Best Site To Create an Online Training Course

[DataMedics]

I'm considering creating a few courses on data recovery to offer on my site. The first course I plan to make will be "Data Recovery for the IT Professional" and will be a free course to outline the things every IT professional should know about data recovery (though sadly many don't).

Anyway, I'm looking for a good platform to build the training course. There seems to be a plethora of these out there, but most are little more than just letting you create a bunch of HTML pages and add media (can do that on my own site).

Here's what I'd be looking to build:

• Powerpoint style slides with embedded audio (voice over commentary) which autoplays when you get to each slide. Many I've seen it seems you have to click the play button on each slide which I can only imagine will get very tiring to the student.
• Ability to add video sections
• Quizzes to take between sections.
• Transition effects, etc. would be nice, but not necessary.
• Ability to integrate or at least iframe the course into an existing website.
• Preferably mobile friendly too.

Does anyone have recommendations on such a platform? I can even build most the course in Powerpoint if I could find one that allows uploading that into the player.

 

[DataMedics]

You know what, for the free course I think I can just build it in Powerpoint and embed it into my site. Probably will have to come up with something else if I'm going to later offer paid courses for more advanced data recovery.

 

[avante]

Try https://www.valueaddon.com/

 

[Markverhyden]

I've personally not seen anything that will play PPT's directly online. But it's easy to convert PPT to a video. But there are penalties so to speak.

For reference. I made a PPT memorial when my Mother passed away a couple of years. 69 pictures, ended up with 10 second spacing to match the accompanying music. The pictures were "high res" scan. Generally between 500k and 1mb. The PPT was just over 100mb. I use OS X so the video creation process is different than Windoze. Two exports, .mov and mp4 were both over 500 mb and had no audio.

 

[Your PCMD]

Youtube! Just make a channel, make your training videos using a screen capture like Open Broadcaster and upload to your channel, set to private and link to only those you want to view it.

 

[jmitservices]

I don't know if any of you have seen this channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/hddrecoveryservices

He has some very interesting videos up on recovering data.

 

[4ycr]

take a look at Camtasia, it does everything you want and has a powerpoint plugin to record your presentations.

 

[DataMedics]

Actually, it looks like I can do everything I want just using Powerpoint and Onedrive. I think I may just build the entire thing in Powerpoint, embed the video sections right into the PPT. I'll make a separate PPT for each section of the course and embed it into a page on my site. Then I can build the quizzes just using forms on my website between each section, and require that you pass before it directs you to the page with the next powerpoint embedded. Problem solved.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Actually, it looks like I can do everything I want just using Powerpoint and Onedrive. I think I may just build the entire thing in Powerpoint, embed the video sections right into the PPT. I'll make a separate PPT for each section of the course and embed it into a page on my site. Then I can build the quizzes just using forms on my website between each section, and require that you pass before it directs you to the page with the next powerpoint embedded. Problem solved.

And what stops people from just blatantly ripping off your work? There is no copy protection with that.

 

[MichaelBits]

There are also education platforms that allow you to create lesson plans, tests, etc. All web based.
Moodle for instance.
https://moodle.org/

 

[labtech]

Well, with video content there is no real protection from copying. Anybody can copy it and distribute it as they please, more or less, if they really want to.

I planned on doing video content/courses, too, but then the piracy issue came up. So, this basically really alters the approach in the kind of content to create, with what material limitations, etc. If it is limited, have to wonder if it is really worth the effort? Might be, but maybe not. Shooting good videos and editing them to captivate the end user is not quite easy. Takes time and effort. A lot of screwing up and doing over. It becomes easier once doing it for a while and sort of building a routine.

 

[vincepolston]

I've actually looked into this myself multiple times. I wouldn't use an online course builder type of service like teachable or udemy, etc. From my research, I would suggest doing a self-hosted course. Gives you better control over the whole thing. There are multiple Wordpress based plugins for creating a course site.

 

[DataMedics]

And what stops people from just blatantly ripping off your work? There is no copy protection with that.

I suppose that is true, but it'll be free content anyway for now. I'll just have to be sure to disable downloading of the presentation so it'd be much harder for someone to attempt re-branding it for their own purposes. I think by splitting everything up into sections with quizzes in-between, it'll be fairly inconvenient to try and rip the whole thing.

Later on, I might consider creating some courses for those wanting to venture into professional data recovery. Obviously, that'd have to be more secure.

 

[DataMedics]

I've personally not seen anything that will play PPT's directly online. But it's easy to convert PPT to a video. But there are penalties so to speak.

For reference. I made a PPT memorial when my Mother passed away a couple of years. 69 pictures, ended up with 10 second spacing to match the accompanying music. The pictures were "high res" scan. Generally between 500k and 1mb. The PPT was just over 100mb. I use OS X so the video creation process is different than Windoze. Two exports, .mov and mp4 were both over 500 mb and had no audio.

You can actually just straight embed it from M$ onedrive into an iFrame.

 

[Markverhyden]

You can actually just straight embed it from M$ onedrive into an iFrame.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[callthatgirl]

Matthew Rodela @Y.F.N.C.G. and I just finished an online training course, Matt was the controller of the project and we used a program that he found. http://computerbusinessbreakthrough.com

Outside of Matt's collab project, for my own training videos I do it all myself. I have done over 25 videos since summer and some I offer for free on my Wordpress site using Vimeo. Some I charge for and password protect., Some I have done on YouTube (30 or so) that I use for marketing for clients to call me.

Nothing will stop someone from recording a screen and posting it as their own content. It's pirated but most real clients and techs will pay if there is a purchase. All of my eBooks are on torrents now, have been for years.