7 Tips for Using Customer Feedback to Enhance Your Online Educational Platform

It’s not a secret that the COVID-19 pandemic situation has had a huge impact on people’s lives all over the world. Besides all the negative aspects, it brought a useful and innovative find - Online Learning. Let’s start with some impressive statistics to evaluate the increasing popularity of this phenomenon: 

• The global distance learning market is expected to reach $457.8 billion by 2026 (Source: reportlinker.com);

• The number of online learners can increase to 57 million by 2027 (Source: prosperityforamerica.org);

• Around 98% of companies in the US have incorporated online learning by 2020 (Source: smallbiztrends.com);

• Approximately 42% of US organizations have increased their income with the help of E-learning (Source: thrivemyway.com).

This list can be endless, as it is difficult to overestimate the global impact of distance learning. Before starting to delve deeper into the topic of enhancing educational platforms, it’s essential to learn more about the development and history of E-learning in general.  

The Development of E-Learning

Evidently, as we have mentioned before, the breakthrough moment for distance learning was a pandemic time. However, if you delve deeper into history, it becomes clear that this phenomenon started its development much earlier.  

The concept of remote education dates back to the 19th century when correspondence courses appeared. The students of that time used mail to get instructional materials and then to send them back. With the development of radio and television, it became possible to broadcast various educational programs that allowed people to broaden their knowledge in several fields. 

In the 60s-70s of the 20th century, the development of mainframe computers made a contribution to computer-based education, and some institutions began experimenting with such a way of learning. The 1980s brought the first rudimentary e-learning systems that were usually delivered on CD-ROMs or floppy disks. 

With the fast development of the Internet in the 1990s, distance learning shifted to web-based platforms. Integration of audio, video, and interactive elements became possible due to the advances in multimedia technologies. 

During the next 30 years, e-learning has constantly developed with the appearance of modern smartphones, tablets, various apps, and multiple educational websites. The COVID-19 pandemic forced faster development of online learning globally. Most institutions and companies quickly transitioned to distance format, leveraging video conferencing tools, collaboration platforms, and digital resources.

How to Start Running an Educational Platform Online?

As you may see, online education is quite a promising and profitable niche if you know how to run it properly and how to make your business outshine other providers. Our experts have gathered the most effective tips that could help you to launch your educational platform successfully. 

1. Define Your Niche and Audience

Think about the subject(s) you want to represent on your platform, how it can be useful for people, what learning methods you would like to use, and who can be interested in utilizing your platform. 

2. Do a Market Research 

Before starting any activity, it’s crucial to do research, especially when it’s so easy to do using the Internet. Identify your competitors, their strong and weak sides. Think about what the customers' needs are and what you can do to satisfy them.  

3. Develop a Business Plan

Having a comprehensive plan with accurate steps is the basis for a successful business strategy. You should think in advance about your educational platform model, whether it will be subscription-based, free, pay-per-course, or a combination. You may also consider additional financial help, like sponsorship, partnership, or affiliate marketing. If you are not sure about your planning skills and don’t want to fail, you can seek professional help and buy a business plan online from qualified specialists. 

4. Create Interesting Content

The educational content presented on your platform should be high-quality, credible, and engaging. Add various written materials, videos, audio, quizzes, and other interactive activities. You may also collaborate with some educators and provide professional tutors' help on your platform. 

5. Website Requirements

In order to make your platform work smoothly, you need to hire a technology specialist who will help you develop your website, design, safe payments, user account, discussion forum, etc. It’s important to make a platform intuitive and easy to navigate.

6. Legal Considerations

Every business should be legal and officially registered to provide safe services to customers. Include clear terms of service, privacy, and refund policies on your website.

7. Create a Promoting Company 

To make your platform popular and actively used by customers, it’s important to develop a marketing strategy. You can promote your website using social media, email and content marketing, SEO, or by offering some free or trial courses for users. 

8. Customer Support

Helpful and qualified customer support is a core thing for every online platform. Make sure that users can easily reach out to support representatives and get fast and informative answers. 

9. Listen to Customers’ Feedback

Customers’ reviews are important to define the strong and weak aspects of your platform. They can significantly help to improve your business. 

10. Analytics & Data

Use data to refine your courses and marketing strategies. Implement analytics tools to track user engagement, course completion rates, and other relevant metrics.

How Can You Enhance Your Educational Platform Using Customer Feedback?

We have already mentioned that customer feedback is one of the most important aspects of developing a successful educational platform. It can provide you with valuable insights into user experiences, help you to find the problematic areas that could be improved, and recommend possible strategies for development. To collect this feedback, you can use a tool like Qualtrics. However, if you're looking for Qualtrics alternatives, there are several other options available.Here, we would like to present TOP-7 effective tips on how you can enhance your educational platform by considering customers’ reviews:

1. Check Reviews Regularly 

The first thing you can do is to set up automated prompts for feedback at core points of the user's activity, like finishing the first course or passing some test. Additionally, you can implement regular surveys, feedback forms, or direct communication forums. 

2. Provide Diverse Feedback Channels

Offer your customers multiple ways of leaving testimonials about your platform. It could be social media, emails, discussion forums, surveys, etc. Sometimes, users may be afraid of writing a truthful review on your website, so they can use external review platforms to share their opinions. So, don’t forget to check other review websites for feedback on your service.

3. Ask Concrete Questions

Instead of asking just for a numerical rating, try to get more clear and concrete feedback from your customers by asking specific questions. They can include requests about the quality and variety of educational materials, what problems occurred during their learning, what aspects can be improved, whether the support team is helpful, etc. 

4. Engage in Friendly Communication

With the development of various technologies, people still want to save live communication. So, try not just to consider the customers’ feedback but also to reply to them, expressing gratitude for their honest opinions and using your platform. If the testimonials are negative, it’s also important to thank the user and promise to improve services or solve the issues that influenced the user’s experience. 

5. Share Changes Made Based on Users’ Feedback

Customers need to see that their opinion is really valuable and has been taken into consideration. Keep them informed about the changes you made and demonstrate that you are committed to improving the platform to make it more convenient and useful for learners. 

6. Reward Customers’ Contribution

Identify and create a special reward for users who provide valuable feedback. It can be some discounts for courses, special access to particular materials, or other pleasant bonuses. It can encourage users to share their opinions about your educational platform more frequently. 

7. Track Key Metrics

Use various analytics tools to track key performance indicators involving user engagement, completion rates, etc. Use this information to complement the qualitative feedback and gain a comprehensive view of your platform's performance.

To sum up, we would like to emphasize one more time that customers’ feedback is a valuable source that can notify you about the strong and weak sides of your problem. Try to check the users’ reviews regularly and make the necessary changes to make your service better and attract more learners.