Today, online communities are a thing! All kinds of forums, social media groups, and platforms are meant to bring people of the same interests under one roof. What about education?
What about education? Online communities can significantly enhance learning too. A survey found that 85% of users of communal learning platforms improved their skills.
Deep-diving into all aspects of online learning, we discover so many opportunities and ways to facilitate and make the learning experience better for both students and educators. This time, we will talk about the role of online community platforms that want to bring their users together and help them stay engaged. We will also outline the pros and cons of each and highlight the key features of the best community platforms.
Online Learning Community Landscape
Before exploring the main topic, let’s look at some statistics on online communities.
In 2019, about 76% of internet users were part of at least one online community. With the global pandemic and “everything taken online” world, this number skyrocketed.
Facebook, the largest online community, hosts around 10 million groups, with about 1.8 billion users in at least one group.
The global enterprise social network and online community market was valued at $5.56 billion in 2021. It is expected to grow by 16.5% from 2021 to 2028.
About 55% of brands say online communities have boosted sales.
90% of online communities report that member suggestions have improved products and services.
The main driver of online community growth is the increased use of social media for communication and marketing. Social media has become a powerful tool to reach billions globally. Moreover, UCG (user-generated content) is the new golden source of marketing and sales that increases brand credibility. Companies heavily invest in UCG and communities where the content is shared.
Why are Online Learning Communities Important?
Online communities are crucial for effective online learning and online study groups, especially in higher education. They're popular because they let distance learners collaborate and share different perspectives. This collaboration helps students explore, think critically, develop skills, and grasp concepts better. Building a sense of connection among online learners keeps them engaged and motivated to complete their studies on time.
However, many instructors struggle to get students to participate in discussion forums. The reason is that some learners often progress through classes at their own pace. To address this, you can use strategies to gradually boost participation and foster interpersonal learning. To achieve this, tweak your course design and add collaborative learning activities.
What is a Community Platform?
A community platform is a dedicated space where people can connect and build relationships. These people have shared interests, goals, or commonalities (identity, purpose, or ideologies). A great community platform has tools to build a special culture, blending content, community, courses, and commerce. It usually includes a leader and community members.
Key Features in an Online Community Platform
Let’s check out what features online community platforms offer for educational institutions. Later, we will talk about features and benefits for students (if you, dear reader, are a student, be patient; we will get there soon).
Customization options and branding capabilities
For effective business impact, your community should mirror your brand, ensuring a consistent experience for all. Choose software that offers custom color schemes, typography, and layouts. Platforms that allow code snippets offer extra customization, which is handy for future ad revenue.
User-friendly interface and ease of navigation
The primary requirement for a successful online community platform is a user-friendly interface. It should be intuitive and easy to navigate. This will allow members to quickly find information and join discussions. A clean design with clear categories, tags, and search makes the user experience much better.
Integration with other tools and platforms
For your community to benefit a broader group, it must integrate with other software. Such integrations ensure effective collaboration between platforms and maximize your existing tech investments.
Analytics and Reporting Capabilities
A key advantage of a brand-owned community is access to member data for insights on marketing, sales, product strategies, and more. Many community platforms offer built-in tools for analyzing popular discussions, trends, and growth statistics.
What are the Best Online Community Platforms?
EducateMe
EducateMe is a great example of an online community platform. It helps digital academies, boot camps, and businesses create courses and launch online schools. EducateMe features data reporting tools for attendance, completion rates, learner activity, and top courses.
Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks allows you to build your learning community on your website, design a website, create online courses, and charge participants. The platform includes activity feeds, member profiles, and a data analytics dashboard.
Circle
Course creators use Circle to craft courses with community-driven content. A standout feature of Circle is “spaces,” which provide various content categories for the audience. These spaces can be forums, threads, live events, or both public and private chat rooms. The purpose of spaces is to organize content and audiences into sub-groups or discussion threads.
Slack
Slack is primarily a collaboration and work-sharing tool supporting the communication of millions of large and small teams. It is a secure space for sharing ideas, maintaining discussions, and making quick calls.
The platform features channels for general team communication, specific groups, and direct messages. Onboarding and navigation are easy and don’t need a special introduction.
Discourse
Discourse is a standout community website with simple customization and design options. It suggests powerful anti-spam tools and has its own mobile apps that support accessibility across platforms. Additionally, Discourse allows endless scrolling within forum conversations, fostering a strong sense of community and integration with the community.
Hivebrite
Hivebrite is mainly for alumni networks but is expanding to other uses. It provides dedicated subgroups for students to connect to, a branded mobile app, and a job board for employment opportunities. It comes with an integrated content management system and provides data and analytics.
Kajabi
Kajabi is an all-in-one tool for building and running a community, selling, marketing, and delivering content. A simple and user-friendly landing page and course builder offers customizable themes that can be managed even without having tech skills. The integration with Stripe supports in-app payments for content.
Conclusion
Communities are extremely valuable platforms for learning, communicating, and growing. By providing these and many other features, businesses acquire a stable source of profit and a powerful tool to promote business. They create opportunities for real-time feedback, continuous improvement, and deeper customer insights, all of which are essential for stable business growth. Additionally, these platforms serve as hubs for innovation and collaboration, enabling members to share ideas, solve problems collectively, and drive forward various initiatives.