Learn More About Online Course Providers
What are Online Course Providers?
Online course providers deliver educational course content to students across a wide range of subjects, from academic subjects like physics to technical areas like web development. With thousands of different courses available online, users in many different stages in life — from K-12 school students to seasoned professionals — can find an online course to help advance their education or career. Businesses turn to online course providers as an efficient way to ensure employees have the skills they need to pursue their personal career goal as well as key business objectives.
The content offered by online course providers can vary depending on the provider. Some online course providers specialize in content geared toward technical fields such as web development, artificial intelligence, or data science. Others partner with well-known universities to offer courses in biology, statistics, finance, digital marketing, or project management. Some courses focus less on education in a specific field and more on professional competencies or “soft" skills, such as improving communication skills, learning how to effectively lead a team, or strategies for being productive at work.
Online courses frequently include interactive content like videos and practice projects. At the end of the course, users typically take an assessment that measures whether the user mastered the material. Once a user has completed a course or a series of courses, they may earn a badge or certificate that can be posted on social media or added to their resume.
Key Benefits of Online Course Providers:
- Expand employee skill sets
- Boost worker productivity and performance
- Increase employee engagement and reduce turnover
- Create new career pathways for workers
Why Use Online Course Providers?
The biggest reason for a company to use online course providers is to help the company’s employees improve their skills in areas that will benefit the individual worker as well as the business as a whole. Technical fields like coding and artificial intelligence are rapidly evolving, so having employees take online courses to learn the latest developments is a cost-effective way to ensure the company is able to implement the latest technologies in their industry. Other less technical subjects can also be important if a company’s leaders notice their workers have a knowledge gap. For example, if a manager is struggling with giving their direct reports effective feedback, they might want to take a course on managing teams that could help address that need.
More generally, access to online courses can lead to increased employee engagement and retention. Professionals who feel like the company cares about their personal development will be more effective at work and more likely to stay if they feel they have a path to advance their career. Earning credentials through online courses also gives employees a chance to share what they have accomplished, ideally creating a culture of learning throughout the company.
Who Uses Online Course Providers?
Just about any individual can sign up for an online course, from high school and college students to mid-career professionals. Universities make online courses available to their students, faculty, and alumni. Companies use online course providers as one piece of their employee training program. For businesses, the main users of the software will usually be company leaders, team leaders, and employees.
Company leaders — How executives use online course providers vary depending on their goals. They may be users themselves and could complete courses on relevant topics, like communication or management. Leaders who manage the company’s online learning subscription may take a hands-off approach that allows employees to decide which courses interest them and would be most useful. Other leaders may want a more structured approach, where they determine which specific competencies they would like to build across the company and create a company-wide learning plan with required courses for different groups of employees. Tracking features in online learning platforms allow leaders to analyze how employees use the software, including how employees perform on assessments, allowing the company to adjust its plans as necessary.
Managers and team leaders — Managers use online course providers’ tracking features to monitor the progress their direct reports make on their learning paths. If a manager discovers a specific learning need that an employee has, they can recommend or assign a course to that employee that helps address that knowledge gap. These learning experiences can serve as a starting point for discussions about employees’ career aspirations and the goals they have for themselves.
Students — Individual employees across a company are usually the main consumers of online courses within an organization, though individual students can also sign up to take courses outside of work. Their needs and interests vary widely across a business, depending on the employee’s role and which skills they need. For example, a digital marketing specialist is probably going to need different courses than an IT administrator. Regardless of the field the employees study, many course providers offer badges or certifications that individual employees can display on social media profiles, potentially leading them to new career opportunities within their existing company or elsewhere.
Kinds of Online Course Providers
The main distinction between online course providers is in the types of courses they offer. Some online course providers will focus on one area of online courses while others offer all of these paths. Examples of course offerings might include some of the following.
Technical fields — IT management, coding, artificial intelligence, web development, data science, and cybersecurity.
Digital marketing — Social media strategy, content marketing, traffic optimization, email marketing, and inbound marketing.
Academic subjects — Math, literature, design, architecture, robotics, engineering, chemistry, history, music, and economics.
Business management — Leadership, finance, entrepreneurship, negotiation, emotional intelligence, and project management.
Career skills and personal well-being — Public speaking, writing, productivity, exercise, nutrition, and time management.
Online Course Provider Features
Besides the course content, online course providers typically offer some of the following features.
Course library and learning paths — Most tools have a library function that allows users to browse different courses. Courses are often grouped into paths, with several courses about the same topic bundled together. Users also have the ability to create a customized learning path, based on their interests and desired skills.
Mobile apps — For learning on the go, online course providers often present content on a mobile application, which might also allow the user to download the course so it can be accessed even when not connected to the internet. This flexibility means users can view course content and complete assessments at times that they might otherwise not be able to.
Skill assessments — Quizzes to test a user’s mastery of the material may come at different points in an online course. A pre-assessment shows what the user knows at the beginning, which may change the content of the course to skip over topics that the user already mastered. A short quiz after a lesson can serve as a check for understanding and indicate whether a user should redo a section if they didn’t show a grasp of key skills. An assessment at the end of the course reflects overall mastery of the topic. If the user receives a passing score, many course providers offer badges or certifications they can display.
Analytics — Most online course providers for businesses have a way of tracking how employees use the software. Managers can see which staffers are enrolled in courses, completion rates, and scores on assessments. Company leaders can use this data to gain insight into how employees spend time on the courses and which skills they master, opening up opportunities for coaching, or making adjustments to the company’s training strategy.
Video — A growing number of online courses offer videos as a key element of the course content in an effort to make the courses more engaging. Sometimes, a host guides the user through lessons, showing examples and visuals on the video. For courses on computer-based skills, a video might show a screencast of someone performing the task on the computer, like how to use an email marketing tool.
Projects — Real-world projects help users apply abstract course concepts to an applicable task they might do in the real world. Online courses offer these exercises as assessments or optional chances to get more practice with a skill. For example, a course in business administration might describe a business problem and encourage the user to come up with a solution.
Certifications — As proof of their learning, users who pass a course’s assessment can earn badges or certifications that indicate which skills they’ve acquired. Those badges can then be added to a user’s LinkedIn profile or promoted on their resume. Some course providers even partner with schools and universities to offer online coursework that can be counted towards a master’s degree at that institution.
APIs — Application programming interface integrations enable online courses to connect to other software that a company uses, such as a learning management system or a reporting tool. Data integrations make courses more accessible and allow managers to effectively track and analyze data generated by employees completing learning activities.
Other Online Course Providers: Computer programming, Corporate, Higher education, IT operations,
Potential Issues with Online Course Providers
Missing real-world application — Learning abstract concepts about programming or business is different than actually putting those into practice. While some course providers have informative content about a topic, some fall short in terms of giving users a chance to put that knowledge into practice through real-world simulations or exercises. If online courses don’t integrate meaningful opportunities to apply the skills they teach, users may find themselves unprepared to actually use those skills at work once they finish the course.
Lack of standardization for certifications — While students can earn certifications, badges, and certificates for completing online courses, the value of those credentials is less certain. There are few universal standards for online learning credentials, so it can be hard to determine exactly what someone has learned by the badge on their social media profile. How much stock people put in a credential from an online course provider will likely come down to that platform’s history and reputation for quality content. Having the backing of well-known institutions can add credibility. Course providers with solid track records are more likely to have their credentials recognized by top employers.
