Dive Brief:
- The global self-paced e-learning market is in a period of decline, according to The 2016-2021 Worldwide Self-paced eLearning Market survey conducted by Ambient Insight Research in Washington DC, Richard Chang, associate editor of THE Journal writes.
- The survey advises that the self-paced e-learning product market is declining around the world by 6.4% CAGR, and by the year 2021, revenues will drop to $33.4 billion (a decline of $13.5 billion). Currently, the US and China are the biggest markets for self-paced e-learning.
- Chang also advises that the report shows a rapid increase (15%) in self-paced learning in countries in Asia and Africa, led by Myanmar and Mongolia, which can be attributed to advanced technology and mobile devices reaching these areas.
Dive Insight:
It is expected that sooner or later the US and other large nations will experience a saturation in some areas of e-learning. This could be happening now, based on the survey mentioned.
Interestingly enough, while the self-paced learning trend may be slowing down and declining, the gaming trend in e-learning is still taking off. Consider the craze of Pokeman Go that recently demonstrated the popularity of gaming in learning. Ambient Insight Research released a report that advises that game-based learning products are projected to grow by as much as 22.4% over the next five years and be worth around $7.3 billion by 2021. Using this information, companies may want to invest in adding more gaming components to their current workforce training efforts and shift away from modules offering solely self-paced learning programs.
