At current times, online learning is becoming increasingly more popular by the day. This is partly due to the ongoing pandemic situation around the world, and also because the education sector is finally catching up to current technological advancements, too. In this Lead Academy review, we’ll be discussing one of the MOOC providers that are aiming to lead the current educational advancements.
Lead Academy is, for a fact, an online course-providing platform. Same as many other MOOC platforms, Lead Academy aims to provide courses to a wide variety of people around the world, thus furthering their education and knowledge in select fields.
However, should you choose Lead Academy over other course providers? What types of courses does the platform provide, and what are the Lead Academy pricing options? All will be revealed in the review ahead – stick around!
Pros
- A huge variety of courses
- Flexible learning conditions
- Individual course-based payment model
- Easy-to-use platform
Cons
- Some courses are a bit expensive
- Customer support may take long to reply
Lead Academy Review: PROS
We’ll start off our Lead Academy review by discussing some of the most prominent benefits that are going to be available for the users of the course provider in question. Before we do that, though, let’s take a brief moment to get to know what is Lead Academy, first.
Admittedly, the company doesn’t really provide all that much information about itself, at least not on the course webpage in question. It would seem that they are based in the United Kingdom, and according to their “About Us” page, Lead Academy aims to provide advanced education to anyone and everyone who might be interested, with accredited certification, too.
While we’ll get back to the latter part of that statement soon enough, at first glance, Lead Academy does appear to be a simple course-hosting platform, same as many others out there. However, once you start looking deeper, it becomes evident that there are multiple benefits and features that you can utilize, no matter where you are in the world!
Since we’re on the topic of certification, though, we can actually begin by addressing one of the most important inquiries that potential users of Lead Academy might have – the state of the certificates available with the courses on the site.
Accredited Certification
There are actually TWO awesome features to unpack here, so let’s take it one step at a time and address the very first one – certificates.
One of the main things that individuals look for when it comes to online course providers are certificates – people that might be searching for Lead Academy reviews are no different.
Certified courses, as the name suggests, are those that will allow you to acquire a certificate of completion once you finish them – sometimes the certificates are free, while other times you might need to pay a set fee.
Whatever the case might be, however, if you’re looking for a course that would allow you to improve your career path or even upgrade your salary, a certificate is an absolute must. Quite frankly, you will be able to show that certificate to your (potential) employer, and thus, have better chances of them recognizing your achievement.
Once you find out what is Lead Academy, you will probably soon learn that the platform does offer certified courses – they make it rather obvious with the help of certain, dedicated sections of the site. However, it actually gets even better.
It’s no secret that standalone certificates don’t really mean anything, at least in many employers’ eyes. User Lead Academy reviews will tell you that things are different when it comes to accredited certification, though.
An accredited certificate means that the course that you’ve finished to gain it was checked and perhaps even conducted by extremely reliable sources. If you possess an accredited certificate in, say, web development, your employer should be convinced that you have learned and studied truly beneficial material, and not just some random course on the web.
Many of the Lead Academy courses do actually possess accredited certification. That’s amazing news! It means that, once you finish a specific course, and receive an accredited certificate, it will act as a true testament of your skill in that particular field. The accreditations are valid both in the UK, and also some other parts of the world, too.
All of the company’s courses are also certified by Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and endorsed by Quality Licence Scheme (QLS). On top of that, Lead Academy is also a registered member of ROSPA and UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP).
All in all, if you were for some reason wondering is Lead Academy legit, you can rest assured – it surely is, and the accredited courses available on the platform are the best proof for that!
A Wide Selection of Different Courses
What makes an MOOC provider great? That’s right – the courses that it offers its clients to study and learn from.
With a bit of research, you will soon learn that there are basically two different types of online course platforms out there – ones that provide a variety of different courses on a range of different topics (for anyone questioning what is Lead Academy – the platform does fall into this category), and others that offer topic-specific courses.
There are no inherent differences between the two types of MOOC platforms, course quality-wise. Sure, if you’re looking to learn something specific, you might have the proclivity to turn towards topic-specific course providers, but what if they don’t really offer high-quality courses for you to study?
Well, as noted above, Lead Academy courses are varied in topic – you will be able to find everything from copywriting and healthy lifestyle management, all the way to web and business development.
When it comes to the quality aspect of it all, you needn’t worry – as established a bit earlier in this Lead Academy review, the platform provides certified courses, many of which are fully accredited, too. Naturally, the quality is going to be up-to-par.
That aside, the variety of topics is surely astounding! It literally seems like you could find any type of a course on the platform, no matter what it is that you’d like to learn! To add to that, the different categories aren’t just a gimmick, either – while some course-hosting platforms have one or two courses on a hundred of categories, this is not an issue with Lead Academy.
So, to be frank, no matter what you’re interested in learning, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be able to find it on the platform in question, in the form of some high-quality courses.
High Quality Standards
Naturally, the quality of the courses offered by an online learning platform is going to be the absolute core feature that you’ll want to look at before deciding if the platform does suit you or not.
I mean, it’s a no-brainer, really – if you’re going to pay money for and spend your time on a course, you are probably expecting it to have a certain quality standard, and to provide you with the knowledge that you need.
That being the case, finding a high-quality course may be more difficult than it looks at first glance! Frankly, you often have no way of knowing if the course is actually worth the money and time investment before you go ahead and start learning it.
Now, sure – there things such as other student reviews, free introductory classes, and some other telltale signs that may help you get a better idea of what it is that you’re getting yourself into. However, oftentimes, even these measures can fail or simply be falsified.
Online, there are plenty of user Lead Academy reviews that talk about the course quality of the platform in question. The absolute majority of them are actually very positive.
It would appear that Lead Academy does some vetting with the courses found on their platform, in order to ensure a certain standard of quality. This is rather evident from the fact that there are accredited certificates available once you finish a course, too!
Visiting popular feedback sites such as Trustpilot, it would appear that the vast majority of the Lead Academy reviews that are left there are, yet again, very positive towards the different courses on the site. Students talk about everything from the course materials, all the way to the competence of the lecturers – awesome stuff!
Very Helpful Customer Support
Customer support is something that tends to get underappreciated when discussing the best MOOC providers, and the features that make them great. That shouldn’t be the case!
Customer support is an essential part of any decent service provider, no matter what that service may be – online learning platforms are no exception. Proper support showcases the seriousness of the company behind the platform, and also their attitude towards their user base, too.
I am very happy to state that, as far as this Lead Academy review is concerned, my experience with the company’s support team was nothing but pleasant.
I actually contacted the support over at Lead Academy a few separate times. Each and every single one of them, the responses were thorough, yet concise – I always got my questions answered in a very direct and no-nonsense fashion, which I appreciate a lot.
The support agents were also very polite, too – definitely an added bonus! Now, the only slight issue that I had was that of response times – we’ll get to that in due time, though.
All in all, my impressions of Lead Academy’s customer service are very positive!
Individually-Priced Courses
While we’ll discuss the Lead Academy pricing a tad bit later on in the Lead Academy review, this is a point worth emphasizing separately, nonetheless.
Same as course platform types, there can be two major types of course pricing, too. On one hand, many platforms like to utilize subscription-based pricing models. Meaning, you would purchase a monthly subscription, and be granted access to all of the courses that the platform has to offer.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have online course providers that deal in individually-priced courses. Here, you will be able to purchase the courses that you might want, without having to subscribe to the entire website.
So… Which of these two types of pricing model is preferable?
Well, judging by the majority of use Lead Academy reviews – the latter!
Indeed, customers truly do appreciate the Lead Academy pricing model! It’s extremely convenient for those individuals who want to concentrate on one, specific course or topic, and not have to pay for content that they aren’t even planning on accessing, in general.
There is also no commitment involved, either – you will be able to study the course at your own pace, without thoughts about recurring payments plaguing your mind and rushing you through the course material.
In general, the sentiment seems to be clear – most people who are looking to find out is Lead Academy legit, or who are simply reading through various user Lead Academy reviews to “get a feel” for the service do appreciate the fact that the courses are priced on an individual basis.
Learn at Your Own Pace
As a final point concerning the benefits of the Lead Academy MOOC provider, it’s worth noting that the platform does allow you to study the courses housed within at your own regard – meaning, there are no time constraints, and no feeling of being rushed so that you would “catch up” to some sort of specific class or topic.
Now, if you’ve ever had anything to do with online learning platforms, this likely doesn’t really come as a surprise to you, now does it? The absolute majority of the classes that you’ll find online are free to be studied at any given point in time – that’s one of the main selling points of online learning, in general!
That being said, some platforms do kind of force you to keep up the pace, with some different up-selling techniques, or the pressure to start learning another course or even a different entire topic. You will find none of that with the Lead Academy courses.
Instead, the platform allows you to study completely at your own pace, with no sentiment of being rushed involved. That’s definitely something to consider, especially if you’re still questioning is Lead Academy legit!
Old-Fashioned Site Design (Layout) – A Pro or a Con?
Now, admittedly, this can be seen as both a pro and a con – it all depends on your point of view!
Every once in a while, online, you will find potential-client Lead Academy reviews that ask – is Lead Academy legit?
You might think – that’s an odd question! The website’s there, the courses are purchasable and study-ready, and everything seems to be completely in order!
Well, you’d be right – everything IS in order, and Lead Academy is a completely legitimate online learning platform. However, it would appear as if the site design that it possesses is a big divider for many individuals that might have come across it accidentally.
Some users claim that, while the homepage design itself is average, the website itself lacks functionality, and simply feels outdated. To tell you the truth, during my research, I’ve come across courses that wouldn’t load their table of contents panels, and have noticed some visual issues, too.
It doesn’t help that the course pages themselves are a bit, well… Odd. They resemble those found on some other online learning sites, but appear to lack the functionality, at least to a certain extent.
At the same time, there are user Lead Academy reviews that are actually quite happy about the old-school-like design of the site! They claim that it makes the site look more serious, and education-oriented.
Admittedly, whichever side of the fence you might find yourself on, one thing’s for sure – it does not affect the quality of the course materials, at all. However, it CAN put off potential students, since the somewhat old-school design of the website, combined with the choice of color scheme, doesn’t really inspire all that much confidence for some.
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Lead Academy Review: CONS
So, we’ve looked at a wide variety of different student Lead Academy reviews – as you might have gathered by now, most people truly do appreciate the quality of the courses provided by the platform, and the platform itself, too!
Having said that, though, there are some things that aren’t as positive concerning this MOOC provider. It’s important to take a good, thorough look at those things, and evaluate whether or not they can “break it” for you, as far as the general experience of studying Lead Academy courses goes.
Long Customer Support Ques
Earlier on in the Lead Academy review, I’ve emphasized the fact that the customer support aspect of the platform is awesome – and I stick to that! However, one issue that both I and some other users of the site seem to have experienced has to do with the long response-waiting times.
Even when you click on the chat bubble of the live support on Lead Academy, it tells you that response times may vary, and it can take up to 2 whole hours to receive the answers that you need!
Now, sure – two hours is a long period of time. But this is seemingly mitigated by the fact that you do receive LIVE customer support, as opposed to many other online learning platforms that offer only email-based support.
On top of that, you CAN, for a fact, get in touch with the Lead Academy support team via email, too. That’s great!
The biggest issue here, though, is that people who might have a serious inquiry or have run into some technical trouble with the site could be left to wait for up to two hours before getting the response and help that they need. Just something to keep in mind!
Some Courses are Rather Expensive
While Lead Academy pricing options are great in that you simply pay for an individual course and study only the things that you’re really after, the biggest issue here seems to be the fact that some courses can get rather expensive.
Sure, you’ve got courses that’ll cost you a dozen dollars each, but then there are other ones that could go up to $400 and more (after converting the British Pound Sterling to the US dollar, that is)!
This is where people who prefer subscription-based learning would make the argument that, while a subscription means that you’ll be paying a set fee each month, most of the time, that fee is going to be decent, especially when compared to some prices of standalone courses.
It really is a case-by-case scenario! This is especially true when you consider the fact that different people will have different studying wants and needs. No two student Lead Academy reviews are the same – while you might have been looking for an extensive curse of business management and development, the other person could have just wanted to learn to make pancakes.
Naturally, these two courses are probably going to differ dramatically in price, too.
So, in short – some Lead Academy courses can get pretty expensive, but at the end of the day, this is purely dependent on what it is that you want to study and learn on the platform in question.
How to Start Learning on Lead Academy?
Now, we’ve looked at both the pros and cons of Lead Academy, and all of the core features that you can expect to receive whilst using the online learning platform in question. All that’s left to do now is to check out how you can register on the site, and then purchase & start your very first course!
How to Register on Lead Academy?
First up, naturally – the registration process.
Step 1: Go to the official website of Leads Academy.
Step 2: At the top-right corner of the screen, you will see a “Sign Up” button. Press it.
Step 3: You will be presented with a registration form. Here, you have to fill out your name, email address, country of residence, and phone number. All of these fields are mandatory.
Things such as name and email address are commonly asked for on online learning platforms. However, phone numbers and other sensitive information will help the platform maintain your account’s privacy, and also guard it against any potential malware or third-party break-in attempts. That’s good!
Step 4: Once you pass all of your registration steps, you will be redirected to your dashboard. This is the place where you can manage your account – everything from ordering a student ID card, all the way up to reading through messages and interacting with the courses that you are already studying.
The dashboard is, well… Pretty simple by its design. It’s far from being very modern or feature-heavy, but it surely does the job, and feels intuitive to use, too.
You are going to manage your account details and all of your activity on the left-side panel. You will find your courses, messages, notifications, settings, and everything else that you might need right here.
Profile edits are, sadly, very poor – you don’t get a lot of room for customization, but you can add a profile picture for a more flushed-out look of your profile page.
That’s basically it, as far as the registration process and initial impressions go! Admittedly, registering on the platform was pretty simple, and didn’t take any time, whatsoever.
The only thing that I was taken aback by was the fact that I didn’t have to confirm my email before being granted access to the site and my profile. It’s odd! That said, let’s move on to the actual courses, and see how you can enroll in one that you might like.
How to Start a Course on Lead Academy?
For this part of the Lead Academy review, you can start from anywhere on the website.
Step 1: No matter where you are on the website, you should be able to see the big black menu bar at the top of the screen. Here, you need to press “All Courses”.
Step 2: You will be redirected to a page containing… Well, all of the courses available on the site! Your best bet here is to enter some specific keyword into the search bar, in order to help narrow down the potential courses that you might want to study.
Step 3: As you can see, my keyword is “writing”, and the filter automatically presented me with a range of courses that are related to writing (and the English language). For the sake of clarity, I’ll go ahead and pick the very first course that popped up – English: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.
Step 4: Now, on the actual course page, you will be able to see some information about what you’ll learn, and why you should be picking this particular course. Once you’ve decided that you want to go ahead and study it, press “Take This Course”.
Step 5: You will be redirected to your cart, and be asked to proceed with the billing process. Now follow the usual routines – enter your details, submit a payment method, wait for an approval, and that’s it – you’ve unlocked the course!
Quite frankly, starting a course with Lead Academy is just as simple as with any other major online course provider. There are no unnecessary buttons or prompts, and everything from picking out a course up until checking out is straightforward and easy to follow.
Pros
- Easy to use with a learn-by-doing approach
- Offers quality content
- Gamified in-browser coding experience
Main Features
- Free certificates of completion
- Focused on data science skills
- Flexible learning timetable
Pros
- High-quality courses
- Nanodegree programs
- Student Career services
Main Features
- Nanodegree programs
- Suitable for enterprises
- Paid certificates of completion
Pros
- A huge variety of courses
- Easy-to-navigate interface
- Over 600 free courses
Main Features
- A huge variety of courses
- 30-day refund policy
- Free certificates of completion
Conclusions
So, that’s it – we’ve reached the end of our Lead Academy review!
At this point in time, you should now be aware of all of the main pros and cons of the platform in question, and also the usability aspects that are involved, too. With all of that out of the way, then, but a single question remains – is Lead Academy worth checking out?
Yes, it definitely is!
Lead Academy is definitely a less-known name in the online learning platform world. However, this doesn’t really do it justice – the platform appears to provide some amazing-quality courses, spanning a huge variety of different topics. The courses also come with accredited certification, too, so you can be sure that the learning materials are going to be top-tier, and truly valuable!
While the prices of select courses may sway some individuals away, by the looks of things, you shouldn’t question “is Lead Academy legit?”, or “is it worth checking out?” – the platform is definitely a good choice for anyone who’s looking to improve their knowledge in a particular field, and advance their career path!
