Online learning has shown significant growth over the last decade, as the internet and education combine to provide people with the opportunity to gain new skills. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, online learning has become more centric in people’s lives. The pandemic has forced schools, universities, and companies to remote working and this booms the usage of online learning. Even before the pandemic, Research and Markets forecasts the online education market as $350 Billion by 2025, so the numbers might be updated after analyzing the growth impacts of COVID-19 on the online learning market.
About the market
There are numerous online learning platforms in the market such as Udemy, Coursera, Lynda, Skillshare, Udacity that serve millions of people. The platforms are getting shaped by different user verticals as well. While Skillshare is mostly for creatives such as giving courses on animation, photography, lifestyle, Coursera is mostly academic with giving access to university courses.
Top tier universities are also democratizing the learning by making courses accessible via online. Stanford University and Harvard University give access to online courses under categories of computer science, engineering, mathematics, business, art, and personal development.
These all show one thing, there’s a huge demand from people to learn online. The reason for this demand and rapid growth of the market with a wide variety of platform options for different groups of people may be the rapid change of the world. At the recent $50 Million round of Udemy, president Darren Shimkus says, “The biggest challenge is for learners is to figure out what skills are emerging, what they can do to compete best in the global market. We’re in a world that’s changing so quickly that skills that were valued just three or four years ago are no longer relevant. People are confused and don’t know what they should be learning.” At this moment, online learning is becoming a huge catalyzer for people and companies to help the adoption of this rapid change in the world.
Advantages of online learning
All those online learning enterprises have a massive amount of user data which enables those platforms to use machine learning algorithms that can enhance the learning patterns of people. Machine learning algorithms use pattern recognition which can personalize the content for each individual. For example, when a student repeatedly struggles with a concept at the course, and the platform can adjust the e-learning content to provide more detailed information to help the student.
The instantaneous feedback loops inside the platforms which are provided by other online students or the platform improve the learning curve. This also offers shy or more reticent people the opportunity to participate in class discussions more easily than face-to-face class sessions.
Another big advantage is also time. People can arrange their schedules according to their convenience and this enables them to scale themselves. This represents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs to increase their knowledge assets rapidly. “While the online learning industry is growing at a rapid pace, it is now key to stay up to date with the latest developments. Entrepreneurs can dig into mastermind, coaching, and consummation programs to scale themselves rapidly. This is an incredible opportunity for those who go the extra mile,“ Javid Niazi-Hoffmann, preeminent coaching consultant from Germany who is convinced of the power of online learning, states.
The cost structure of online learning is another factor for the rapid growth of the market. Online courses prove a more affordable option than traditional ones and there are no commuting costs, and sometimes required course materials, such as textbooks, are available online at no cost.
It’s a fact that online learning is the future and will undoubtedly replace land-based learning in the future. Mobile platforms have given access to more people to benefit from online learning, and this has created a huge data, then machine learning has given personalized solutions to the course content with using the big data. In the future, it will not be surprising to see more elements in the online learning structure such as VR/AR or more advanced machine learning algorithms to democratize the learning more.