Forecast for eLearning By Sam Shea, Digital Content Manager, Printing Industries of America
Recently some of the biggest players in the tech industry have invested in online learning, or eLearning. This invest- ment, in turn, will no doubt continue to drive technological develop- ment in this space. Three areas one can expect major development in
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eLearning include video-based training, mobile learning, and increased personalization.
To better understand the scope of eLearning, let’s examine just a handful of the recent developments within the industry. Software giant Adobe, which already had the eLearning content creation software Captivate, recently released Captivate Prime, which added delivery and administrative functionality. In another example of the industry’s growth, two of the most well-know entities in the learning man- agement software (LMS) segment, the for-profit company Blackboard and the open-source platform Moodle, announced an expansion of their already established partnership. Finally, perhaps the most significant news in eLearning involves LinkedIn acquiring the popular online video training web- site
Lynda.com in the spring of 2015 for $1.5 billion followed by Microsoft purchasing LinkedIn for $26 billion at the end of 2016.
Video One significant trend in eLearning involves the incorporation of video, and this practice will only continue to grow. While informal online video- based learning has been taking place for as long as there have been online videos, the goal of
formal eLearning approaches is to incorporate video-based content in structured frameworks.
Mobile Learning Another significant trend in online learning involves compatibility with mobile devices. Mobile learning, or mLearning, has been a buzzword for a number of years. A study by RnRMarketResearch. com predicts that this segment of the online learn- ing market should grow to $37.60 billion by 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.3%. A related trend you can expect to see here is eLearning that takes advantage of mobile-enabled virtual reality (VR) systems.
Personalization A final burgeoning practice in eLearning involves the incorporation of “Big Data” to provide increased personalization. Just as Netflix builds your queue of recommended movies based on your past viewing history, eLearning systems are taking advantage of user feedback and data to provide more tailored experiences. The acquisition of
Lynda.com by LinkedIn points to such an instance where existing user data could be harnessed to provide relevant suggestions for online learning.
What to Expect Using recent history as an indicator, it seems likely that major companies will continue to invest in eLearning technologies, either with an eye toward becoming solution providers or for their own corpo- rate training needs. It also seems likely that, moving forward, a stereotypical eLearning situation will involve a learner engaging through a mobile device with some form of video-based content that has either been recommended (or mandated) for them based on their personal data.
TECHNOLOGY
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