You may have seen some of the buzz lately on a new platform to run and sell online classes – Ruzuku. Created to make creating online classes easier and more interactive, the platform is a newcomer on the block and is somewhat similar to platforms like Kajabi, Moodle, and to a certain extent, WordPress solutions like OptimizePress, Wishlist Member or aMember Pro.
I thought I’d give you an overview of Ruzuku and a quick comparison to some other services. I also encourage you to take their “Ruzuku 101″ course as it gives a great walk through of the features and capabilities.
Here’s a quick video intro:
How Ruzuku is Structured – Outlines, Steps & Lessons
The Homepage - Click for a larger version
When you create a new course, you’ll have an outline (high level overview of each step) on the left hand side. One of the interesting features of Ruzuku is the way they have structured it, which I think really makes it much easier for students to learn (and for teachers to create content). Each step is broken down into activities that can be checked off by your students. These steps can be dripped out on a schedule that you define – or they can be immediately available for your students to determine their own timing. The activities underneath each step are Ruzuku’s way of having a to-do list for each lesson.
Gentle Peer Pressure
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When students complete a step or activity, they can check it off as completed. It then adds a little photo/avatar of the student underneath the step. Just a little gentle peer pressure – who doesn’t want to see their photo there with all of the other action takers? 
Embed Your Content – Video, Articles, mp3′s, Ask Questions, or Give Surveys
In each module you can embed your content so the experience is multimedia and serves different types of learners. Students can also download the file or document you have uploaded to listen or read on their own time. Each step or activity can include a discussion area below it where your students can ask questions about or discuss the content. A step can also be just a question, meant to encourage participation or reflection. Apparently you can embed “live events or webinars,” but I have not seen this done yet in the courses I have taken and am unable to find information about which services integrate with the platform. It seems as though live events that output a video stream would work easily (Livestream, Ustream). Many document and file types will show inline when you upload them (RTF, PDF, DOC, FLV, MP4, XSLX, MP3).
Encouraging Interaction Between Classmates
Since each area can include a comment area, this encourages interaction between classmates and the teacher. The replies are nested/threaded. However, one thing that Ruzuku does not have is a central forum area – all communication has to be done in response to a specific piece content or question. So if you are looking for a platform that also includes a forum, you would need to create the forum on your own website (or in a different platform), and then link to it. Note that some learning platforms do have forums, including Kajabi and even WordPress (with plugins).
How is the Health of Your Community?
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Ruzuku gives you statistics on how your students are doing by telling you how many comments they have made, how many responses, what percentage of the activities they have completed, and which step they are on in the process. It then averages all those out and gives you a percentage completion for the whole class. Their intention here is to give you a quick way to see who is moving forward and who might be falling behind. Ilove this feature! This could be a fantastic way to reach out to students and get feedback on what is stopping them from moving forward. Another interesting touch is that with each comment, your students can rate how they believe the class is going.
Charge for Your Classes – or Not
As of right now, Paypal is the only way that Ruzuku does payment. It is worth noting that they are only serving as a place for you to put your payment button. In fact, the money never goes through them. It goes from your student straight to your Paypal account. They do not take a percentage. You can also run free classes (Ahem – this could be a very impressive way to offer opt-in content!).
Pricing
At $39 a month (flat fee – this does not increase with the number of courses you run or the amount of people in your courses), this makes Ruzuku extremely competitive with other solutions. Wow!
A Quick Comparison – Ruzuku vs Kajabi vs Open Source Teaching Platforms vs WordPress Solutions
There are a couple things to mention here that Ruzuku does not have available (yet).
Affiliate Integration – I asked them about this as it was one of my biggest questions as far as using and recommending Ruzuku for my clients. Miriam, the head of support, said that they do not currently have any affiliate integration, but it is something they are working to implement, and it is at the top of their to-do list. I suppose if you really needed to use affiliates, you could set something up where the customer purchased the class on your website using your affiliate system, and then you added them to Ruzuku later (or they added themselves).
Autoresponder Integration – Aweber or Mailchimp – Kajabi has this, and some of the WordPress solutions do as well (OptimizePress as one example). It would be nice to be able to collect the email addresses of those who are interested in the class.
Other Shopping Carts or Payment Gateways – Again, Kajabi and Wishlist Member have this and integrate with many of the mainstream shopping carts like 1ShoppingCart or Infusionsoft. Some people do not like Paypal, so this would be a good area for Ruzuku to address.
The ability to register interest for the class without collecting payment (Hat tip to Jade Craven for thinking of this one) – If you aren’t quite sure that the class will fill, that your clients will be interested in it, or, you just aren’t done creating it yet, it would be nice to be able to register interest for a class without collecting payment.
Ruzuku is unlike some of the other internet marketing specific platforms (like OptimzePress + Wishlist Member, or Kajabi) in the sense that there is no way to collect a list of people who are interested (squeeze pages), show pre-launch content, or create sales pages.
If you are looking for an all-in-one marketing + teaching solution, this may not be your platform. However, if you’re looking for a way to teach a class that is plug and play with very little technical set-up, this could the one for you.
Final Thoughts
I think Ruzuku would be a great platform for someone who is okay with using Paypal, and does not need the affiliate integration. Specifically, I think it would be a fantastic platform for someone who is new to course creation, because it pretty much forces you to break down your content into digestible bits and think about the outcomes for your clients.
What do you think? Have you tried Ruzuku, or do you have any questions about it?
