Wouldn’t it be bland if you’re course only consisted of text? Your employees will just skim through. Do you know that the average employee will have forgotten 65 percent of the material covered in the course? What is a better way to learn is through videos that engage learners more. Learn a new skill or gain knowledge via an online course has never been easier. Video-based learning is the new norm. 91% of educational institutions have the same opinion that video increases learners’ satisfaction. While having creative course content is one thing, course video hosting is another.
You have this idea that, oh, I’ll upload a video on a native hosting site. Easy! Well, this is correct but let’s have a different perspective. You upload a video, and it takes too much space therefore, slowing your site down with a bad playback quality. How will you tackle this? Moreover, by simply adding a video you can’t add quizzes to it. A hassle-free way is to opt for a video hosting platform for your online course.
This blog will give you a brief as to why use a video hosting platform and the features to look out for. Furthermore, we will compare the different course video hosting platforms.
Why Use Video Hosting Platforms for Your Courses?
Of course, you can expect course videos to be in GBs which can hinder your website’s speed and playback quality. Since there is rising demand for HD videos, the quality can’t be compromised, and businesses prefer for internal and external use. However, these HD videos also take up hardware storage, and when that happens, the dedicated server is incapable of handling massive traffic. Hence, a video platform is much more convenient.
Moreover, you need a private video hosting platform, where only certain users can access your courses by logging in to the platform. One step ahead, every user should only be able to access the course assigned to them and no other.
In short, video hosting platforms not only tackles with the bandwidth, playback and storage issues but also gives you a powerful toolkit and features to take your course videos to a new level. Also, not all platforms are able to provide an appropriate audience for a video-based course. Therefore, it is vital to choose a video hosting platform with a relevant audience.
What Features to Look Out For
Video hosting platforms give you extensive features, but as an online course creator, you would want some specific requirements as mandatory. To help you make the right decision, here are some key features
- Interactive Video Player that streams HD videos seamlessly
- A learning platform must facilitate live streaming for real-time lectures and on-demand video streaming for self-paced learning.
- Must have an online video library to manage and sort bulks of videos in a proper manner.
- Have the ability to group videos in courses.
- Make your course videos engaging by adding interactivity.
- Analytics for evaluating user interactions, track and analyze different video metrics. This is important if you need to measure the effectiveness of your training.
- It should have a feature of secure embedding on any website
- Can be integrated with multiple IT systems, especially your LMS.
With these key factors in mind, let us get to the top course video hosting platforms.
Top 5 Course Video Hosting Platforms
1. VIDIZMO
VIDIZMO, a Gartner recognized comprehensive video learning platform, offers uploading, streaming and sharing live or on-demand videos for external and internal use. The corporate trainers can stream online classes and have them recorded to stream on-demand. The e-learning experience is made exciting and engaging with the help of interactivity such as quizzes to test the learners’ understanding of the course or have feedback forms.
VIDIZMO lets the trainers and administrators manage bulks of videos via content video library, and group videos together in a YouTube-like playlist, categories and collection. Furthermore, you can download analytics reports and track down viewer's interactions such as views, downloads and shares.
There is more to it than those features. Integrate with other systems such as CRM, CMS, video conferencing tools etc. Assign video access to certain users via user groups, segregate content with multiple autonomous portals and have your course videos play in HD.
2. YouTube
YouTube is a simple platform but the most popular with free course videos. YouTube is a easy platform to host your videos. The platform provides a lot of features but is not comprehensive.
- It allows easy embed of videos
- Create playlist
- Transcription
- Easy sharing
- Private Video option
You can also monetize your videos and earn money using ads. However, there is no interactivity + integration feature. Above all, once you upload your course videos, you give YouTube permission to redistribute and gain ownership of your content. Therefore, there is no system for content restriction.
3. Wistia
Wistia is a marketing platform offering a variety of marketing tools. It is good for online course creators who actually want to sell their courses online. One of the standout features is the customization of the video player. It offers tools to track and monitor the engagement metrics of your courses. Integration with different systems such as CRM is possible. However, you can’t live stream in Wistia, so things like live sales training or product demos cannot be conducted. Moreover, the subscription is not budget-friendly, and Wistia charges you for every video uploaded.
4. Brightcove
Fourth on the list is Brightcove that is a business-centric video hosting platform. You can expect speedy servers and flawless live streaming capabilities. It supports integration, provides embedding options, and you can add interactivity to your educational modules. The content uploaded is monetized, and you retain the ownership. It caters better to external use cases. Brightcove within itself lacks few functionalities and relies heavily on integration with other systems, which can be a hassle.
Read More | Comparison Between VIDIZMO and Brightcove
5. Vimeo
Vimeo offers you a simple yet professional user interface to host your online video courses. Even though it offers limited storage, its powerful customizing options, analytics tools, and helpful community make it a good choice for online video course creators. You can also easily embed videos. Moreover, Vimeo doesn’t display ads or pop-ups in your videos which can be annoying otherwise. The drawback of Vimeo includes
- No restrictions on videos on the free package
- The other (Plus and Pro plans) have weekly limits on bandwidth
Furthermore, as a simple platform, it doesn’t have extensive features compared to VIDIZMO or Brightcove.
Final note
Choosing the right course video hosting platform requires a thorough analysis of the needs and requirements. We listed down some of the best video hosting sites for online course creators for you to opt from. You have simple platforms as well as enterprise video management platforms like VIDIZMO with comprehensive features.
