The idea that quality education can only be found in the classroom has changed radically. Low cost and convenience continue to make online learning popular with students. Even before the pandemic hit, the online education empire was projected to be a $350 billion industry by 2025. As a result, there are a wide range of online learning platforms available to help build educational courses.
What Is Thinkific?
Thinkific is an online course platform designed to create, document, and track educational classes. Known as a learning management system (LMS), Thinkific makes online learning content possible. It can also be used to create courses for continuing education, professional development, and for skilled employees. Thinkific serves a wide range of users from the teacher looking to offer an online coursework option for a class to the business owner seeking to build and grow their online education company.
What Does Thinkific Offer
Thinkific has a scalable platform that can be used for small cohorts to courses with hundreds of attendees. With no technical or design experience necessary, users can easily create on-demand or live classes. As long as students have an internet connection, this cloud-based solution is accessible. Other notable Thinkific features include.
User-friendly platform: With drop-and-drag building capabilities, Thinkific makes it easy to add content, create quizzes, and upload video files.
Promotional tools: Thinkific comes with a suite of marketing tools to help promote your online courses. Users can easily display their online class offerings on a website designed for education. The platform handles third-party integrations with CRM systems, mailing lists, and outside websites.
Payment options: Users can accept payments from more than 100 countries. Thinkific gives users the ability to set up memberships or subscriptions, accept coupons, offer free classes, and allow for a monthly payment plan.
Student tools: Thinkific helps improve student engagement with its long list of tools to track their progress. With the student dashboard, they can interact with communities and print out completion certificates. Content creators can monitor student enrollment and student progress, as well as engage in student discussions.
Robust customer support: With help only a phone call or email away, content creators spend their time teaching, instead of fixing connection or usability problems.
Thinkific Benefits
The online learning creator will find many benefits with the Thinkific online platform.
- With its wide array of customizable tools, it is easy to build a course around your content. The program has a handy feature to add video lessons, audio files, and PDF documents.
- The basic plan is free. This is a good choice for teachers who are looking for an inexpensive way to teach a small group or content creators just starting out. Unlike other platforms, Thinkific does not charge a transaction fee.
- Thinkific is scalable. The online learning platform can accommodate small classes with a few students or courses that attract thousands of attendees. The ability to scale its size is particularly useful for a growing online education company.
- Users can improve student retention by offering bundles of courses, memberships, and subscription-based plans.
Cons of Thinkific
Users noted a handful of drawbacks when using Thinkific.
- Completion certificates looked basic and plain. Given the technical nature of online courses, the design of the certificates of completion seemed out of date.
- Thinkific does not have a mobile app. In addition, the graphics are not mobile friendly.
- Video uploads can be slow or cannot handle larger files.
Pricing
Online course creators have a choice of four different pricing options. Each pricing plan comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
- Under the Free Plan, you can create quizzes, surveys, and limited courses. The plan comes with such core features as email support and is available for unlimited students.
- The Basic Plan adds unlimited courses and live chat support for $49 per month. Basic features include email communication and integration with third-party sites, such as Constant Contact, affiliate reporting, and the ability to use coupons.
- The Pro Plan costs $99 per month and allows for up to five course authors or administrators. This plan allows students to make a one-time payment, setup a payment plan, or choose a subscription package. The Pro Plan comes with additional features such as advanced customization and the ability to sell memberships.
- The Premier Plan is designed for those looking to build an online course business. For a monthly $499 fee, the Enterprise Plan lets you sell courses to organizations, bulk enroll students, and send bulk emails to students through the dashboard. It offers five site admin accounts and up to 50 course authors.
The company also offers a Plus Plan for bigger enterprises or companies with a large volume of students. In addition, Thinkific gives a discount off the rates above if you sign up and pay for an annual subscription.
Alternatives to Thinkific
Udemy generally does not offer as much flexibility in creating your own course. You can create a separate website and brand your course separately from Udemy.
Teachable is a powerful alternative that does offer subdomains, though they still feature the teachable brand.
Should I Choose Thinkific Software?
If you have an online education company or are looking to start one, Thinkific software may be a good fit. The platform makes it easy to set up and customize online classes. With its drop-and-drag capability, you do not need to be a programmer or designer to create exciting course content online. However, if a mobile app is essential, Thinkific may not meet your needs.
With a handful of pricing options, users can pick a plan that best fits their activity. With its free plan, users can create basic online classes, surveys, and quizzes. If your company seeks a more robust online course platform, Thinkific offers a series of premium plans with a range of features such as an analytics platform, admin dashboard, email marketing integrations, and a bulk student emailer.
As students continue to embrace the learning revolution brought about by online classes, Thinkific may be a good option for your remote education classes.