Perhaps one of the most important innovations of the recent digital revolution for professionals has been the rise of online learning platforms. Currently, more than 6 million people are taking courses offered by these online learning platforms, underpinning their reach, popularity and effectiveness as an essential learning medium primed to suit the needs of the modern workforce through offering learning management software.
People have started opted for online course platforms for a wide variety of reasons, but the most influential among them are as follows:
Highly Affordable For The Masses:
Conventionally, education was just offered by traditional institutions like colleges and universities and the amount of fees one is required to pay off in order to complete their education in them is incredibly high. Student debt is one of the most pressing concerns in USA right now, with a total valuation running to more than a trillion dollars.
In such a scenario, online learning platforms are much more affordable, requiring very little investment to get started. Prices usually run in the range of $50-$1000 and sometimes the courses are absolutely free as well.
Optimized For Fitting Into Personal Schedules:
If you enroll yourself in a degree program at a college, you will be required to attend mandatory classes at set times during each week. This often becomes a hassle for people who are holding full time jobs as they have to file for approvals in their organizations to get a leave for study for a set time interval.
Online courses don’t work like that as in them, a person can start studying whenever it wants and for however long it wants. If a person doesn’t have time during the week, it can take the courses during the weekend or take in short, manageable bursts that can be easily accommodated in a work week.
Tech Friendly:
You have to be physically present during each class if you have a degree program going on in a certain college, which makes traditional education rigid in terms offering flexibility of any sort of even fostering the idea of gaining knowledge whenever the person gets time.
On the other hand, online learning course can viewed anywhere and from any device. Irrespective of whether you are taking the train to work or sitting at family picnic on the beachside, your learning will commence whenever you want it to.
Online learning platforms are definitely here to stay, but in recent times, there has been a rise in the number of platforms operating in this sphere, with each one of them offering a very distinct set of advantages and disadvantages and learning compatibilities.
In this article, we’ll be comparing two such online platforms, Quickstart vs. Udemy, in a comprehensive manner in order to allow you to gain enough knowledge regarding each one of them which is necessary to make an informed choice.
Let’s start:
Udemy:
This can be considered the Amazon of the online learning world. Udemy primes itself as a course marketplace where teachers from all diverse skills set can come and offer their courses, which students then rate on a five star scale.
Pros:
The biggest USP of Udemy is its absolute size. Housing over 100,000 courses currently, Udemy offers course on nearly every possible topic out there like design and development, writing, business management, networking, Cybersecurity etc.
There is no subscription fee or even a monthly fee as users are just required to pay for the courses they want to opt for. You don’t have to follow set topic paths as you are free to choose whichever course you are interested in and start right away.
Prices for each course vary but the prices are often kept very affordable. Discounts are very common and if you are lucky enough to buy a course within one, the price you’ll pay will be less than $15. On top of all this, many courses on Udemy are absolutely free.
Cons:
Udemy’s marketplace model brings it its biggest demerit in the form of low-value courses being abundant on the platform. These courses offer very less in terms of knowledge and some are even used as a front to market specific products and services.
The rating system is there to help users know more about such courses but the fact that they are there, make Udemy a risky option for users who have little technical knowledge regarding their subject.
While you do get a certification of completion once you complete a course at Udemy, the platform itself does not offer accredited certifications.
Quickstart:
Quickstart is the online platform to opt for you if you want to prepare yourself for top certifications in relevant technical fields like network security, Cisco systems, cloud computing, AWS management etc. along with getting enrolled in courses for these actual certifications.
The platform is relatively high tech as compared to its peer services with the learning modules being powered by AI based mechanisms to power customized learning through its free learning platform for enterprises, training companies and individual candidates.
Pros:
The biggest advantage of opting for Quickstart is that you will be priming yourself for a career upgrade as most of the courses offered by the platform are highly technical certifications that are valued globally and serve as a validation of your knowledge and skill set.
The platform focuses on increasing workforce readiness by ensuring that the candidates have access to AI based learning tools that allow them to get customized learning modules offered to them that help in addressing relevant knowledge gaps for immediate workplace needs.
Cons:
For many candidates, the high upfront investment for courses at Quickstart might be an obstacle. On top of this, the cost of these courses becomes much more critical for candidates as the certifications are often difficult to pass and require extensive preparation to go through.
The prices may be justified considering the fact that these certifications allow candidates to gain real time advantages in terms of becoming able towards securing higher pay in jobs and using these certifications as marketing collateral, but the commitment and dedication required to complete them might be too much for some individuals.
Final Verdict:
If you are willing to pay a higher cost in order to secure tangible benefits in terms of career growth and advancement, then Quickstart is the platform you need to opt for. Udemy is much more popular than Quickstart, but the former’s lack of vetting and certifications makes it a learning platform that offers much less value to an individual as compared to Quickstart.