ELearning Trend: Niche Course Sites

By: Justin Ferriman • March 27, 2015
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computer-on-deskOver the past year or so we have seen an evolving trend in the elearning space. It’s rise can likely be attributed to the extremely popular MOOC programs out there.

Sites like Coursera, edX, Lynda, SkillShare, and so on have helped to normalize the massive course library approach to elearning. Give users an abundance of choice and they will flock to your site – or so it seems.

The trouble here is that in order to run a site like this you have to be connected to individuals capable of making courses on a large variety of subjects. They can’t just be anyone either, they need to have the proper credentials.

As such, we have seen a rise in another business model for online course delivery, and that’s niche course sites.

Probably the most popular site like this that comes to mind is Codecademy. Their entire course library centers on one subject: coding. You could argue though that over time their courses have diversified in the various computer languages that they teach. Still, it is a distinct difference.

How You Can Take Advantage of this Trend

Starting a massive course library is pretty daunting. Unfortunately, people see that this business model is viable and try to replicate it right from the start. You’ll burn out. The project is much too big unless you happen to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.

The easiest way to start taking advantage of this growing trend is to start simply with one course. Sure this sounds simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

You need to do proper research so that you know the course that you choose will sell (if you plan on selling it, which doesn’t always have to be the immediate motivator).

Once you get one course out there and start receiving feedback, your users will let you know additional courses they would like to take.

It all starts with one course though, and that course better be good. If it is good, then you’ll have no trouble creating (and selling) more courses.

If you’d like to start creating online courses in your area of expertise, then contact us today – we’d love to hear about your idea and how we can help you achieve your goals.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter