Sell Online Courses, MOOCs & Pieces of training on your Website

In this article, I will guide you step-by-step, as to how important and easy it is to create your own courses. Sell courses online and make money. Online courses have become one of the most common ways of earning money online. The good thing is that the payment processors like 2checkout, PayPal, Payoneer, and more have made your payment receipts seamless. Moreover, you can share your site with the marketplace like share a sale and they will Find a sponsor for your web site.  Get paid for your great content.  shareasale.com.

To start with, you just need a website hosted (your address online) on some reliable hosting platforms. It should be easy to handle CMS (Content Management System) to make a website and install the LMS (Learning Management System) plugin.

There are many hosting platforms in the market but you have to have a reliable one. I personally grade Blue host,  and Site Ground is the best. Hostwind.com is another excellent website host, having so many features. but a little expensive.

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I assume that you have got the domain name and hosted it on some of the above platforms. This is your online address and you have got it. Now let’s develop an online house (Website). To make a website, either you have to have the skill to make a website or you need some CMS (Content Management System). There is a number of CMS in the market. Again you have to be wise (which you are) to select the right CMS to build your website.

Some of the commonly used CMS are:-

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Drupal
• Magento
• CMS made simple
• Dot clear
• Get simple CMS
• Microweber
• Grav
• Statamic
• ButterCMS
• Hugo
• And many more.

I personally use wordpress.com, just to remind you that there are two WordPress versions, confusing the reader. One is wordpress.com and the other is wordpress.org which is the umbrella organization.

Both are equally good but I prefer wordpress.com, as, the statistics reveal, it has more market share, used by more than 28% in the online market. Hence, the most popular content management system (CMS) is wordpress.com.

To install the wordpress.com please follow my step-by-step guide “Create a website with WordPress in Minutes”. It will guide you and make your website functional in no time.

I assume, that you have built a website by following my FREE step-by-step guide “Create a website with WordPress in Minutes” the good thing is that wordpress.com arranges to host your website as well. The next stage comes to build courses/MOOCs (Mass open online courses) and put these online courses on your website. For that, you need to install the LMS (Learning Management system) plugin/software. Before you decide which plugin to suit your project, please do see some of the following features/plusses in various LMS plugins.

• It should align the learning goals
• Able to communicate the learning objectives
• Align content (text, videos, audios, or webinars, slide shows) with the assessment.
• Ability to track studying progress, learning progress, and assessments while learners can see their real-time progress.
• Has the provision to create a customized test for learners.
• Delivers the content and tools to the learners, in the prescribed timelines.
• The teacher can monitor the effectiveness of learning and communicate with the students. Moreover, should be able to add content (text, images, videos, audios, and links, tables, tests, create simulations, slide shows, and have interactive tests). Meaning, you have complete control over the content.
• Learners and teachers should be able to communicate with each other.
• Engage the students in discussion forums for maximum learning. And the exchange of feedback for peers and teachers.
• Self-enrolment facility to the students. And monetize by accepting fees through digital payment gateways.
• Should allow different multi-question types, as;
• Multichoice quizzes
• One/multi-line answers
• True or false
• Fill in the blanks
• Yes or No
• Drag and drop order
• Essays
• Activity-based assignments
• Scalable tests
• Attendance management and integration with classroom training, wherein the administrator should be able to view the learner attending, arrived late, or missed the class.

Now, we enumerated in detail, various features and qualities of a good LMS. As there is a number of LMS, so, now we will see, which plugin can help us and fulfill our requirements. I’m sure a short review of various plugins will help you to understand the usefulness of various LMS plugins and to choose the right LMS plugin.

1. LearnDash:

LearnDash is a dynamic plugin that allows you to create online courses, with a simple drag and drop course builder. You can create your own branded learning portal with its “Learn dash Focus Mode”. Course creation is a snap with Learn Dash course builder. It allows you to create different multi questions types. In simple words, the LearnDash LMS plugin is easy to create and sell online courses with many features. As;

• Schedule and deliver content/lessons at once or in a drip-feed way.
• Create different multi questions type while using the question bank.
• Custom messages with its advanced feature.
• Give assignments and activity to the learner, the way teachers want.
• Set prerequisites for students to deliver lessons, quizzes, and assignments with its advance quizzing feature.
• It offers to monetize the course by creating one-time purchase courses, membership, or subscription for recurring payments with the option to access all the courses.
• Sell one course at a time or sell various courses in bundles.
• Create your own market place like Udemy.
• Provision to build a digital payment system on a click, multiple payment digital gateways make the payment receipts simple and easy. It includes PayPal, stripe, and 2checkout.
• You can integrate your website with bbpress, a WordPress membership plugin.
• Create forums for enrolled students to allow them to interact with each other in the course-specific forums.
• The detailed and quick reporting on user enrollment, progress, and quizzes.
• LearnDash has all the features which I mentioned earlier when selecting any LMS.
• Its basic plan is $159 for one year. It’s worth it, because of its powerful features.

Note:  You can learn its step-by-step instructions at “The Most powerful online courses Plugin”.

2. LifterLMS:

LifterLMS yet another powerful and easy to use the software, to create online courses. With LifterLMS you can create engaging, multi-tier courses that offer a wonderful learning experience.

It allows you to upload any type of content (video, image, audio, or slideshow) in your courses. Some of the features include;

• Content delivery schedule, one time, or drip-feed.
• Create gamification with badges.
• Automated assessments and certificate awarding system.
• Automated emails created and delivered to the learners.
• Facility to integrate with other add-ons.
• Can monetize by accepting payment for your courses through multiple digital gateway systems.
• It has almost all the features to create impressive courses online.
• Its universal plan costs $299 for a single site.

3. Teachable:

Teachable is a powerful plugin that allows you to create interactive online courses. It has a built-in feature to integrate email marketing, analytics, and other marketing tools, hence, make your marketing, hassle-free. Other features include;

• With the Teachable LMS plugin create, manage, and sell online courses.
• It offers all sorts of features required to build an online course website.
• You can monetize the courses by selling online and receiving payment through digital gateways.
• It can handle any number of students and build courses.
• Create content in any form i.e. text, video, images, slide shows, or audio.
• They charge you just 5% on each transaction.

4. Learnpress:

Learnpress a free but powerful LMS plugin that lets you set up the courses very easily and smoothly. Create course content in any form i.e. text, video, audio, images, or slide shows. Some of the features include;

• It has all the features to build online courses. You name the one and it has that feature.
• It can integrate with bbpress, woo commerce, and WordPress membership plugins.
• It’s flexible and easy to use.
• The basic version is free so, you can start for free and then keep adding the features with an extra fee, to enhance the capability. It’s worth it, as, there is no upfront cost but your course online.

5. WP courseware:

WP courseware is a powerful Drag and Drop plugin for WordPress to create online courses. It allows you to create any number of courses. Although it takes little time to understand it to use effectively. Features include;

• Build courses, and deliver the course content with your choice, i.e. one time delivery of course content or drip-feed.
• Create multi-question types and quizzes.
• Instructors can create their profile, create custom emails and student grade books.
• Its question bank feature allows, to create quickly the quizzes for courses and modules.
• It has a built-in shopping cart to sell courses on your website.
• It can monetize the courses and receive the fees through digital gateways.
• Its option to create a free course and later sell other courses with a fee is a big marketing tool.
• It costs $129 for one year for 2 websites.

6. Sensei:

Sensei another powerful WordPress plugin. It is flexible and easy to use. It offers to create online courses, sell courses, and accept payment through digital gateways.

The difficulty is that you have to use woo commerce and the created course is sold like a product. It is good if you’ve already online store in woo commerce then this is a good solution to build online courses.

Its basic plan starts from $129 for one year and for one site.

7. Good LMS:

There are dozens of suitable LMS plugins for WordPress but Good LMS with just a $31 price tag is the most viable solution for an online course project. Like any other plugin, you can create courses, sell courses, and implement assignments and quizzes, the award certificates with ease. If you know how to manage and operate the WordPress website pages, then you can manage this as well.

Features:

• Less cost but similar or more powerful features
• Other than uploading your courses, it allows you to make the market place (like Udemy) as well.
• Quizzes can be modified in multiple formats.
• Multiple digital payment gateways.
• Awarding certificate.
• And many more features

 To conclude; There are so many LMS plugins for WordPress in the market. I’ve reviewed just a few. I’m of the opinion that almost all the LMS plugins that I have reviewed above, provide almost similar features and provide the needed solution with regard to online courses. But it’s only which plugin is easy to use and works systematically. So, I recommend you stick to the priority list below, keeping in mind the cost and features.

• LearnDash
• WP courseware
• GoodLMS
• LifterLMS
• Sensi
• Teachable
• Learnpress

Below is the chart to assist you further, in the selection of the LMS plugin and select the way it suits you the best.

P.S. For every plugin to use and create a course online/MOOCs, your capability to create the MOOCs, matters the most.