Top 5 e-learning industry trends in 2021-2025 you need to know

Online education is rapidly growing, providing users with the ability to study from any place in the world. Any organization can use e-learning applications to train employees with text, audio, and video content, immersive experiences, gamification, and personalization.

Universities and colleges also joined this trend, making various courses and programs available for students from different countries. According to Forbes, the global e-learning market size is expected to reach $325 billion in 2025, growing from $165.36 billion in 2014.

COVID-19 is having a significant impact on the e-learning industry. Being in partial or complete lockdown, people were forced to stay at home and acquire new skills via their devices: PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The World Economic Forum reports that nearly 1.2 billion children were out of classrooms with schools closed worldwide due to coronavirus.

As many companies still don’t use e-learning software solutions or underestimate their value, you can gain a competitive advantage by creating a custom LMS (e-learning management system) tailored to your business-specific needs.

In this article, we will consider the main e-learning software development trends to help you define how you can improve education in your organization. What’s more, we’ve collected astonishing statistics and inspiring use cases. Let’s get started!

Top 3 education industry trends for 2021-2025

1. E-learning software solutions are of high demand

The use of e-learning platforms and applications is quickly increasing. Analysts at Fortune BU say that the world’s learning management system (LMS) market is projected to reach $29 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 19.1%.

Statista reports that the global e-learning industry is anticipated to surpass $243 billion by 2022. Fast adoption of e-learning solutions is also triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. As people have been forced to stay at home to prevent the diseases from spreading and avoid risks of getting infected, schools and universities worldwide have moved to online education.

2. Increased use of corporate e-learning programs

Business Wire informs that the worldwide corporate e-learning market can reach over $38 billion by 2024 and $50 billion in 2026. Since online education consumes 40% to 60% less employee time compared to traditional learning, many organizations are migrating to this model. According to KPMG, at the moment 90% of large companies employ online training software in comparison with just 4% in 1995.

Allowing to reduce costs and boost efficiency, e-learning solutions for business are becoming increasingly popular. Online corporate programs can include training on sales, marketing, HRM (human resource management), certifications, virtual conferences, workshops, etc. Considering practical examples, IBM saved about $200 million after switching to e-learning.

American Society for Training and Development conducted a survey of 2,500 organizations and revealed that the use of digital training programs results in 218% higher profit per employee and 24% higher profit margins.

3. Online learning is gaining high popularity in schools, colleges, and universities

Since e-learning software solutions provide many benefits such as cost reduction (you save money on recruitment, wages for instructors, equipment, rent, etc.), raised efficiency, and access to content from any place in the world 24/7, they are becoming widely used in schools, colleges, and universities.

Top 5 e-learning software development trends

1. Mixed reality

Mixed reality (MR) is one of the biggest e-learning industry trends for the coming years. Combining virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), it creates immersive user experiences that make education compelling. This is especially valuable for people who better perceive visual content than textual.

There are many VR and AR use cases across multiple sectors. In healthcare, students can study the human body with the help of mobile or web applications. To teach chemistry, you can employ e-learning software solutions to visualize a structure of chemical bonds and materials. Yet today, students can take a trip in the past to see the ancient Romans.

2. Artificial intelligence

The world’s AI in the education market is predicted to increase to 3.68 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 47% from 2018 to 2023 (MarketsandMarkets). Coming up with multiple innovations, artificial intelligence is one of the most essential online learning trends for 2021-2025.

AI can serve as a mentor—an AI-enabled virtual facilitator—by providing students with the requested information and instantly answering their questions 24/7. When building a mobile or web application, you can incorporate a chatbot that would play the role of personas and characters to help users gain knowledge faster.

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