Guide on How to Start an Online Learning Business
1. Your staff needs to be certified in the courses that he or she teaches to students. You need to make sure that your staff is properly trained and has the proper educational requirements completed. You want to make sure that your online learning center has experts teaching the course classes offered.
2. You need your own domain name for your online learning business. You need to have enough room for all of your content that your website is going to have on it. Your business is most likely going to use a large amount of bandwidth each month so remember it when you select a web host.
3. You need to get a merchant account for the online learning business. This is important so that the future students can pay and register for the courses offered online in advance.
4. You need to have the course material available in a password protected area on the website. You might need to hire a website programmer to insert some code language into your website to setup password protected area with usernames and passwords.
5. Your online business also needs a chat room area and any message boards for discussion regarding the class course material. This is important so that the students can get any questions answered quickly.
6. Your online learning business needs to have an agreement with the people who teach the classes along with other courses offered each year. You need to decide if they are going to be independent contractors paid per project completed or be an hourly employee. This is important to figure out in advance so you can let them know.
7. Your online learning business needs to be accredited somehow. Students want to know that the education actually valid to employers and schools. They need to know that they will get credit for the educational classes completed.
8. Your online learning business needs to let students know in advance the outline of the courses offered. They need to know exactly what sections is going to be taught in the class and other courses. You also need to announce any specific times that they need to be available for chat discussions and how much class time is required.
9. Have a refund policy on your website with the terms and conditions clearly stated. You want them to know how long of amount of time that they have to quite from a course or class to be eligible a refund.
10. Make sure to include contact information on your online learning center business website. Have a telephone number listed on your website so the students can call the learning center about any questions. You may want to include e-mail addresses and any other additional email addresses of the people who are going to teach the courses.
