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Started an online learning platform – Needed advice

By Payal S on 7 Comments / 2062 views

Hi,

I have recently (1 month ago) launched an online learning portal called www.learnguru.in with a friend. The main objective of the portal is to provide an online learning platform in the areas of Management, Leadership, Strategy, Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour to young students/young professionalsin the 18-35 year age bracket who would typically not have the time/resources to attend a business school.

While we have around 70 courses and programs and have only recently started marketing the portal via Facebook, email campaigns, tie-ups with youth brands that have an India – wise presence, we do realize that there are some challenges, such as:

1) Online education being a new concept in India. People still prefer the touch and feel of a teacher/classroom.

2) Not having a tie-up with a university. We offer a certification from LearnGuru, but don’t have a tie up with an actual university as such.

3) Free online courses being offered by some of the Ivy league colleges.

Inspite of these challenges, both me and my partner feel that there is a potential for creating an online learning platform as India is a vast and diverse market. We wanted to get some advice from the forum in terms of any marketing ideas/suggestions, etc.

We are also open to bring on board a person who believes in our concept and has experience in marketing of online products (preferably education). If you are interested or know anyone please email me on seth@learnguru.in

Cheers,

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7 Comments

  1. It’s not clear from your portal if the course is just study material, or a combination of tests, Q&A etc as well.

    If it’s just study material, then people can easily buy a book corresponding to a course and read, and in which case your product offering needs to be improved.

    If you need help with marketing this online, then you could engage with an SEO/SEM firm.

  2. The 3 questions you have listed down are the very basic ones you should have asked your self before you started. Starting a business without such assessment will always keep you in a fire fighting mode. You will never be able to proceed further.

    I suggest that you take a pause, list down the complete list of challenges and answer them to at least 75% satisfaction. You would have to do some direct market research on the way. Create a questionnaire and have it filled by at least 100 people from your target market. Happy to continue this talk if you still need it.

    Sasikanth Chemalamudi, http://www.thefirstcrore.blogspot.in

  3. Folks,
    Thanks a lot for your replies. I just wanted to clarify that we were aware of the challenges before starting the venture and have a marketing plan in place. We are now looking at bringing a marketing person on the team. If you know anyone who has experience in internet marketing and would be interested in joining the team please drop me a line at seth@learnguru.in.

  4. check out what your competitors are doing?

    as U say Online education is a new concept in India, your competitors too must be struggling to create awareness and market acceptance. U can check what has worked for them. U can replicate it.

    one such company i know is ‘corporate bridge’.

    all the best!

  5. Excellent Initiative and accept my best wishes for this innovative and unique attempt !! yes e Learning based learning model in India is still in a very nascent stage however its picking up fast. Earlier there were some challenges in getting last mile bandwidth (At the learner end) however due to wide spread of broadband and wireless broadband connectivity these challenges were being addressed. You have already identified the major stumbling block i.e. Indians still don’t believe in completely online learning model and they still need some kind support through Instructor Led Training. I would like to suggest you to think of adopting a blended learning approach wherein 70 % to 80 % of learning delivery will happen online and there would be very few sessions arrange in classroom format. Following are few suggestions 

    • None of your courses offer a elaborate demo to give an idea about the feel of the learning platform please include a quick demo for each course ( An access to the course for 10 Min or so) this will help to convince your buyers. The demos which you have included looks like PPTs and not WBTs if your course is nothing but a deck of PPTs then I don’t think you will be able to impress your learners. 

    • Your pedagogy is not clear. Have you included both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning components if yes whats the proportion of each in the program.

    • As suggested by someone before include some videos as videos can command more impact than the verbose text.

    • Are you providing any placement assistance to your students ? If yes mention that as mostly people in India learn to earn and not to enhance their knowledge or something  

    • There is immense scope for these kind of short term courses in working professionals or in corporate training environment where certification is not so important so you can focus your efforts on these markets.

    There are so many things you can do and it will be difficult to put everything here, if you are interested to know more please connect me(at)mandarjoshi.com or call me on +91 98908 17339 

    Once again wishing you all the success in your new venture !!!!

  6. I recently came across a site http://www.learnsocial.com ..even they are into same domain as you are i guess..

    take look at that,this might help you.

  7. LMAO, they are planning to teach SEO and their SEO isnt proper

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