Need help with building an education forum

Started by nas.98, May 14, 2020, 09:35:04 AM

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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.
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Arantor

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

nas.98

Quote from: Kindred on May 14, 2020, 12:47:39 PM
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.

Quote from: Arantor on May 14, 2020, 02:29:45 PM
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

"Faith is what you have in things that don't exist."
--Homer Simpson

Es gibt hier im Forum ein deutsches Support-Board!

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
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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

nas.98

Quote from: m4z on May 14, 2020, 04:41:32 PM
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.

Quote from: Kindred on May 14, 2020, 05:09:22 PM
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.

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