forum
• Grading mechanism
• Social Media sharing options
• Analytics

LMS serve as a repository for learning, but not the learning itself as they lack the critical areas of learning – Teaching and Instruction, and hence there are more and more LMS platforms that come into existence. Logically, an instructor teaches an online session via the use of an LMS.

Via the use of LMS, online courses can be taught asynchronously (offline mode) or synchronously (real-time).

The factors in considering LMS are:

• Cost
• Appearance (look & feel)
• Ease of Use
• Sync mechanisms to make it possible for LMS to integrate
• Customer Experience (via Journey)

Social Media Platforms:

Free Social Media Platforms/Networks on the World Wide Web are the alternatives for an LMS.

Ex: Edmodo is a popular social networking application and a free alternative to LMS because of its features:

• Cost
• Focus on Learning: No commercial Content is allowed on the platform
• Supports low bandwidth
• Ease of Use
• Rich repository of resources
• Social Savvy
• Widgets for extended communication

Web Conferencing Applications:

Online Conferencing System allows the online meetings and webinars as a part of the LMS, thus mimicking the traditional learning methodologies.

However, the following questions will remain:

• Learning objectives: how does web conferencing aid to the online learning via the face-to-face interaction
• Audience: Choosing the right one is always tougher
• Rationale: Why web conferencing applications to begin with in the first place?

There are tons of online meeting/web conferencing/video conferencing tools available with both free and commercial options with more options available in the paid versions – despite being price heavy and complex.

mPowerO provides continuous support and is an end-to-end offering to Online Learning Platforms/Solutions.

Reach out via email at info@mpowero.com or visit us at https://www.mpowero.com/ for more information.