“Digital” is no longer a technology revolution but a lifestyle change. Companies that have spearheaded the digital revolution in their respective domains have been scooting their own multi-million dollar success stories. Almost everything right from cab booking to matchmaking has gone digital.
One of the latest additions to this list is e-learning which has made the entire ecosystem of education democratic and accessible. At a time when skills are considered more valuable than qualifications after a certain point in time in your career, upgrading your skills without compromising on your work routine becomes mandatory.
The COVID-19 crisis has also served as a booster to the growth of the e-learning industry. It gave people a lot of free time to learn new skills and has massively contributed to the unprecedented growth of e-learning as a business.
The origins of e-learning can be traced back to the days of Khan Academy. However, it found mainstream acceptance only after it underwent its Uberization. One of the most prominent names in this stream of business is Udemy.
Udemy was founded in May 2010, and 10 years later, the platform consists of over 35 million students and 57,000 instructors teaching about 130,000 courses in over 65 languages. It has recorded over 400,000,000 course enrollments in its stint lasting about a decade. The Udemy model has been so successful that even corporates have considered tying up with the company in an endeavor to enhance the skills of their employees.
What does an app like Udemy offer?
What Udemy offers in learning is, in essence, a replica of what Uber offers with transportation. It gave users the flexibility to learn courses at their will, and complete it at their own pace. It connects independent tutors and instructors with people who are willing to learn a skill or a trade.
To understand the above concept, we will need to unravel the inner workings of an app like Udemy. As you can understand, there are two entities involved in the functioning of an app like Udemy – user and instructor. In addition to these two, an administrator takes the responsibility of overseeing the functioning and general health of the app.
A user downloads the app and registers for the services. The registration should lead the user to a panel where they can select the subscription plan, the course, and if needed, connect with the tutor if they have questions that need to be clarified.
Parallel to this, an instructor can also sign up for delivering courses that they are experts in. They can upload the courses as a video, and can also include notes for users to download as a PDF and follow up later.
The user is provided with a search panel where they can search for courses and choose the tutor based on their qualifications, the track record, and the price. The user can now make a payment using digital methods and start the course.
The tutor gets a major chunk of the paid fee from the platform like Udemy, and Udemy takes a commission from the collected amount. This commission contributes to the revenue of a Udemy like app.
In addition to the commissions, the app can also earn money from primary courses made available for a price, subscription charges, and by hosting advertisements on their app.
The business opportunity
Without question, e-learning is all set to grow and grow bigger. The penetration of the internet and smartphones in some of the rural areas in developing countries is expected to hugely contribute to this growth. In addition, a lot of corporates, with the emphasis on skills have been expecting their workforce to be updated and upgraded.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to a spike in the increase of people wanting to learn a new skill when they are stranded at home. This would be the right time for any aspiring entrepreneur to start a business like Udemy.
Getting the tech rolling
On the surface, it might seem like the intensity of technical work that goes into building an app like Udemy is quite daunting and cumbersome. It would be so if you were to go for developing an e-learning app like Udemy by recruiting your own team of developers or by hiring a development company.
Alternatively, you can consider using a Udemy clone script. Udemy clone is, in essence, an e-learning PHP clone script, and at times, in some other scripting language that can be purchased like a product and can be customized according to your requirements. There are companies that specialize in creating and customizing Udemy clone scripts. All you need to do is get in touch with them, let them know of your requirement, and wait for them to deliver the completed product, so you are all set to launch your own e-learning business.
The features
Each app meant for the customer and the instructors have their own set of features. Some of them include easy sign-up, robust search features, and easy payments. In addition, there are a few other features that you should consider to make your app stand out from the rest of your competitors.
- Your app should not mandate enrolling for users to view the courses.
- If possible, your app should facilitate logging in using existing credentials like Google and Facebook. This enables faster and easier profile creation.
- The course fees should be kept to a minimum, so it becomes more accessible. The money that you lose in terms of the course fee is made up for in terms of numbers.
- The users should have access to all the material like videos, PDFs, templates, sheets, and guidelines as soon as they make the payment.
- The portals should be different for the instructor and the learner.
- The user should be able to completely command the pace of the learning.
- Customer support should be made available for both users and instructors.
- Keeping in mind the future, your app can also consider VR learning experiences.
Conclusion
Maybe the world is going through innovations at a rate that was never even imagined. While this could be a great bliss, it is also mandatory that you will need to be updated on the latest progress in your field.
E-learning is probably the most dependable way for you to upgrade your skills. This also means that it is one of the most lucrative business opportunities. For an aspiring entrepreneur, there is no better news than the availability of the Udemy clone script. They can now launch their e-learning app in the shortest possible time.
