eLearning 8 Top Trends for 2019 And Beyond

Last updated on July 3, 2019

eLearning was started small, but today, it is one of the fastest growing industries. Future predictions state that it will reach $325 billion in revenue by 2025, which is three times more than eLearning revenue in 2015.

Millions of online quizzes and courses attract students from all over the world, as we all slowly move toward a digital classroom.  In this blog post, we give you eight top eLearning trends for 2019 and beyond.

There are many developments and improvements in this field as well. The ultimate goal is to optimize the learning experience, make it better and easily accessible. That is why you need to keep your eye on the emerging developments in this field.

1. BYOD is Coming to eLearning

While the concept of BYOD is mostly business-related, we cannot neglect the fact that every other person has a smartphone in their pocket today. This trend fuels eLearning as well, both in the corporate and education sphere. LMSs are becoming more mobile-friendly as we speak, enabling seamless learning experiences for everyone.

This trend is bound to make learning easier and more accessible. With the ability to learn while using their favorite device, students and workers will be able to deliver better results in terms of course engagement, knowledge retention, and faster learning.

2. Personalization via Online Assessment Software

As eLearning becomes more lucrative year after year, companies, education institutions, as well as individuals want a piece of the cake for themselves. But they also want to do it while building their own brand, without using some other brand’s LMS software. LMS developers have picked up on this trend already.

Personalization in terms of how the course will look and feel is already here. On top of that, tools specializing in online assessment, such as online assessment software, can also be fine-tuned to reflect your brand.

3. Mentors in the Cloud

You can diversify the learning material and offer your learners engaging images, infographics, texts, videos, and games with online courses. But this comes with some limitations. You’ll be unable to deliver first-hand knowledge to the learners. To make the courses more attractive, companies have started offering online mentorship programs.

Experts in a particular domain can help students in so many ways – offer lessons through their own experience, directly answer questions, and address and clear up specific pain points during the learning process.

The new Masterclass is a great example of this. This is one of the first platforms to completely adopt this trend and leverage the “expert in the field” title of Natalie Portman, Aaron Franklin, and so many others to attract learners from all over the world.

4. Dedicated Mobile Apps In eLearning

The dedicated mobile apps trend builds upon the foundation laid by the BYOD one. While most LMS platforms offer a great learning experience via a mobile-friendly website, the learning process demands more. To become more efficient, learners need access to a dedicated mobile app with offline learning support.

A dedicated app improves the course accessibility, allows course makers to deliver bite-sized information, and makes the learning easier and more convenient, especially during corporate training. This is why we should expect to see more dedicated eLearning apps arriving on both the Play Store for Android users and the App Store for iPhone ones.

5. SDL – Self-Directed Learning

In the past, we had teachers, mentors, and course instructors who worked toward making students more responsible when learning. This practice left learners with none or very little freedom to control their pace of learning and the learning process overall. Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is a brand new concept that reshapes the eLearning industry.

The SDL concept is pretty simple – it lets learners sit on the driver’s seat for the entire time. They are the ones in charge of selecting and managing their learning activities. On top of that, learners have the freedom to schedule and take tests when and where they want. In the end, it is expected that SDL will boost course completion and engagement rates.

6. Online Quizzes to Boost Engagement

The practice of letting students go through lecture after lecture and giving them a test once they have completed the entire course proved to be a bad one for several reasons. First, it leaves course makers with no control of the amount of knowledge a learner brings into the new chapter. Secondly, learners can rush through the course without knowing which facts are important to remember.

This is where online quizzes come in really handy. After breaking down the learning material into logical chapters, course creators can leverage online quizzes to engage learners after the completion of each chapter. By setting the minimum required score for progression onto the next chapter, course creators can control the learning process in a more sustainable fashion.

7. Webinars for Better Interaction In eLearning

Since interactions among learners and instructors play a vital role in the learning process, LMS software developers have introduced various solutions to promote it. Learners and instructors have access to live chat, forums, group chats, and notification systems to stay tuned to the latest developments, and exchange questions, answers, and concerns.

Webinars come as a brand new mix of online learning and communication. Webinars can be used as a course follow-up or a course prequel, to provide learners with more information, discuss the course in more details, and answer important questions. All of this has a positive impact on the learning process and engagement rates.

8. Big Data And eLearning Industry

Big data and analytics make up a trend that is emerging across all industry verticals. It appears that for the eLearning industry it has too many benefits. Modern LMS tools and online assessment software continuously collect data on learners. Every learner creates a unique set of data while taking a course.

Big data analytics allows course makers to analyze this data and draw important conclusions from it:

• Understand learners’ performance
• Identify their needs
• Personalize learning experience
• Improve courses

Closing Remarks

Thanks to new Internet technologies, the eLearning industry can benefit from new trends and offer learners improved and convenient learning. These eight trends are definitely going to impact the way people interact with learning material online.