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Top 5 Online Learning Platforms 2020

January 28, 2020

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Top Online Learning Platforms
Criteria for selecting a MOOCs/Online Learning Platform
Our chosen Online Learning Platforms
- Coursera
- edX
- FutureLearn
- Udacity
- Canvas Network
Other Emerging Online Learning Platforms
- Iversity
- Swayam
- NovoEd

In a very simple term, MOOCs are the only easy way that lets a learner learn something at his own ease and pace and from anywhere around the world at any time. Massive Open Online Courses are known to be the most convenient, affordable and engaging source of learning a certain skills set. In this article, we are going to find out the best MOOCs and Online Learning Platforms as of now on the basis of certain criteria. Whatever the field you choose for yourself, there’s always a MOOC for it that a learner can take. Because of a wide range of MOOCs provided by a number of institutes and Universities, the number of MOOCs users as of 2019 end has reached to 110 million. This is a huge figure and it only tends to increase by each passing day.

Now there’s this question that comes to every learner’s mind before taking a MOOC.

“Is MOOC as competitive as a traditional classroom course?”

The simple answer to this question is a big YES. But how can we justify it? For that you need to scroll down a little more to find out.

MOOCs (in most cases) carry the same credits as any University’s traditional courses.
The learning material is instructed by highly experienced professors who are also teaching at the same university.
The mode of learning is almost the same as in a traditional classroom except it is behind a screen.
Quizzes, assignments, interactive sessions, videos and more are the core learning methodology in every MOOC like in any other traditional classroom.

Why are learners getting more interested in MOOCs through Online Learning Platforms rather than going to a College/University?

Getting into a college or a University has become very much expensive for majority of the students. It has been found out that the amount of student debt is increasing day by day and it has recently topped $1.5 trillion. This amount is not a small one and majority of the learners don’t have the means to even pay for their debt. This is one of the many reasons why learners are also becoming interested in taking MOOCs. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are available for FREE and their mode of learning is almost the same as the traditional classroom. On the other hand, the cost of completing a four-year public University has also increased to 3.1%. With these problems, there are other reasons too which are mentioned below.

Strict admission requirements
Time-management problems
You get homesickness
Travel and accommodation expenses
Social problems

So all these problems can somehow be avoided with the help of MOOCs. MOOCs are free of cost and upon completion, one can also request a certificate but you need to pay some amount for it to happen. So overall we can say that these above mentioned reasons have somehow shifted majority of the student’s mind into taking MOOCs.

Top Online Learning Platforms:

It wouldn’t be fair if we don’t talk about some of the major institutes that are providing a wide range of MOOCs. Because of these MOOCs Learning Platforms, learners from all over the world are capable enough to take a certain MOOC – Massive Open Online Course and learn from it while doing a job or any other work at the same time. So here are some major platforms and the number of users that each platform managed to get as of 2018.

Coursera has a total of 37 million users
edX has 18 million users
XuetangX has managed to make a family of 14 million users
Udacity has 10 million users
Lastly, FutureLearn has a family of 7 million users

Now we know what MOOCs are and that there are a number of Online Learning Platforms that offer MOOCs, but an important question arises here is that which MOOCs Platform is the best while taking a MOOC? Is every platform the very best and can be trusted? Shouldn’t there be any criteria for selecting an online learning platform for MOOCs? Yes you’re right, there has to be a set criteria for that. But don’t tire yourself in thinking about the criteria because we have sort this one out for you.

Criteria for selecting a MOOCs/Online Learning Platform:

Below you are going to find the criteria that we have set for selecting an online learning platform for MOOCs.

Partnerships (Universities/Organizations):

In order to look for a MOOC platform, the first criteria is to do some digging and find out the number of universities and organizations that are collaborating or in a partnership with your desired Online Learning Platform. This is very important because the greater the number of universities or institutes collaborating with that particular platform the more genuine and high quality MOOCs they’ll be able to produce. Also there isn’t any way that can lead us to evaluate the instructor’s ability so we have to compare the variety and the number of institutions that are collaborating with our desired platform and providing the course instructors. The more the well-renowned the university/organization is, the more competitive course instructors they’ll tend to provide.

Credentials:

Checking for a particular platform’s credentials is also a very genuine way to decide whether the platform has authentic courses or not. So here are a few points that come under this heading that a person or learner must check.

Whether the platform that you want to choose offers verified certificates or not?
Whether there are courses offered that give the ability to gain college credit?
What is the number of accredited degrees that can be earned through that particular platform?
Does the platform give out completion certificates for all courses for free?
How many specializations or learning pathways are offered by that particular platform?

One must have to check for all these points before deciding to choose the platform.

Course Diversity:

Course diversity is also a very genuine criteria that can help a learner evaluate the competence of a particular platform. One must make sure that these below points are covered by the platform that the learners is interested in.

How many course are available in that particular platform?
What is the number of category of courses offered?
Are there any self-paced courses offered by the platform?
Does the platform has search filters? If so then how many?
Are there any scheduled courses offered by the platform?

These above-mentioned points are very important and has to be in a platform otherwise the platform is not competent enough.

Support Services:

When a learner is learning something online, there comes a point where he might need to get in touch with someone who can help. Though there are many platforms out there who are offering MOOCs but does each platform has a flexible and convenient support system? Does the platform has a support system that offers a 24/7 phone support? Does the platform has an extensive Library of online tutorials or there’s just a section of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) where a bunch of questions and answers are there for a user to read and then figure out the problem on its own? Does the platform has an integrated support service and other features like these are always expected by a learner? So one must make sure whether the platform that he is going to choose has a fine support system or not.

User-friendly Interface:

When choosing a platform, it is very important that the interface of the platform is responsive, clear and easy-to-understand and doesn’t crash often. There are many platforms that try to attract learners by making their interface very unique. They try to change the appearance of their platform, introducing unique options and try to make it look very different from the rest of the platforms. This might attract the learners at first but when a learner is not able to understand the interface, it will get really difficult for him to get used to it and all of his attention will be diverted towards understanding the interface instead of focusing on the MOOC. So a learner must make sure that the platform he’s choosing has a familiar interface and is user-friendly

Our chosen Online Learning Platforms:

Let us now take a look at the best online learning platforms that we have chosen. We are going to compare each of these platforms with our set criteria that will let us decide which platform is more suitable according to our criteria.

1. Coursera:

Coursera as we all know is a well renowned Online Learning Platform that is known to be very best in providing a number of Massive Open Online Courses. The platform was founded by two of the amazing and experienced professors named Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. It was launched in the year 2012 and it’s been 7 years since the platform has managed to provide high quality massive open online courses. The headquarters of Coursera are located at Mountain cliff, California.

Let us now compare the details of Coursera with our set criteria.

Do you want to know how to take free online courses on Coursera? If Yes ! then Click Here

Partnerships:

As of 2019, Coursera has managed to be in a partnership with a total of 190 Universities or other educational institutes. Among which Coursera boasts the highest number of universities in the top 100, with 10 in the top 20 and 3 in the top 5.