E-learning and e-training platforms [Directory].

For individuals and for institutions

With more than 800 platforms offered, it appears that the market is not running out of steam. Yet several signs point to fundamental changes.

For example, open source platforms have dropped from 29 to 17. Only those with a large user base and stable funding can sustain technology development efforts.

With social networks, tablets, iPhones and e-books, video-on-demand, telepresence, virtual worlds, geolocation, A.I., etc., the care taken to distribute a platform and the support offered to its user community are no longer enough to ensure success: it is the continuous development to stay in the internet movement that is the ultimate guarantee of sustainability. A platform that does not evolve practically announces its imminent disappearance.

Moreover, since maintenance and update costs are high, even for an open-source platform, it often becomes more cost-effective to pay a minimum fee per student and be rid of the bulk of the technical problems, in other words, to go into hosted mode. Only large institutions or companies can afford the maintenance of a platform.

For others, hosted commercial offerings reach a level of sophistication that can increase the scope of training tenfold and facilitate the work of human resources managers, sophistication that is most often unattainable with corporate resources alone. The number of these offers has exploded. There is no doubt that the formula matches the training needs of most organizations.

What's changing

As there are many tens of millions of institutions and businesses around the world, and all have training needs, the market for online platforms and services is still evolving and growing.

Cloud and mobile functions are the domain of several new players and platforms are becoming virtualized, sold as services.

"Social" participation is a gamble many are taking, but the challenge of managing interactions with educational value remains.

The new frontier is the massive data accumulated by these platforms that allow for the tracking of learning and especially the individualization of paths. Artificial intelligence is finding fertile ground here and is once again disrupting the very way courses are produced. The resulting expertise will give those who take advantage of it a head start.

Some platforms offer sophisticated reporting, others offer integration with a human resource management system, with career guidance or meaningful personalization of learning.

Many developments are still to come!

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Platforms Open Source	Update: May 2022	© Thot Cursus inc.
	Product name	Company	Country	Language(s)

1	Chamilo	Chamilo	FRA	multi
2	Claroline	University of Leuven	BEL	multi
3	Dokeos	Dokeos	BEL	multi
4	Foma LMS	Forma	INT	EN
5	Ganesha	Anema Formation	FRA	eng, fra
6	Ilias	University of Cologne	ALL	multi
7	LAMS	Lams Foundation	INT	multi
8	Edu-sharing	Metacoon	ALL	all, eng
9	Moodle	Moodle Comm.	AUS	multi
10	Odoo LMS	Odoo	EUR	multi
11	Olat LMS	OLAT	SUI	multi
12	Open edX	Standford MIT	USA	eng
13	Open SWAD	University of Granada	ES	eng
14	Opigno	Connect-i	SUI	en
15	Sakai	Sakai	USA	eng
16	TinyLMS	Randelshofer	SUI	eng
17	Uportal	Apereo	USA	multi

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Online course hosting
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These services, many of which are offered free of charge conditionally with the hope obviously that you reach a certain volume, offer hosting, promotion and management of your students. For freelancers or just starting out, the package is ideal.

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Trade platform directories
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These directories maintain lists of trading platforms with more or less detailed and up-to-date descriptions. There are several hundred, some with sophisticated features tailored to the most specialized needs and markets.

Considering that there are several tens of millions of businesses and educational institutions that will need these tools and services, the market is still very hot.