Demand for e-Learning continues to grow

E-Learning revenue in Germany increased by 13% to €582m in 2013, according to Bitkom, the German information and telecommunications association. Bitkom cited these findings from a recent national study by MBB Institute which also revealed that the e-Learning sector now employs 8,850 people, up from 700 in 2012—concomitant with a dip in the German economy, this growth is all the more remarkable.
These findings supplement a similar Bitkom survey last year, which stated that two-thirds of German IT companies were now using e-Learning, and most of those that did not, intended to in future. Moreover, half of Germans, from 14-44 years of age, used e-Learning, and a third of these people had installed educational apps on their mobile device. Compared with conventional methods, e-Learning’s market strength lie in its versatility, accessibility and cost-effectiveness.
Bitkom’s position paper ‘From e-Learning to Learning Solutions’, claimed just this. Targeted marketing is easier because mobile apps, educational games, interactive e-books and video content can be adapted to any target group. Additionally, the learning curve and complexity of material can be easily adjusted to match each student’s progress and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) resulted in quicker, more extensive networking.
Germany’s rapid growth of e-Learning revenue has outstripped the average growth of Western European countries by 7.2%, according to projections in Docebo’s Market Trends & Forecast 2014-2016 report. Docebo, the Cloud Learning Management System (LMS), expects the Western European e-Learning market to grow by 5.8% each year from 2014-2016. Yet e-learning is also making significant inroads into developing markets; over the same period, the growth of e-Learning revenue is projected to be 15.2% in Africa and 17.3% in Asia.
Earlier this month, Worldreader, the non-profit digital book organisation, announced that this year alone, people across Asia and Africa had spent over 1,028,109 hours reading on the Worldreader Mobile app. Worldreader claimed that the use of mobile in learning helped people access a greater variation of material—including important health information on HIV and Ebola—especially in regions with a paucity of paper books.
In November, the GSMA announced a partnership it had developed between the Philippines Department of Education, Smart and Globe, to build mobile solutions that extend to school youths. To view the full report, click here.