Deepak Kanakaraju, also known as Digital Deepak, a popular blogger, trainer and info marketer, launches his new startup LearnToday, focusing on making online courses effective with technology and psychology.
LearnToday is taking on the low course completion issue faced by the online course creators by designing activity-based learning programs and providing incentives for completing those activities.
After launching 10+ successful digital marketing courses, Deepak realized that almost 90% of the people who purchase the programs don't complete them. This voids the purpose of the program and reduces the chance of getting the desired results.
Online courses have seen tremendous growth in recent times. From marketing to music, entrepreneurship to editing, consultation to cooking, everything and anything is taught online. The Asian market is seeing a 20% annual increase in its revenue through the online learning industry.
But the dismal course completion rates are the problem. Because if people don't complete the programs, they won’t implement what they learned and can't realize its benefits. The lack of results due to incompletion will make the programs look weaker and less impactful and hurt their growth.
"I felt the course completion rates could impact the overall growth. If I don't get people to complete the program, they can't get the desired results. I won't have testimonials to show that the program works. The conversions won't be great with no solid testimonials supporting the program's quality and what it can do. I will have to compete purely based on price with other creators and have to create multiple programs to survive as each program will lose its shine and interest quickly, "says Deepak Kanakaraju.
Deepak expects to overcome this challenge on two fronts. One is by designing activity-based learning programs where the student understands a concept and then applies it to do assignments. Two by placing incentives for completing and turning in those assignments.
LearnToday focuses on leveraging technology to automate the entire course delivery process - from onboarding the students to assignment tracking to incentive distribution with less human involvement so that the creators can focus on what they do best, creating programs.
To make this happen, Vinodh David, a seasoned techie with over a decade of experience in developing web apps, is joining Deepak as CTO and co-founder.
This approach will create a win-win situation for both the course creator and the students. The students get incentives such as a training fee refund for learning and progress, and the course creators will see a high number of people completing their programs. They will get the results, and the course creators will get raving testimonials.
The testimonials will boost the reputation of the program resulting in better conversion rates. Because more and more people will be interested in joining the program as they see people getting results from the course. Better conversion rates mean the creators will get good ROI from their advertising campaigns and a better possibility of making a profit from the sale.
To find out more about this approach, please visit learntoday.com or send an email to support@learntoday.com.