There is so much to love about OnlineCourseHost but I am proceeding with caution. Even though it lacks some of what I would like, I am going to keep the platform and use it for select courses and be patient while improvements are made. However, I give it three tacos because it is just not there yet.
First, I will list just a few items that I find as to be PROs and then I will list the CONs
PRO - EASE OF USE
I have taught GED Test Prep to online students since 2009 - when online meant You Tube videos, mailing workbooks and dvds to students, and answering questions via email! So much has changed since then! I have used many platforms over the years and this one is the easiest to use - simple course set-up and clean UI for the creator.
PRO - QUESTION SECTION
Each section you add comes with a built-in question section which is perfect for interacting with students. It has a robust WYSIWYG interface so a student can submit a picture, video, text, link or whatever is necessary to express their question and the teacher can respond in kind.
PRO - QUIZ
Although the quiz feature is limited, it is powerful as it can be added as a pre-test, post-test to help a student gain confidence in what they are learning.
PRO - COURSE ADMINS
This feature is really the "holy grail" of LTD course offerings. Even the big platforms like Thinkific, Teachable or Kajabi do not offer this! In OnlineCourseHost, you can add unlimited admins in two categories - website admins and course admins. In this way, one can build a course out for specific students, led by a specific instructor. This allows one to grow their teaching enterprise by increasing your revenue opportunities with courses taught by other instructors.
PRO - EMAIL
The email feature is great and is unlimited with the ability to send emails to specific categories of students. Although these are all eblast type emails, there are few platforms that offer unlimited email as a feature of the product - the only one I can think of is Gumroad.
Now for the CONS.
CON - TOO MUCH "COMING SOON"
For a $100 product, the features like drip courses, basic course reporting for users (students) and pre-requisite lessons, should already be in place.
CON - SUBSCRIPTION FEATURE
The subscription feature is extremely limited and does not allow price tiers for subscriptions. Further, any subscriber gets access to all content and can even view your private courses (although they cannot access your private courses). This is unacceptable for me.
CON - ADMIN FEATURE
I mentioned the admin feature as a PRO earlier in this review, but it does have a few drawbacks to be aware of. First, the course admin cannot add or remove students, only the website admin can. This is so basic to providing admin on a course so it's curious why this permission would be limited for the course admin.
CON - NO PUBLIC ROAD MAP
Road maps are industry standard and their "things are always changing so no road map" answer does not hold up for me.