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By properly choosing the stack of technologies for the e-learning platform it’s important to recognize its ability to maintain extra features that are in demand among the target audience of your product. One of the hottest features right now is live video streaming.
Nowadays it can be perfectly served by HLS (HTTP live streaming) technology. HLS modifies the incoming videos into a bunch of segments by specifying the duration of each of them. Then as long as the video is streamed, the browser will make HTTP requests for these segment files.
The algorithm of work proposed by HLS streaming significantly reduces the time that is required for video downloading and makes it possible to play video of different qualities depending on the Internet speed.
Frontend
E-learning platforms that support video streaming have specific requirements related to the video player since it should be compatible with different browsers and devices, and accessible to a wide range of users.
Therefore, we recommend utilizing the Video.js library that supports HTML video, modern streaming formats like HLS which has dozens of plugins that can enrich the user experience. To achieve the best quality stream for a users’ internet connection you can use an HLS protocol as a primary approach when delivering video content over Video.js player.
Backend
As a service that provides HLS streaming on the Back-End, we recommend using AWS Elastic Transcoder, the media transcoding service in the cloud. It converts media files into versions that will play on smartphones, tablets, and PCs.
As a middleware that securely delivers data, videos, and APIs to customers Amazon CloudFront, a CDN (Cloud Delivery Network) service is a great choice.
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Cloud integration
If you are planning to aggregate a lot of content in the application you need to pay attention to the integration with cloud services. We recommend utilizing AWS as a Cloud provider which will ensure scalability and maintain all data in managed relational databases - Amazon RDS.
Mobile technologies
Most market-leading e-learning platforms have web versions, but we highly recommend you pay particular attention to the importance of the mobile version. The mobile segment is leading the market and will continue to do so.
Mobile e-learning platform versions can be developed in several ways:
Native iOS and Android applications - the most cost-effective option in the long run. The development of native applications offers a variety of possibilities for the development of additional extra features.
Cross-platform applications - it should be mentioned that this option is best suited for MVP but if your future product has some specific idea - you will have to invest additional costs to develop additional features because of some limitations of the cross-platform technologies.
Progressive Web Application (PWA) - by creating user experiences similar to native applications on desktop and mobile devices. A PWA would be also a great solution if you are planning to develop an MPV. But it’s not suitable for massive applications with a huge amount of functionality.
To choose the most optimal infrastructure for your product we advise getting the software architecture services from a proven development vendor.
We at Axon believe software architecture developed correctly provides ease of implementation, interoperability with your existing application and provides a framework for future growth.
