If you’re looking for one of the most profitable market niches online nowadays, you can be certain that you’ll find education! After all, there are more and more Internet users that need some kind of training in different subjects and courses. In that respect, transforming your website into a virtual classroom and selling your skill can turn out to be quite a profitable endeavor.
As you probably already know, WordPress is the most successful Content Management System today. Even though its original purpose is the creation of blog-type websites, its expansion and scalability capabilities allow you to create all kinds of websites. That said, if you’re thinking of creating a website and, more specifically, a virtual classroom, one of the best options is to use WordPress. Considering that this CMS was not initially intended for the purpose of creating online schools, it requires the help of a plugin that complements its capabilities in this regard. Therefore, the following WordPress plugins to create a virtual classroom are the best choice in supporting your business.
Learning Management System
It’s also worth mentioning that there are other content managers that have been developed with the firm purpose of creating E-learning or Electronic Learning sites; these are known as Learning Management System or LMS, the most popular of them being Moodle. However, the use of WordPress has been booming in this area of web development.
Top 5 WordPress plugins to create a virtual classroom:
LearnDash
This is perhaps the most popular and well-known WordPress plugin for e-learning. it offers great quality and versatility, and allows you to organize several courses with classified lessons and topics, create tests or exams for students, use forms for enrolment, collect information, show student tables with their grades and progress in the course, and is compatible with other very useful and popular WordPress plugins.
As usual, the quality has a price, and LearnDash is a paid plugin. Therefore, it’s necessary to pay for your service, and there are three packages ranging from $159 to $329.
LearnPress
In contrast to the previous plugin, this one is totally free and at the same time, it offers a level of quality and efficiency quite acceptable compared to its paid competitors. It allows the basic features to manage online courses and if you require advanced options, it offers the possibility of expanding its capabilities through extensions that can be installed as a complement. LearnPress has modules that provide compatibility with plugins for the creation of forums and social features, which boost its versatility.
Sensei
This plugin has the support and prestige granted by the fact of being developed by WooThemes, who are the creators of the very popular and recognized plugin for creating WooCommerce virtual stores, which gives credibility, stability and excellent support. Its quality is very good, as it naturally offers perfect compatibility with WooCommerce to market the courses, and it’s scalable through add-ons that can be purchased at your particular store.
Sensei’s price varies depending on the number of sites that are intended for managing and the amount ranges between $149 and $299.
CoursePress
One of the first in its class, this plugin is developed by those responsible for the renowned wpmudev blog, which offers solutions for WordPress and other plugins such as BuddyPress and bbPress. Its quality is undeniable, as it’s quite powerful, it allows users to include videos and audios in the classes, it has a live chat system, generates certificates in PDF format, and has the compatibility with WooCommerce and marketpress, among other features.
CoursePress offers a Trial version that features a one-month temporary validity and a Pro version that can be accessed by the membership to the wpmudev platform.
WP-Courseware
One of the alternatives with more experience in the market is WP-Courseware, with the support of companies and organizations as important as CNN, Verizon, Sheraton and the universities of Miami, Wisconsin, and Kentucky among others. Of course, it offers all the common functionalities such as other similar systems with a great quality. Paid plans range from $129 to $199.
