With the education market rapidly expanding, creating effective online school platform is now more essential than ever. In this practical guide, we offer detailed answers to key questions:

• 10 Steps to Develop an Online School Platform
• Must-Have Features for Online Learning Platform
• Our Expertise, Case Studies, and Experience in Online Learning
• Tips on Monetizing an Online School Platform
• How Much Does It Cost to Develop an Online School Platform and App?

How to Develop an Online School Platform: 10 Steps

How do you develop an online school, and what steps are involved? Based on our approach, let’s consider the key processes when creating an online education platform.

Step 1: Validate and Evaluate Your Business Idea

Online high school, private school, language school… Starting a business in education is thrilling, especially when you have a passionate idea. Before investing time and money, validating your idea through market research is crucial. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Conduct a physical survey: Understand customer needs and preferences using the “10 pains and 10 gains” principle.
2. Read competitors’ negative reviews: Gain insights into what customers dislike about existing solutions.
3. Break down your business plan: Analyze each plan component to identify potential strengths and weaknesses.
4. Seek expert advice: Consult with experienced colleagues or professionals who know your business field.

Once you’ve validated your idea, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Write a Project Plan & Requirements

Next, write a detailed project plan outlining each process needed to create your product. The more details you include, the easier and more organized the development process will be.

Then, describe the requirements for your future online school product. A typical requirements document should include:

1. Full project overview
2. Main needs and goals
3. Target market
4. Functional requirements and desired features
5. Aesthetic aspects
6. Non-Functional details
7. Recommendations and prohibitions
8. Questions

You can find more information on how to write product requirements in our article: How To Write The Design Specification? [Quick Guide].

Step 3: Define the Product Roadmap

A roadmap is a visual representation of the tasks needed to achieve your long-term goals. This tool helps different departments or specialists work on separate tasks simultaneously, promoting effective teamwork regardless of the project’s complexity.

• Outline the Most Critical Features: Identify and prioritize the key features to be developed first.
• Plan for Extensive Testing: Focus on features that need thorough testing and are crucial for the online school’s success.
• List Secondary Functionality: Detail the additional features to be developed after the primary ones.

This approach lets you gradually test the product and see how users interact with its features, ensuring smooth navigation and logical flow.

Step 4: Start Product Discovery

Product Discovery is a crucial stage in online school product development. It helps to refine the developer’s vision, detail the needs of the target audience, and answer critical questions about the product:

• Is it worth solving the problem?
• Will the suggested solution work?
• Will customers use and enjoy this solution?

If these questions are answered negatively, the developers return to the drawing board. This process involves detailed work on the product’s features and extensive surveys.

This cycle of Product Discovery continues until all three questions receive positive answers. This relentless pursuit ensures the final product will meet the client’s needs and generate substantial profits for the product owners.

Step 5: Build a UX Design

How do you start an intuitive and easy-to-use online school platform? The key is excellent UX design, which focuses on all aspects of the product from the user’s perspective.

It’s not just about aesthetics and functionality but also about convenience, accessibility, and the emotions the product evokes. Designing for emotions is a complex challenge, but it’s essential for creating a compelling user experience.

For example, while working on the SmartJen project, we utilized comprehensive user and market research to define the product’s unique value proposition. Analyzing the existing platform’s issues, we identified ways to streamline the customer journey and enhance user flows. We created high-level wireframes and a detailed sitemap to guide the design process. Check out our  SmartJen case study.

Step 6: Start UI Design

After finalizing the UX design, it’s time to move on to UI design. The UI focuses on the visual and interactive elements that make the product engaging: colors, button styles, graphics, animations, typography, infographics, widgets, behavior, button responses, and more.

The UI designer translates the UX designer’s research and insights into a visually appealing and functional interface. This involves crafting a specific art form from scientific findings. A successful blend of iconography, typography, color, space, and texture ensures that users can easily navigate the application.

For the  SmartJen project, we chose light blue and dark blue colors. Our research into educational products revealed that these shades are most effective for this industry, providing a calming yet professional look that enhances the user experience.

Step 7: Conduct User Testing

The next step is to conduct user testing. This involves having a test audience use your product to identify what works and doesn’t.

During testing, focus on these critical questions:

• Does the user understand how to use the product?
• Is it easy for users to find the desired items/sections of the product?
• Is there anything distracting the user?
• Do users achieve their goals by using the product?

Once you have answers to these questions, address any mistakes and shortcomings. After making the necessary corrections, you can proceed to the next stage.

Step 8: Build a Development Process (SDLC)

The most crucial stage is turning the design into a working product. The development process can be divided into several key steps. Let’s examine each one closely.

Product Technical Documentation

At this stage, all relevant information from the client is gathered to develop the product according to their expectations and requirements. The team should:

• Write technical documentation
• Choose the technical stack
• Define requirements for functionality (e.g., admin panel) and user roles (admin and super admin)
• Finalize the estimate and scope of work

Development

Software developers begin writing code for the components using the documentation and architecture from the previous steps. Tasks are divided among team members based on their specializations:

• Front-end Developers: Handle the client side of the application.
• Back-end Developers: Focus on API and database development.
• DevOps Team: Manage the CI/CD process.

Testing

QA engineers test all delivered code and manually test developed components to ensure quality and functionality.

Deployment and Integration

After development and regression testing by the QA team, the project moves to production deployment and integration. The tested version of the product is delivered to users for beta testing. The team collects user feedback, fixes bugs, and implements necessary improvements.

Maintenance

Ongoing maintenance is essential once the product is deployed in the production environment. This includes fixing any issues that arise and making continuous improvements as needed. The development team handles all maintenance tasks to ensure the product remains functional and up-to-date.

Step 9: Quality Assurance (QA)

Conducting a final, detailed check of the entire product after the development process is essential. It’s better to identify and fix bugs than to deal with them after launching the product. Thorough QA ensures the product is polished and ready for release.

Step 10: Launch

Now it’s time to introduce your product to the market! Here are the significant steps for a successful launch:

• Identify Your Target Audience
• Create Unique Product Packaging
• Develop a Slogan and Timeline
• Analyze Competitors
• Create Customer Onboarding Materials
• Build a Website
• Advertise

Also read: Complete Guide to eLearning Platform Development [Price, Steps, and Requirements]

Must-have features for Online Learning Platform

How do you develop an online school with all the necessary features for productive online learning? Our team has compiled a list of essential functionalities – implement them to elevate your online school to the next level.

Online Classes

Online classes with virtual classrooms are the cornerstone of any online school. This feature should allow students to attend various classes virtually and perform all activities they would in offline settings, such as raising their hands, answering questions, and taking notes.

Access to collaboration tools like live video blogs, group discussions, forums, and personal blogs ensures your organization is prepared for the future of online learning format.

Online Testing

Assessing students’ knowledge and preparation levels is crucial; online testing facilitates this process.

Implement quizzes, A/B tests, and other assessments with engaging elements like illustrations, video, and evaluative questions. Offering certificates upon successful completion can further motivate learners.

Analytics of Student Progress

Analytics provide teachers with valuable insights into student activity and progress.

How can it be improved? Charts, graphs, and funnels display statistics such as the number of students with varying grades, class attendance, and test scores. Detailed analytics help educators track and improve student performance.

Creating and Managing Courses

Provide teachers with an intuitive course builder to easily create lessons and add training content.

How can it be improved? Include functionalities for deleting, modifying, and cloning courses. Support multiple content types, including text, images, screenshots, videos, audio clips, presentations, and other file formats.

Gamification

Gamification elements enhance the online learning experience by increasing emotional engagement and motivation.

How can it be improved? Utilize various mechanics such as virtual skill development, progress bars, rating systems, game character development, and the gradual unveiling of new teaching elements and badges. This dynamic interaction can make the educational process more engaging and enjoyable.

Parent Account

A parent account feature is essential for online schools used by universities and schools. It allows parents to monitor their children’s learning progress and results, ensuring they stay informed and involved in their education.

Read also: How to create a Money Landing App

E-Learning: Advantages

Online School Platforms and Apps offer a flexible, efficient, and cost-effective learning method, making them an attractive option for many learners.

Location Independence

No matter where students are located — another country, city, or continent — they can easily access online schools. Learners can take classes at times that suit them best. Course materials are stored digitally, providing constant access in most cases.

Efficiency

Online learning enables teachers to deliver courses more efficiently. It incorporates various materials such as videos, PDFs, and podcasts into lesson plans. By expanding beyond traditional textbooks and including online resources, educators can enhance their teaching methods and become more effective instructors.

Flexibility

Online classes allow learners to complete lessons at their convenience before a specified deadline.

Affordability

One significant benefit of online school is cost savings. Compared to traditional education, online learning is considerably cheaper. Moreover, all class materials are available online, creating a paperless learning environment that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Accessibility

Online school provides access to many different courses and programs that may not be available locally. This allows learners to study subjects that might otherwise be out of reach.

Self-Paced Learning

Many online courses offer the ability to learn at your own pace. This allows students to take the time they need to fully understand the material, leading to a more personalized and practical online learning experience.

Immediate Feedback

Many online courses include automated assessments and interactive elements that provide immediate feedback. This allows learners to quickly identify areas for improvement and focus their efforts accordingly.

Read also: How to create an LMS from scratch

Ways to Monetize Your Online School

Monetizing an online school involves defining income sources — what clients will pay for. Based on our experience building online school platforms, we’ve identified two of the best monetization models.

Subscription Model

A subscription involves charging a fee for access to the online school or specific courses, lessons, or content. Clients pay for access to valuable resources, often limited by time. Subscriptions can be monthly, yearly, or custom.

However, subscriptions can also be limited by the number of courses or visits.

Typically, a subscription is more affordable than paying for individual courses. This model benefits from the scale effect: clients can access extensive resources relatively cheaply. The key to success with this model is maintaining high-quality education to keep clients engaged on the platform for as long as possible.

‘Pay for Course Graduating’ Model

This model involves offering a specific activity for a fee. For instance, a diploma or certificate could be issued upon completion of a course or the entire online school program.

However, you can offer some activities for money. For example, it can be receiving a diploma or a certificate of completion of a specific course or an online school.

As more companies require candidates to provide proof of knowledge through a diploma, the demand for such credentials is rising. This trend drives more individuals to seek certificates or diplomas upon graduation, making the ‘Pay for course graduating’ model a potentially lucrative option for your online school.

How Much Does Custom Online School Development Cost?

Wondering how to develop an online school without overspending? The cost of developing an online school depends on the project’s size, the number of features, and specific requirements. These factors should be determined during the business analysis stage to avoid unnecessary expenses due to a flawed strategy.

At RewiSoft, we offer competitive starting prices for custom Online School App Development and Web Development, both at $30,000. This ensures you’re getting a high-quality product at a reasonable cost.

When creating an online school, several cost categories must be considered:

• Product Discovery
• UX/UI Design
• Development
• QA (Testing)

The location of your contractor will also affect the price. We’ve identified four critical regions with experienced and skilled IT specialists. Let’s break down the costs for each stage based on the contractor’s location:

Rewisoft Expertise and Experience: How Can We Help?

We can be your trusted partner in creating online learning apps and web platforms. With experience spanning over 130 projects, including over 80 apps and websites, we have delivered exceptional tech solutions worldwide.

Discover the E-learning solutions we’ve developed for our clients:

•  BridgeX
•  Miestro
•  Smartjen
• All projects

We Offer Personalized Custom Development

At RewiSoft, a top priority is a personalized approach to each client’s needs. Understanding that every project is unique, our team tailors custom development to your requirements.

By choosing RewiSoft, you are choosing a partner that can address your needs, challenges, and goals.

Contact us, and let’s achieve outstanding results for your business!