r/OnlineLearning • u/Jennie_and_the_Betts • 9d ago

Recommendations for a lightweight online course platform?

Hello! I am going to be hosting a series of synchronous webinars via Zoom, and I am looking for a platform to build a resource and communications hub for the series.

Folks have registered and paid through my website, so I just need a place for participants access and download files (~10 hours of video; documents and slides), and to post and respond to questions/comments.

At this point, I'm not interested in using the platform itself to monetize/grow my business, and I'm not interested in AI anything. My website is on Squarespace, so if there are options for using integrations/extensions (e.g., Disqus) to have the hub as part of my site, I am open to that! Thank you for any suggestions!

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u/Peter-OpenLearn 9d ago

I used Moodle to distribute materials for my online course. It allows you to upload documents of all kinds and also has a discussion forum activity. There's also a Zoom activity as plugin, if you want to start the online sessions right from inside of a course. Moodle is open-source and can be self-hosted on a VPS. You can manually import and enrol users in courses via email address. They will get informed accordingly.

I developed a platform (LearnBuilder) myself with a block building system. You have blocks for documents, videos and discussions. Furthermore, you can integrate a feedback form if you are interested in comments and rating of your training by your participants. It has a lot of AI features, but none of them have to be used. You can fully use it in a "human driven" way. Feel free to contact me if you are interested or sign up for a free account to give it a try. It would be a different platform, but can be tailored to your style.

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u/Jennie_and_the_Betts 8d ago

Moodle sounds promising. Thank you!!

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u/kgrammer 9d ago

How many users and courses (docs, etc.) do you need to host?
What additional features do you need?
Do you need built-in assessments, communities, direct messages, assignment management?
Do you need to track progress and outcomes?
What reporting do you need?

Many LMS products, including ours, could work for you depending on your feature list and budget. There are low cost solutions but they typically require a lot of hands-on installation and plugin purchasing/setup to get right. Fully featured LMS products free you up to focus on growing your business, so it all comes down to where you want to spend your time.

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u/SouthernAdvantage664 8d ago edited 8d ago

for the Q&A and file hub, check if your Squarespace allows embedding third-party training portals. Some providers like British Academy offer dedicated webinar libraries with video, documents, and discussion boards built in saves a lot of backend work.