Topic: Need help with building an education forum

[nas.98]

Hello,

I am a private tutor working on a website to provide paid video lectures/lessons for students learning chartered accountancy. I talked with a web developer and to create a website like I had in mind is beyond my budget. So I'm sticking to forums to carry out my plan. However I have minimal experience in smf or coding of any kind. So I would like to know if the features that I need is possible through SMF and what are the modifications necessary to carry them out.

Required Features:

Suppose my site provides video lectures for 3 chapters namely A, B and C. When a student comes to my site, he/she have access to free video previews for these subjects and access to a Help & FAQ section in the forums.

To access the video lectures, the student have to register. While registering, the plans/prices are shown and the student can choose a package and pay for it in the registering page.

Once the students have paid and registered, they now have access to the subjects they paid for. So suppose, the student paid for the subject A, he/she can access the forum section A and see the videos. If the student paid for all the subjects, he/she would have access to A, B and C forum sections. I would upload videos to a different website and display it in topics under the respective forum sections.
So basically, I am displaying subjects through forum sections and videos/lessons in forum topics.

Is this possible? And if it is what are the additional modifications that I would require to set it up?

Thank you

[Kindred]

are you looking to actually have online conversations with the students in the forum?

If not, then a forum software is probably the wrong functionality.

If you are just looking to provide them with access to videos and documents...   then I would actually suggest WordPress with a member management and access control add-on.

[Arantor]

I was possibly debating installing Moodle but that has a higher learning curve.

[nas.98]

are you looking to actually have online conversations with the students in the forum?

If not, then a forum software is probably the wrong functionality.

If you are just looking to provide them with access to videos and documents...   then I would actually suggest WordPress with a member management and access control add-on.

No, not online conversations. Pre-recorded videos and notes. And also a section for students to ask queries.

I was possibly debating installing Moodle but that has a higher learning curve.

Does Moodle fit my requirements?

[Arantor]

Well, Moodle is literally a piece of software used to deliver online learning - and I know people are using it to do the kind of thing you're talking about, paying for access to courses and delivering the courses online, but they *tend* to have more material in the courses than you're talking about.

It does also tend to focus on having a forum for discussion per 'course' that you do.

But the setup is harder, even if it sounds like it's actually more in tune with what you're trying to do.

[nas.98]

I just checked Moodle out but am not too sure about it. It looks complicated to me. Moreover, what I am planning to do is a startup with a very low capital.. I thought I'd start off straight and simple. I experimented with Wordpress as well, but I have very little knowledge about it.

As of now, I have already set up a small forum. Created some categories, boards and tweaked with membership permission groups and permission. I would like to know if there are any particular smf modifications or add-ons that would be beneficial to my forum.

[m4z]

Why not use existing sites like udemy, pluralsight (more tech-focussed), …?

[Kindred]

http://ajjuliani.com/wordpress-101-for-teachers/
https://www.hostgator.com/blog/best-wordpress-plugins-educators-teachers/


I could probably set up a site like you describe in WP in about 30 minutes...   so, for a newbie, maybe 2 hours of work getting it set up with the plugins and configured.

I think a forum is overkill for what you are looking to do and will end up causing more confusion than anything else, without some serious formatting tweaks to make it look less forum-like

[nas.98]

Why not use existing sites like hxxp:support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003469994-How-to-Become-an-Instructor-FAQ [nonactive], hxxp:www.pluralsight.com/teach [nonactive], …?

I have gone through udemy, but I'm not comfortable with their revenue sharing schemes and promotion offers. Additionally, it feels like I have very less control over the portions, timetables, etc.

hxxp:ajjuliani.com/wordpress-101-for-teachers/ [nonactive]
hxxp:www.hostgator.com/blog/best-wordpress-plugins-educators-teachers/ [nonactive]


I could probably set up a site like you describe in WP in about 30 minutes...   so, for a newbie, maybe 2 hours of work getting it set up with the plugins and configured.

I think a forum is overkill for what you are looking to do and will end up causing more confusion than anything else, without some serious formatting tweaks to make it look less forum-like

I'll look into it, thanks. If it doesn't work, I'll be going for a forums with paid videos.