LearnWorlds Review: Best Platform for Online Courses or Not?

Online education has become a big part of the world.

Many people opt to do their continuing education for various professions or to apply for certain jobs through online portals. You can also use online education portals to learn a new skill over the summer break or take classes from a reputable university.

But how are these platforms built and what makes them user friendly?

LearnWorlds is a platform that hosts several such online education platforms. It is a platform that allows you to build interactive school websites, online courses and post several educational videos. But this is what advertisements for the platform suggest.

What else does it have to offer and does the platform live up to the promises it makes? The following sections offer a short introduction to LearnWorlds and a LearnWorlds review that should help you decide if this platform is for you.

What Is LearnWorlds?

Learnworlds website homepage

LearnWorlds is an online platform on which you can create, sell and promote various online courses. It is an innovative way for people who are looking to learn as well as impart some kind of knowledge to congregate at one platform.

It is meant to be a reliable platform for continuing education, professional training and even customer onboarding. It is like creating your own blog, but with many more features and provisions to make it a professional website.

The platform also allows you to integrate different tools to make your website more interactive. Tools like Zoom, Mailchimp, etc. are especially helpful for online courses.

So far, however, this has only been a brief synopsis of what the platform claims it can offer.

But does it stand up to the hype?

The following is a brief review and assessment of what LearnWorlds has to offer:

Features

The following are some of the features of the platform that stand out the most. The platform offers several other features not mentioned as well, which you can go through on their website.

The features that have been presented in this LearnWorlds review are some of the most sought after but these are certainly not all the features.

Synchronized Transcript

Several online courses and educational platforms rely on having a video element. Teachers and trainers can post videos of themselves going through a lesson, either hosted by the platform itself or hosted by a third party.

But even if the video is hosted elsewhere, the LearnWorlds platform is able to offer a synchronized transcript along with the video. The interactive transcript will be extracted from your video automatically and will enhance understanding among the audiences.

Interactions

Working on videos on this platform does not need to be a herculean task of post-production. You do not need to be an expert in video editing as the platform offers several interactive tools which allow you to add titles, pointers, questions and even add links and images to your videos.

The platform allows you to make your video content more engaging and interactive without downloading Premiere Pro or any other complicated video editing software.

Note Taking

When users are reading long articles, blog posts or reading material on your platform, it can read like a large block of text even if it has been formatted well. Taking in all that information at once can be overwhelming, which is why people resort to taking notes.

LearnWorlds allows people to take notes and add highlights wherever they wish to. This enables them to keep all their notes in one place and flag off anything they found interesting or confusing while they are reading it.

This is also a great way to improve reading. The next time they return to the page, they will be able to see their notes and highlights and the text will come back to them with greater clarity.

Testing

Any educational platform typically has some form of testing so students can mark their progress out. If this is a more competitive course, it may have more strict performance measuring tests and assignments. LearnWorlds allows you to set up different tests that can cater to these requirements.

You can set up self-assessment tests so students can track their own progress. You can also post prompts for critical thinking assignments and also generate certifications.

Grow Your Audience

LearnWorlds is a platform that not only allows you to build online courses and solutions but also allows you to promote these courses and market your platform through various avenues.

The platform offers a complete e-commerce solution. There are marketing and sales tools that are built into the platform that allows you to promote your online courses and websites. These are helpful tools that enable you to increase your reach and grow your audience.

The effectiveness of these marketing tools will also be directly related to your return on investment. The more effectively you use these tools, the more you can reach out to more patrons and students.

Join LearnWorlds

Pricing

There are a few different pricing plans for LearnWorlds. The following are the different plans the platform offers:

Starter

This costs $24/month if you bill annually or $29 if you take the monthly subscription.
This plan offers the basic features but the platform takes a transaction fee of $5 for every course that is sold.
The plan has only one admin and will give you a custom domain.
You will get 24-hour email support on all business days.

Pro Trainer

This costs $79 per month if you bill annually or $99 if you take the monthly subscription.
This plan does not charge any transaction fee, in addition to offering all the basic features that the Starter plan does.
This plan can accommodate five admins or instructors and offers unlimited landing pages.
In addition, you can also get onboarding call tools, Zapier, Zoom and premium integrations and more.
With this plan, you also get 24/7 email support.

Learning Center

This is the most popular plan and costs $249 per month if you bill annually and $299 for monthly subscriptions.
This plan also does not involve any transaction fees and can accommodate as many as 20 admins or instructors.
The plan can also accommodate bulk student uploads, so multiple students can upload their assignments without the site crashing.
The plan offers interactive video options and provides auto-transcripts and subtitles for videos.

High Volume and Corporate

The pricing for this plan has not been mentioned on the website as it calls for a demo if you are looking for more information.
The plan does not charge any transaction fees and allows for additional administrators.
There are premium cloud services that you can avail of here and it offers 99.95% server uptime.
The pricing options are tailored depending on the volume you are looking for.

Basic Features in All Plans

While the different plans that the platform offers have features that are specific to them, some basic features are common to all. The LearnWorlds review will include some of the features:

Video library to upload your own videos
All plans are adaptable to mobiles and tablets
All the plans offer unlimited courses
They have built-in social networks
Assessment Engine for setting up tests and assignments
Conversion tracking for your Facebook and AdWords campaigns
Interactive e-books

Interface

The interface is the most important aspect of the platform because this is where all the interaction will take place between instructors and students. The backend of the interface is also important because this is where you will be setting up the course.

Various web reviews of the platform seem to suggest that the interface can be quite confusing at first glance. A lot is happening on the dashboard and one may feel overwhelmed by all the information.

But once you start focusing on the top and the left margins, the interface becomes a lot easier to navigate and you realize that everything has been placed on the landing page keeping a certain logic in mind. If you follow the analytics, the design of the interface makes a lot more sense.

Once you get the hang of the interface, of course, it is not difficult to navigate at all. But getting around to figuring it out in the first place can be overwhelming.

FAQs

The LearnWorlds review would not be complete without addressing some of the most frequently asked questions, such as the following:

What are the alternatives to LearnWorlds?
LearnWorlds is certainly a unique platform and has several features that one may not find elsewhere in the market. But some platforms that come close or offer similar, if not the same features include Teachable, Thinkific and Podia.
Does LearnWorlds have a free plan?
No, as has been elaborated above, the platform does not have any free plans. However, if you are looking to try this platform but do not want to commit to it yet, there are free trials for all the plans that have been mentioned above.
Does LearnWorlds support SCORM?
LearnWorlds does support SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) which is a useful model for education technology and platforms. In fact, LearnWorlds is one of the few platforms in its category that does support SCORM.
What other resources does LearnWorlds offer?
Apart from the main interface and the features, the platform also offers a few different resources that admins and students alike will find helpful. These resources include a blog that posts frequent updates and interesting articles around the platform (and the general field of education technology), weekly webinars for admins, an academy for admins to interact and exchange ideas and free e-books and checklists.

Pros and Cons

With all that has already been offered about LearnWorlds, let’s break it down into pros and cons.

Pros

The platform offers several different plans that come at ascending price points. While you can pick a plan that suits your budget and your requirements, even the basic features that are common to all the plans are commendable.
The platform is very interactive, allowing you to make the courses and material engaging. It allows admins to have a one-on-one interaction with the students. If you subscribe to a better plan, you can also get auto-transcripts and subtitles on your videos.
You have your own video library to which you can upload videos, even if you are not hosting them on a third-party site. This is especially helpful if you do not want to subscribe to another party only to host your video content.
The assessment engine is especially robust and allows you to make the site truly interactive. You can set different types of tests for all courses, whether they are informal pop quizzes or more serious assessments in terms of long, critical essays.

Cons

A lot is happening on the platform at first glance. While the features are incredibly helpful and make the platform versatile in different ways, it can be difficult to make sense of the platform at first, especially for the uninitiated.
The payment gateways are not as versatile as you can only offer card or PayPal options, not both together.
The site themes are limited so there’s only so far you can venture out in terms of design.
The bulk uploading option is not optimized and can sometimes be glitchy, even in the more expensively priced plan.

Verdict

From all the information that has been laid out on the table, LearnWorlds does seem to have a lot to offer.

The features are certainly innovative and facilitate the making of a very well-rounded and robust education platform. No matter what plan you are on, it allows you to set tests for assessment and also allows you to upload your own videos.

It is also one of the few platforms in its category and range that supports SCORM which is a very helpful model for any educational platform to follow.

There are certain issues with the interface that have been pointed out, but this is not a serious con as it is easy to navigate once you have got the hang of it.

Even if the platform does not have a native mobile app, all the plans are adaptable to mobile devices and tablets.

LearnWorlds does seem to stand up to the hype and lives up to most of the promises it makes.