In the starting quarter of the year 2020, COVID-19 caught the speed, slowing down every activity in every industry. This impacted largely on the education sector all across the globe, giving birth to the need for online learning.
As a result, schools, colleges, and even coaching centres adopted the method of e-classes or simply online learning.
The E-Learning Market size surpassed USD 250 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to grow at an exponential CAGR of over 21% between 2021 and 2027.
As an educational institution, you will be responsible for enrolling students, securing their information, collecting money, taking attendance, conducting tests, disseminating test results, sending reports to parents, and sharing lesson materials, among other things. You don’t need to design separate systems to carry out all of these tasks.
E-learning site developers started depending on application programming interfaces (APIs) to deliver a hassle-free learning experience for students and end teachers’ manual activities.
Now the question arises “what is an API?”
A programming interface (API) allows one piece of software to access the functionality or data of another. It’s just an organized means of exposing functionality; it gives a consistent, programmatic technique for accessing a resource.
Versatile APIs use a set of protocols to communicate with the server and retrieve data for your e-learning site.
So this shows that APIs are not now restricted to the tech industry; it is prevailing in multiple sectors to reduce the efforts of working staff.
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What An API Does To The Learning Website?
API development makes use of the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and helps to reshape the education business. A developer uses an API to communicate with the system server.
Through an API, the developer communicates with the server about what he or she requires. The server will then process the request and return data or service to the client via the API.
To simplify the working of API in better words, let’s understand it with an example.
A customer requests for the customized jewellery design as per her/his choice to the shop owner. The shop owner jots down each detail of the jewellery design and then gives the jewellery designer the requirement to design it as per the requirement. After the jewellery designer finishes customizing, the jewellery, the shop owner delivers it to the customer.
So now you must have an understanding of exactly how an API works.
The e-learning website developer is the customer, the shop owner is the API, and the jewellery designer is the webserver. This is why API plays an important role in website development services provided by a genuine service provider.
Now comes the key part of this blog, which is choosing the right API.
Selecting The Right API For Your E-Learning Website:
Nowadays, API is the bigger picture behind e-learning websites and it is really necessary to know about the type of API which works best for your website, as there are a dozen of APIs available in the market for numerous requirements.
Before integrating an API, I’ve outlined a few essential components to look for.
1.) User Interface:
Go over the documentation and change the names of the parameters to suit your needs.
2.) Programming Language Support:
It is essential for your website development company to provide instances of programming code in the programming language or library that interacts with the API in the concerned language, depending on its complexity. Google Analytics (GA) and its many libraries covering the updated programming languages, for example.
3.) Information Formats:
XML, JSON, and other lightweight and easy-to-use formats were used to convey the data. A URL encoded string is still returned by some APIs. Humans can read this type of data format easily. Select the appropriate format as per your need.
4.) Characteristics:
Determine which characteristics you require and use that information to narrow down your options. Stripe does not have an authorized capture mechanism for funds, although the PayPal API does.
I have mentioned only a few important components. However, you need to look for all other important components before integrating the right API.
Now Let’s Zoom In On Some Of The Key Benefits Of APIs:
1.) Improved And Strengthened Operations Of Schools And Universities Through APIs:
APIs make it simple to integrate existing features into a system. What’s even better? Any improvements or additions will be accessible to you automatically.
Administrators at schools and universities can look into the broad marketplace of API options to improve functions such as enrollment, tuition, and transactions, as well as access to free educational resources and courses from within the E-learning platform.
2.) Important Services With The Most Effective Approach Through APIs:
E-learning system is not just about straightforward operations or educating students like blah blah. The best thing is that APIs provide a ready-made way for students to connect to (interaction, multimedia, and engrossment) video streaming, networking, and data storage from their E-Learning portal, ensuring that they have all of the resources they’ll need to learn without ever leaving the comforting and safe virtual classroom.
3.) Enhanced Efficacy And Value Of Teaching Through APIs:
The use of an API could help to speed up and automate administrative operations in schools.
Many API providers offer pay-per-use web development services, which means that the institution is only billed if and when they utilize the service, which is usually based on volume and frequency. Because of this, the impact of technology acquisition concerns is much lowered.
4.) Ease Of Open R&D, Thanks To APIs:
Research institutions worldwide are now conveniently gaining an edge over open data-oriented research, which is made possible only through the contribution of APIs. Consider existing APIs on electronic libraries like JSTOR that gather scholarly article mentions, or the rising ecosystem of Open Data repositories, where API access is becoming a need.
If growing your research profile, competitiveness, and output is important to you, APIs are already a requirement.
Summing Up:
API integrations enable you to build a full-featured e-learning platform with student-friendly features by integrating with a variety of systems. They also simplify your work and save you a deal of time and effort.
APIs are beneficial to all when they are used to improve academic learning as well as the services of nearby academic offices. Moreover, they also provide greater chances to grow up essential services while maintaining professionalism and conformity.
About the Author:Jyoti Prasad Bhatt is the founder and CEO of Apptread, a leading Website Development Company in US. He is a certified Software QA and Project management professional and having 18+ years of experience in the industry. At the early start of his career, he worked with Polaris software and subsequently with many renowned firms viz., JP Morgan Chase & Co, American Express to name a few. Moreover, he provided consultancy to Airbus, Schneider Electric, Virgin Atlantic, etc. He has a special interest in the field of Cyber Security, IoT, AI, and Cloud technologies.
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