Top e-learning Platforms in 2022

We all know that we’re up against a crisis, for a brief period of time everything was put to a halt; right from transport, commerce, sports to manufacturing, etc.  But whatever the situation is; be it bad or worse - one thing must not be stopped. Yes! as mostly quoted, “learning must not be stopped”. Amidst all odds, learning must be pursued continuously and nurtured - one such phenomenon that rooted for this for a very long time is the concept of e-learning. Compared to the traditional classroom education, e-learning is a way cheaper, more effective and most importantly, demands less time commitment; as a result, it drastically changed the face of modern education.

Statistics show that the e-learning market worldwide is soaring to new heights and forecast to surpass $ 243 billion by 2022. Over the years, numerous platforms have emerged that took the essentials of e-learning altogether to another level. However, the question is, which are those top e-learning platforms that influence and shape the everyday learning of a common man? Henceforth, in this article, we’re going to walk you through the top e-learning platforms of 2022 so as to help you keep the difficulties of finding worthwhile platforms at bay and learn at your own pace.

Top 5 e-learning platforms in 2022:

1. Coursera
   

Coursera, a free and online learning platform for pursuing university-level courses and certification programmes. The courses are offered under numerous categories, and they are as follows. First, Individual (Main) course that helps in upskilling your talent and subject-matter. It takes 4 to 6 weeks for the completion of the course and upon completion, you’ll receive an e-certificate. Second, a Specialization course to gain mastery over a specific career skill, and it comes with rigorous coursework.

Third, MasterTrack Certifications -  you can obtain a Master's Degree certificate from top universities like Michigan, Chicago, Minnesota, Rutgers, etc. Fourth, it is the Online Degree course for advanced level university-recognized programmes with the course span of 1 to 3 years.  Besides this, you have Guided projects and Professional Certification courses to build your career with hands-on projects and more.

Price & free trial: 7 days of free trial for subscriptions. In Coursera, you’ve got a wide range of categories and pricing plans as per your specific needs as listed below. Click here to join for free.

• Audit option - free
• Individual courses - from $39
• Guided Projects - from $9.99 and earn a guided project certificate
• Specializations - from $39 per month along with specialization certificate
• Professional certificates - from $39 per month with a shareable certificate.
• MasterTrack certificate - from $2000 along with university certificate
• Online degree courses - from $9000 and earn an accredited university bachelor or master’s degree
• Coursera Plus - $399 per year (including unlimited access to 3000+ courses, guided projects, professional certificates and specializations)

Library: 4,400+ courses

Accreditation: Mix of accredited and non-accredited courses

Pros:

1. Offers different types of certification courses and degrees.
2. While opting for MasterTrack certificates and Online Degree courses, the students have the facility to pay in instalments.
   

Cons:

1. Compared to the other platforms, the instructors have less control over the Coursera’s features.
2. When it comes to partner institutions, it is limited to educators.

2. Skillshare

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Yet another most popular and widely opted e-learning platform is Skillshare which offers a spectrum of learning courses under three main categories, they are Create (animation, creative writing, film & video, fine art, etc.), Build (business analytics, freelance & entrepreneurship, marketing, etc.) and Thrive (lifestyle and productivity).

One of the benefits of taking courses from Skillshare is that it works on the project-based approach, which enables students to tap their creativity and apply those new skills in real-life. For example, you have Course Projects and Groups (for writers, screenwriters, etc.) to make engagements more interactive and transparent. Try Skillshare for free.

Price & free trial: Free for 14 days with unlimited access to 2,000+ classes. The team membership (starter) at $99 per year with unlimited access to more than 22,000 classes.

Library:  22,000+ classes

Accreditation: No

Pros:

1. Also offer a bulk pricing on a progressive scale (the higher the number of seats, the lower the per-seat price).
2. Skillshare Schools offers special discounts for nonprofits and schools.
   

Cons:

1. No monthly option available on Team subscription, only annual or multi-year contract.
2. As of now, only two pricing options available -  starter and enterprise (custom pricing)
   
   

3. LinkedIn Learning (formerly, Lynda)

Before transferring all the contents to its own platform called LinkedIn Learning, it offered courses by acquiring one of the oldest e-learning sites called Lynda. Over the years, the platform has been considerably grown to deliver a spectrum of courses ranging from creativity to technology. Moreover, the bit-sized modules of LinkedIn Learning allow learners to absorb information efficiently than in any other platform.

Similar to Skillshare, the LinkedIn Learning too offers massive courses by dividing into three categories of topics; Business (Business Analysis & Strategy, Business Software & Tools, Customer Service, Career Development), Creative (Animation & Illustration, AEC, Audio & Music, Graphic Design) and Technology (Cloud Computing, Data Science, DevOps, Database Management).

Price & free trial: 1 month of a free trial and Premium subscription for $29,99 per month to $299,88 per year (including access to unlimited courses). Try your LinkedIn Learning free trial here.

Library: 16,000+ courses

Accreditation: No

Pros:

1. Availability of course download option for off-line view and complete access to LinkedIn Premium.
2. Facility to add the Completion Certificate to your LinkedIn profile
   

Cons:

1. It is quite challenging to join in as an instructor.
2. Longer learning paths (tracks) for larger skill sets.

4. Udemy

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Coming with a vast library of 1,30,000 courses, Udemy is another most popular e-learning platform with over 35 million learners, 57K instructors and more than 7K enterprise solutions. Suits for the levels of all kinds - beginners, intermediate and advanced, the courses in Udemy are divided into 13 categories, namely; Development, Business, Finance & Accounting, IT & Software, Office Productivity, Personal Development, Design, Marketing, Lifestyle, Photography & Video, Health Fitness, Music and lastly, Teaching & Academics.

Unlike the other platforms, you’ve got no subscription plans; instead, you need to purchase individual courses starting at $9 along with a refund option within 30 days. Moreover, the courses offered are available more than in one language (English) such as German, Japanese, Spanish. Chinese, Russian and so forth. Typically, with Udemy courses, you have got quizzes, coding reference and exercise, assignments and practice tests. Also, you’ve got Udemy for Business to enhance your employee learning with unlimited access to more than 5,000 top courses.

Price & free trial: No free trial available but you’ve got an audit option for numerous popular courses. Individual courses start at $9 to $200 each.

Library: 1,30,000+ courses

Accreditation: No

Pros:

1. Highly flexible for instructors, as there is no setup cost.
2. Requires minimum or no technical knowledge to start with both learning and teaching activities.
   

Cons:

1. The platform has more control over the course price and discounts than the instructors.
2. The instructors have no ownership over their data as Udemy will not share user data and emails.

5. Edx.org

Edx.org is one of the most renowned e-learning platforms backed by top universities and schools that provide top-notch quality courses. In Edx, the courses are categorized and offered on the subject basis. As far as the programs and degrees are concerned, you’ve got a wide array of options such as MicroBachelors Program, MicroMasters Program, Professional Certificate, Online Master’s Degree, Global Freshman Academy, XSeries and Executive Education.

For those who want to avail free courses, can opt for Audit Track courses but they won't be receiving any graded assignments and certificate of completion. Whereas by opting to paid courses, i.e. Verified Track courses, you can get access to assignments, certificates and other graded activities.  Apart from the English courses, you’ve also got some courses in Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, etc.

Price & free trial: No free trial. You have Audit Track courses for free and Verified Track courses start from $50 to $300 each.

Library: 2,500 classes

Accreditation: With Edx.org, you can also enrol into MicroMasters programs (a series of graduate-level courses) and Master’s Degrees (an option for grad school) offered from some of the Top Universities worldwide.

Pros:

1. You can switch from Audit Track courses to Verified Track courses.
2. Facility to download any edx courses for offline viewing.
   

Cons:

1. Requires a technical knowledge or hiring of developers for course implementation of courses and other support.
2. Demands additional costs for hosting and maintenance.

Are you confused over which platform fits your team best or which one to prefer, individual course, business plan or custom pricing? Connect with our experts to get instant solutions for all your queries.