LearnWorlds Review: Is This the Best LMS for You?

Is LearnWorlds the best learning management system for creating and selling your online courses? This LearnWorlds review will break down its features, pricing, and usability to help you decide.

Key Takeaways

• LearnWorlds is a user-friendly online course platform designed for educators to create, market, and sell courses without needing technical skills.

• The platform offers advanced features like interactive course creation tools, student engagement options, and customizable websites to enhance learning experiences.

• LearnWorlds provides a 30-day free trial for potential users to explore its features, with varied pricing plans catering to different business sizes and needs, including eLearning businesses.

LearnWorlds Review: Is This the Best LMS for You?

LearnWorlds is a prominent online course platform designed to help educators create, market, and sell their courses efficiently. It’s known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for users to navigate and build their online schools without technical expertise. LearnWorlds combines course design, analytics, and community engagement into a robust ecosystem for creators and learners.

LearnWorlds organizes courses into sections and lessons, ensuring logical progression for learners and simplifying creation for educators, thus delivering a structured learning experience. Additionally, LearnWorlds allows users to create eBooks without the need for external tools.

But is LearnWorlds the best LMS for you? This in-depth LearnWorlds review covers its core features, user interface, pricing, and more to aid your decision-making process. Here’s what sets LearnWorlds apart in the crowded online course platform market.

Introduction

This review aims to evaluate whether LearnWorlds is the ideal learning management system (LMS) for users. With numerous LMS options available, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. LearnWorlds offers an all-in-one solution for course creators, but does it live up to its promises?

We’ll cover everything you need to know about LearnWorlds, from its key features and target audience to the ease of getting started and the tools available for enhancing student engagement. This review will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of LearnWorlds’ offerings and help determine if it suits your online education needs.

Overview of LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is a prominent online platform designed for educators to create, market, and sell their courses efficiently. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy for users to build courses and websites without needing advanced technical skills. Offering a comprehensive solution, LearnWorlds includes features for course design, analytics, and community engagement, making it a versatile tool for educators.

The main feature of LearnWorlds is its robust online course builder, which facilitates the creation of rich and interactive learning experiences. This section provides an overview of what LearnWorlds is, its key features, and who it is designed for.

What is LearnWorlds?

LearnWorlds is an online course platform recognized among the best in the industry. Created in 2014, it has grown by accommodating users’ needs and scaling easily. The platform is designed with a well-crafted back-end user experience, focusing on effective course hosting and management.

Additionally, LearnWorlds allows users to create eBooks without the need for external tools and supports the management of multiple schools under one account, providing flexibility for larger education providers.

Key Features

LearnWorlds offers advanced tools for creating interactive videos and eBooks that enhance the learning experience. Users can create a variety of content formats for course activities, including interactive lessons, multimedia, and quizzes, which support bringing a diverse learning experience.

Moreover, course creators can set courses to various access types such as draft, free, or paid, enabling control over visibility and enrollment options. The Starter plan includes access to unlimited paid courses, highlighting this feature as a key benefit.

Target Audience

LearnWorlds is designed to serve a diverse target audience, including course creators, educators, and corporate trainers. Course creators, especially those who run large businesses, can leverage LearnWorlds for its robust features tailored to complex course management.

Educators seeking simple online course creation will find LearnWorlds’ features supportive, particularly those who are new to this environment. Additionally, corporate trainers can utilize LearnWorlds to create tailored training programs and enhance employee skill development.

Getting Started with LearnWorlds

Getting started with LearnWorlds is seamless, enabling quick setup and use. A free 30-day trial provides access to core features without needing a credit card, letting users explore LearnWorlds risk-free. This is particularly beneficial for online creators and eLearning businesses looking to create interactive learning experiences.

After signing up, users can start creating courses immediately with the help of the School Wizard, which assists in setting up the online school and configuring settings. Additionally, the platform offers a flexible site builder, blogging features, and landing pages for site customization.

Sign-Up Process

LearnWorlds provides a 30-day free trial, allowing users to explore the platform without commitment. The trial is available without requiring a credit card, making it easier for users to try the platform risk-free. However, there is no free plan available; users must rely on the 30-day free trial to test the platform.

The sign-up process is straightforward and user-friendly, designed to accommodate all potential users, whether they are experienced educators or newcomers to course creator online course creation.

Setting Up Your Online School

The School Wizard is a tool that helps users in setting up an interactive online school on LearnWorlds. It guides users through configuring fundamental settings such as school name, logo, and branding elements, ensuring a professional appearance right from the start.

Once the basic setup is complete, users can start adding courses by providing essential details like course name, image, description, URL slug, access type, pricing, and delivery options. This step-by-step approach simplifies the process for course creators, enabling them to focus on content creation.

Dashboard Tour

The main dashboard in LearnWorlds provides an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs), user information, and an events log, giving users a comprehensive view of their online school’s activity. All components in LearnWorlds load quickly, contributing to a smooth user experience.

From the sidebar in the main dashboard, users can access the main features of LearnWorlds easily, including course creation, web page design, student management, and analytics. While the admin interface is described as intuitive and pleasant, some users find it somewhat outdated in design and potentially overwhelming due to its complex features.

Despite these minor drawbacks, the LearnWorlds dashboard is a powerful tool that provides all necessary information and access points for managing an online school effectively.

Course Creation Tools

LearnWorlds provides advanced course creation tools, including multimedia content formats such as videos, audio files, PDFs, live lessons, quizzes, and SCORM/HTML5 files. These tools enable course creators to design engaging and interactive learning experiences, catering to various learning styles.

The Course Creation Wizard provides a guided process for setting up a course effectively, while the Theme Explorer offers a selection of pre-designed color schemes and fonts that can be instantly applied to pages.

Additionally, LearnWorlds includes advanced assessment features and good copyright protection, suitable for a variety of learning environments, including corporate training.

Course Builder

The course builder in LearnWorlds allows users to organize courses by adding multiple sections and learning activities. Lessons can be reordered or moved between sections by dragging and dropping, providing flexibility in course design. Users can create course outlines from scratch or utilize an AI assistant to generate suggestions, making the process more efficient.

There is control over course layout and pages, with a customizable course player’s style to match the course’s branding. However, a notable drawback is that videos must be added to the video library first before they can be included in the course lessons, adding an extra step that diminishes ease of content integration.

Some users find the course builder’s interface cluttered and not intuitive, potentially deterring beginners despite its powerful features.

Interactive Learning Activities

LearnWorlds supports various types of assessments, including graded SCORM assignments, text, file, video, audio assignments, and self-assessments. The platform offers learning activities such as Match & Ordering and various quizzes, enhancing the learning experience. Assignments can feature written answers, file uploads, grading, and feedback, providing comprehensive evaluation options.

Quizzes can be set to automatically grade submissions, with options for timed exams and limited retries, ensuring students are adequately challenged. You can enforce a minimum passing score for assessments within your course to ensure learner comprehension and set specific lessons as prerequisites to progress through the course, ensuring a structured learning path.

LearnWorlds includes an interactive video feature that lets students interact directly with videos. When an interactive element appears in a video, it automatically pauses, allowing students to respond, enhancing engagement. Customization options for videos include text overlays and interactive elements like buttons, further enriching the learning experience.

Content Protection

LearnWorlds provides content protection options such as watermarking for videos and PDFs, ensuring that course materials are safeguarded from unauthorized access. The platform supports standards like HTML5 and SCORM for course content, offering robust protection for creators’ intellectual property.

Enhancing Student Engagement

LearnWorlds offers a built-in social network to enhance student engagement. Features like interactive materials and community spaces are designed to increase student involvement and foster a collaborative learning environment. Tools such as interactive quizzes and learning activities are also provided to maintain high levels of student engagement.

These features collectively promote a collaborative learning environment and significantly improve the student learning experience.

Course Player

The course player in LearnWorlds offers a customizable appearance with five different skins and control over which elements are displayed. The default layout provides a large content area on the right and a table of contents on the left, ensuring that students can easily navigate through lessons. Sequential navigation helps maintain the intended course flow by locking lessons, guiding students through the material.

The course player is mobile responsive by default, providing a clean, simple, and modern user interface for students on various devices. Students can engage interactively with materials in the course player by highlighting text and taking notes, enhancing their learning experience.

Gamification and Rewards

Gamification elements like point systems and leaderboards are incorporated to motivate students and enhance their participation. These elements foster competition and recognition among students, which can lead to increased motivation and involvement in their learning journey.

Gamification elements in LearnWorlds effectively engage students and encourage course commitment.

Community Building

LearnWorlds facilitates community interaction through discussion spaces where students can share insights and collaborate. Building a community among learners enhances collaboration and increases engagement in online courses, creating a supportive and interactive learning environment.

Website and Page Customization

LearnWorlds offers a user-friendly platform for creating a custom website without coding skills, allowing users to align their brand identity with their online presence. The Theme Explorer provides control over color schemes, typography, buttons, and page layouts from a single menu, making it easy for users to create a high-converting website.

With more than 18 professional templates tailored to various business types, users can choose a design that fits their needs and customize it further to reflect their brand. This section covers the variety of website themes, the drag-and-drop page builder, and the built-in blogging tools.

Website Themes

LearnWorlds offers a diverse array of website themes to cater to various preferences. Over 50 unique website themes are available, allowing users to find a design that suits their brand and target audience.

Once a theme is selected, users can customize the design of their site, including adjusting color schemes, layouts, and fonts. A site theme can be activated in LearnWorlds after you have worked on customizing it, ensuring a cohesive and professional look.

Page Builder

LearnWorlds offers a drag-and-drop website builder, allowing users to create pages with ease. The page builder enhances time efficiency by including global elements like headers and footers, along with easy copy and paste features.

Despite its advantages, there are several usability issues associated with LearnWorlds’ page builder, such as limited flexibility and occasional glitches. However, Magic Templates in LearnWorlds allow users to easily switch templates for a section without losing content, and custom button styles can be designed according to user preferences.

Blogging Tools

LearnWorlds offers a built-in blogging feature that provides users with tools to create and publish blog posts to enhance their content marketing efforts. Users can personalize their blog’s homepage by utilizing the page builder for design adjustments, making blogging an effective strategy for engaging with their audience and driving traffic to their online courses.

Sales and Marketing Features

LearnWorlds is designed for creating, marketing, and selling online courses, recognized for its all-in-one solution, extensive customization options, and effective marketing tools. The platform helps process payments and sell courses with essential tools, including coupons, bundles, and membership options to enhance sales. To get started, you will need to create a learnworlds account.

Sales metrics such as individual orders and revenues can be tracked in LearnWorlds, providing insights into the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and overall business performance. Performance tracking allows users to understand their marketing efforts better and optimize strategies for higher conversion rates.

Payment Processing

LearnWorlds supports multiple payment gateways, including four different options, which facilitate a range of financial transactions. The checkout process includes one-step and two-step options and is customizable with templates to fit your brand.

Stripe is the payment gateway that supports recurring payments in LearnWorlds, and the platform offers a Sandbox mode for testing the payment process before going live.

Affiliate Program

LearnWorlds includes an affiliate program that helps users promote courses and increase sales. The affiliate program features built-in affiliate tools, product selection, commission percentage control, cookie expiration, payout delay, registration process management, and a private dashboard for affiliates.

Affiliates can create custom tracking links for course sales, allowing them to effectively monitor their referrals. However, payments to affiliates must be done manually via PayPal, ensuring direct payment management.

Marketing Campaigns

LearnWorlds integrates with popular email marketing tools like MailChimp and ActiveCampaign for effective communication and marketing campaigns. The platform provides various promotional tools, including customizable landing pages, affiliate programs, and built-in blogging features to enhance marketing efforts.

The affiliate management tools offered by LearnWorlds help in increasing sales, while customizable landing pages can enhance conversion rates for your courses. These tools collectively support comprehensive marketing campaigns, driving higher engagement and sales.

Reporting and Analytics

Reporting and analytics tools in LearnWorlds are essential for gaining insights into business performance. LearnWorlds provides in-depth insights on the impacts of learning business through its reporting tools, though basic in nature, necessitating all the tools for more detailed insights.

The School Dashboard provides insights into key metrics such as sign-ups, revenue, and active learners, offering a snapshot of the online school’s performance. The Reports Center offers detailed insights such as sales/orders, product revenues, and logs for events and emails.

Performance Metrics

LearnWorlds tracks key performance indicators such as course completion rates, exam scores, time spent, and completion percentages to gauge student performance. Users can visualize course enrollments and user engagement through a variety of charts and metrics, providing clear insights into student progress.

Advanced filtering options enable users to segment and export learner data effectively, allowing for detailed analysis and more informed decision-making.

User Progress Tracking

LearnWorlds enables tracking of various user activities such as exam results and course participation. In-depth reporting features provide a clearer view of student engagement and progression over time, helping educators to adjust their courses for better outcomes.

Tracking user progress is crucial in online learning to ensure students are engaged and on track with their courses, leading to improved learning outcomes and better course completion rates.

Financial Reports

LearnWorlds allows tracking of both course revenues and individual transactions for detailed financial oversight. Automated financial reporting capabilities simplify the process of managing sales metrics and revenue tracking, providing a comprehensive understanding of a business’s financial health.

Integration with Third-Party Apps

LearnWorlds supports integration with over 2000 third-party tools, enhancing its functionality and providing users with a wide range of options. These integrations include affiliate programs, email providers, analytics tools, and video solutions, streamlining user engagement and customer interaction.

Using various APIs to integrate third-party tools with LearnWorlds enhances functionality and user experience, though it requires developing code within the third-party tool and embedding that code in the LearnWorlds site’s HTML. This section covers integrations with email marketing tools, analytics platforms, and video hosting services.

Email Marketing Tools

LearnWorlds integrates with popular email marketing tools including MailChimp, ConvertKit, Aweber, Moosend, and ActiveCampaign. However, LearnWorlds does not have an inbuilt email marketing tool, requiring users to connect external services through embedded forms or Zapier for higher-tier plans.

These integrations facilitate easier lead capture and communication, supporting effective marketing campaigns and audience engagement.

Analytics Platforms

Integrating analytics platforms can provide deeper insights into user behavior and engagement. Platforms such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Facebook can be integrated with LearnWorlds for enhanced tracking and insights, helping course creators better understand student engagement and course performance.

By leveraging these analytics tools, educators can improve their content and marketing strategies, leading to better learning outcomes and higher conversion rates.

Video Hosting Services

LearnWorlds integrates with Vimeo and Wistia for hosting videos, providing advanced analytics, custom colors, and player settings to enhance the learning experience. While LearnWorlds features an inbuilt custom video player, using external players like Vimeo and Wistia can offer additional benefits and flexibility for course creators.

Mobile App Capabilities

LearnWorlds provides a mobile app designed specifically for users who want to access their courses remotely. The mobile app enables users to engage with courses anywhere at any time, enhancing the learning experience and flexibility for users.

However, unlike some competitors that offer free mobile apps, LearnWorlds does not provide free mobile apps and charges additional costs for branded mobile apps.

Custom Mobile App

Course creators can launch a custom mobile app in less than 60 minutes using a drag-and-drop app editor. LearnWorlds allows course creators to create their own branded app, which is a unique offering compared to competitors like Kajabi. The app can be fully customized, allowing changes to its name, logo, fonts, typography sizes, background images, and text colors.

LearnWorlds charges additional costs for branded mobile apps.

Customization is made easy through a visual builder, providing 100% app design freedom using ready-made template sections and widgets. After the app is built, the LearnWorlds team will test and launch it in app stores, and course creators can manage notifications and analytics from their account.

The custom mobile app is available on iOS and Android, but it is important to have a good use case to justify its development.

Offline Learning

LearnWorlds offers an offline video mode, which enhances learning flexibility by allowing users to download course content for offline access. This feature ensures that students can access their courses anytime and anywhere, improving their learning experience significantly.

App Analytics

App analytics in LearnWorlds provide crucial insights into how users interact with mobile courses. Understanding learner engagement through app analytics helps educators enhance course effectiveness and user satisfaction. Key metrics tracked by app analytics include the number of active users and session lengths, providing a comprehensive view of user behavior.

Utilizing the insights gained from app analytics can lead to improved instructional strategies and a better overall learner experience in the LearnWorlds environment.

Pricing Plans

LearnWorlds has three primary pricing options. These include the Starter plan, the Pro Trainer plan, and the Learning Center plan. Each plan is designed to cater to different needs and budgets, providing flexibility for course creators.

This section covers the details and features of each pricing plan.

Starter Plan

The Starter Plan costs $24/month and is suitable for small businesses but charges a $5 fee for each course sale. Features included in the Starter Plan are a Home page, Course Catalogue, and After Login page, with a maximum of 3 pages for customization.

The Starter Plan incurs a 5% transaction fee for course sales, which can add up for high-volume sellers. Cheaper plans have restricted features, limiting access to advanced functionalities like the interactive video editor or copyright protection.

Despite its limitations, the Starter Plan is cost-effective for small businesses.

Pro Trainer Plan

The Pro Trainer Plan costs approximately $100 per month. Starting at $79/month, it accommodates up to five instructors and includes unlimited courses. This plan offers integrations for enhanced functionality and includes a 0% transaction fee, making it a more economical choice for those with higher sales volumes.

Learning Center Plan

The Learning Center Plan, priced at $249/month, is ideal for larger businesses, supporting bulk uploads and collaborations with up to 20 instructors. This plan includes advanced integrations and premium support, making it suitable for corporate learning platforms and small-medium-sized companies.

Pros and Cons of learnWorlds

Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses, and LearnWorlds is no exception. Here’s a quick overview of the pros and cons:

Pros

• Feature-Rich Platform: LearnWorlds offers a wide range of advanced features, including interactive videos and comprehensive course creation tools.
• Scalability: It supports both small and large-scale educational operations, making it suitable for diverse users.
• Engagement Tools: The platform includes interactive learning activities that enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes.
• Customizable Website Builder: Users can create high-converting websites with flexible design options.
• Sales and Marketing Tools: LearnWorlds provides robust tools to promote and sell courses effectively.

Cons

• High Pricing for Advanced Features: The cost can be prohibitive for users who need access to advanced functionalities.
• Learning Curve: New users may find the platform challenging to navigate initially due to its extensive features.
• Inflexible Course Builder: The course builder lacks a bulk upload feature and can be cumbersome to use.
• User Experience Issues: Some users find the interface somewhat outdated and not intuitive, which can be a barrier for beginners.

Alternatives to LearnWorlds

While LearnWorlds offers a comprehensive solution for course creators, it’s worth considering other platforms that can meet specific needs, such as Thinkific, Kajabi, and Teachable.

Each of these alternatives has unique features and benefits that might be a better fit for some users.

Thinkific

Thinkific is a user-friendly platform suitable for beginners looking to create and sell online courses. It is considered to be more affordable compared to LearnWorlds, making it a great option for those just starting in the online education space.

Kajabi

Kajabi is another alternative that offers a range of features similar to LearnWorlds. It is designed to accommodate various digital products, including courses, memberships, and coaching, offering more powerful marketing tools than LearnWorlds.

Teachable

Teachable is known for its simplicity and strong community support for course creators. It provides fewer features than LearnWorlds and has a more minimalistic design, appealing to users who prefer simplicity. Teachable is noted for its user-friendly interface, making course creation simple and accessible. It is particularly attractive for new course creators due to its excellent customer service and straightforward course-building tools.

However, it lacks advanced educational features like SCORM support and detailed reporting tools.

Customer Support and Resources

LearnWorlds provides 24/7 email support for customer and technical inquiries, ensuring users can get help whenever they need it. The platform also offers various customer support options to assist users with their inquiries.

Support Channels

LearnWorlds offers customer support options including email, 24/7 availability, and a dedicated Help Center. Customer support is primarily available via email, with response times typically within a couple of hours.

Additionally, LearnWorlds hosts weekly webinars and offers expertise through the LearnWorlds Academy, contributing to its high ratings for support.

Training Resources

Comprehensive training resources are available to help users navigate the platform, including a Help Center with articles and tutorials for self-learning. The platform provides step-by-step video guides to help users navigate course creation and other features.

These training resources are essential for new users to effectively learn and utilize the platform’s features, ensuring a smooth onboarding process and ongoing support.

Community Engagement

LearnWorlds includes a community feature that allows students to interact and support each other, enhancing the learning environment. The platform includes community features that allow users to interact and share ideas, leading to a collaborative learning experience.

Community features in online learning platforms are essential for fostering peer support and enhancing the overall learning experience.

Summary

In summary, LearnWorlds offers a robust and comprehensive platform for creating, marketing, and selling online courses. Its advanced features, interactive tools, and flexible customization options make it a great choice for educators, course creators, and corporate trainers. However, the platform does come with a learning curve and can be expensive for those needing advanced features.

Whether you’re a seasoned course creator or just starting, LearnWorlds provides the tools and support needed to build engaging and effective online courses. Explore LearnWorlds and see if it aligns with your educational goals and requirements. With its extensive features and strong community support, it might just be the perfect fit for you.

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