|Part 1
For my Opportunity Horizon, I decided to look at Cindy Keung’s ‘eLearning Industry’ site. I’m not too sure if it entirely qualifies as a “Marketplace projection” given the fact that it is a website and contains multiple articles, many of which are sponsored. Nonetheless, as it is in the marketplace projection category WordPress, I will endeavor to do my best.
My evaluation of the website and Cindy’s contribution has to be taken with a grain of salt. The articles she saw at the time of her evaluation are probably not the same articles that are out right now ( given the dates).
- how, and how much, is this Market Projection useful and valuable to the broader community of educators, as well as learning technologies specialists and venturers?
Elearningindustry.com describes itself as a “leading publishing platform that delivers inspiring, industry-specific content to eLearning professionals” which ostensibly suggests that it is a community forum where advice can be shared. However, they also describe themselves as “a top-tier eLearning marketplace, … offer[ing] a plethora of sophisticated, online marketing solutions” (Source: https://elearningindustry.com/about-us). This is where I immediately begin to have reservations.
As all the articles seem to be sponsored and as this site defines itself as a marketplace, I am suspect of the objective educational value of their advice. They use the buzzwords of “where thought leaders and experts can share trends and newsworthy stories”; trends and newsworthy stories are not necessarily backed by any educational or academic underpinnings. However, does this completely rob it of worth? No. I do believe that among the plethora of sponsored stories, there could be nuggets of actual value that aren’t hidden behind a pay-wall.
The information seems to be largely corporate-based, focusing on ideas like returns on investment (ROI), employee onboarding and using the idea of organizational success. This clearly doesn’t touch on ideas of education in the K to 12 classroom, or at the post-secondary level. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to see that article like “Overcoming Immersive Learning Challenges And Limitations” could very well be applied to classrooms as well as training rooms.
- do you expect to seek out future versions of this report to help drive your own professional success, and also to recommend it to others in this regard?
For me personally, I currently exist in the university educational spectrum. In the future however, I’m hoping to go corporate. So, I could very easily see that there might be some trillions of Truth here that could impact my future – Particularly if I am providing corporations with feedback on their training programs. Does this make me want to recommend it to people? Well, I am still hesitant. I think it has value in in-and-of that reading these articles allows someone who has been working in a school setting speak in terms that a corporation eLearning professional should be fluent in. So while it is not devoid of value, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Part 2: eLearning Trends: 2021/2022 Current Data, Analysis & Insights
Feb, 2002 (https://research.com/education/elearning-trends#resources)
Authored by doctor Imed Bouchrika, eLearning Trends: 2021/2022 Current Data, Analysis & Insights offers clear market projections for the e-learning industry as a whole. While not necessarily specific in terms of emergent learning technologies, it does cover large trends/movements for which technology could be a great solution (or the major stumbling block). Data was gathered and referenced from academic and factual research data of the times pre and mid pandemic.
Beginning with an overview of where eLearning currently is and what the pandemic has revealed, Dr Bouchrika highlights major trends or issues that have emerged as a result of eLearning as applied during covid-19.
Freeing Up the Broadband Spectrum
Pandemic highlighted the need for streaming services and Wi-Fi access to both developed nations and underdeveloped nations. More broadband is needed to be fair and accessible for students across the world and to make eLearning viable to reach all learners.
The Return to Accessible Mass Media
If connectivity remains an issue, an alternate that had been used during the pandemic was it’s return to mass media education: many countries started using television and radio stations transmit school lessons. This showed that the ‘outdated’ medium still had value to supplement areas where broadband was more of a rarity.
The Ubiquity of Mobile Learning (Mlearning)
With mobile device internet traffic taking slightly over 52% of all internet traffic worldwide, mobile learning is starting to gain widespread acceptance. The pandemic has increased the demand for mobile device-based learning and lessons/training have to adapt to that.
The Increase of Free Online Learning Centers
In the cases where students and employees found themselves at home with more free time, there has been an increase in free online learning centers. Companies like Linux and Google offering online courses to help people with free time educate themselves.
Microlearning Is Now Mainstream
Based on actual research data, they find that microlearning helps students with shorter attention spans improve 17% better compared to traditional learning methods, while generating 50% more engagement. This definitely has implications on how lessons can be restructured.
Increased Resources for Teaching Professionals
The pandemic in some ways has been a windfall to teachers, with companies and individuals providing many free online training resources and collaboration software. These have been used as tools to help facilitate lessons. Also, teachers are creating resources that are shareable with other teachers
Video Games as Learning Tools
Gamification has always been seen as a great way of motivating and engaging students. Also, it offers the benefit of competition as motivation. The article cites a teacher’s use of a video game called Assassin’s Creed to help students engage in Virtual Field Trips to see historic sites. It is a novel approach to use a simulation for education.
· New: please check that it isn’t already posted in the Forum.
This is a new article and has not been posted on the forum as far as I have seen. And, being less than 1 year old, it is current.
· Credible: an objective, research-based professional source.
Many of the sources that they use have been actual research articles as well as newspapers.
· Predictive and recurrent: focused on convincing us about what will happen.
The article makes fairly simple and logical arguments based on existing facts and marries them with Statistics showing trends and predictions for future action based on past trends. Well this may not be true in all of the cases ( for example: the gamification section uses some anecdotal evidence), but by and large it holds itself quite well to the data.
· Open: and accessible – not hidden behind a pay-wall
The article is completely accessible and has no pay wall
Hello Trevor,
After reading your post, I was impressed at how some technological mediums regained some value during the pandemic. As Dr. Bouchrika mentioned, the pandemic did highlight the importance and emergence of e-learning, but there were also limitations. He mentioned how,
“While most developed countries simply asked students to continue via online learning, a sizable majority were left behind with fewer options. In the United States, for example, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that 9 million school children between 3 and 18 years old (14% of the total K-12 population) do not have internet access available at home (Xu et al, 2020). Worldwide, 706 million students do not have home internet access, while 826 do not have a household computer. Meanwhile, 56 million students cannot utilize mobile phones for distance learning, as they live in areas not covered by mobile service (UNESCO, 2020).”
I do believe your post can be used to build a full market place projection of e-learning because your resources identified characteristics and trends in this market. I think it is more challenging identifying a global marketplace projection for e-learning considering that there are still countries around the world that are not up to par with North-America in terms of technological resources (mobile-portable technology, resources, solid Internet download-upload speed that are needed for e-learning, etc.). There is a market for e-learning, but how would corporations/institutions broaden their market in these environments where this technology is not easily accessible?
I really enjoyed reading your post! It was very constructive towards analyzing and to start thinking about how we can even the playing field in the global e-learning market.