The e-learning industry is experiencing a huge boom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As numerous cities and countries around the world are going into lockdowns, people are turning to these e-learning platforms to learn. The quarantine time is being utilized in a way many didn’t think of. Major virtual learning platforms such as Coursera have announced free courses, and the effects have begun to show. An Indian e-learning platform, Byju’s, experienced a 60% increase in their new enrollments within a week. 

But that’s not it. The e-learning industry has been experiencing tremendous growth in the past five years. Its usage has increased so much that nearly 77% of companies in the US used e-learning platforms in 2017.

But why? Let’s dig in. 

A Great Option for Corporate Learning

Sending your employees to expensive seminars and programs can be a big expense for organizations. However, online courses are comparatively affordable as they don’t require any travel whatsoever. Additionally, companies investing $1,595 in training their employees experience 24% more gross profit margins.

But that’s not all. 

Another study found that, on average, employees have only about 1% of the workweek to spend on training. This translates to roughly 5 minutes per day. While this seems like a short time, employers can employ micro-learning for their employees. This allows them to get training for a few minutes every day. This fits perfectly into the schedule for employers as well.

It’s perhaps due to this reason that the e-learning market is expected to grow from $190 billion in 2018 to $300 billion by 2025. 

Higher Revenue

For companies, e-learning translates to higher earnings per employee. According to a study, for every dollar that companies spend on e-learning, they make back nearly $30 in productivity. The higher the productivity, the better it is for brands.

The higher productivity was due to 2 reasons. The first being that their employees didn’t need to spend a lot of time on their learning as it could all be done online. But the second reason was that the employees could do their work quickly due to the new skills that they acquired through these online courses. They could apply these skills and get their job done in a shorter duration, hence increasing productivity.

Additionally, brands are able to save money due to online courses too. In fact, IBM was able to save nearly $200 million by switching to e-learning. 

Numerous Students Taking Online Courses

In 2015, nearly 49% of global students had taken a course online. And this trend has continued to grow over time. The proportion of students who were exclusively enrolled for online courses has grown from 14.7% in 2016 to 15.4 in 2017. This roughly translates to one in six students.

Additionally, the percentage of students who took both online and in-person courses grew from 16.4% in 2016 to 17.6% in 2017. 

What’s more?

The proportion of students who enrolled for at least one online course grew from 31.1% in 2016 to 33.1% in 2017. 

But why are they adopting online courses?

One of the reasons may be that nearly 43% of US college students find e-learning technology very useful. Additionally, 81% of them also feel that digital learning technologies are helping them boost their grades as well. 

Greatly Profitable

While the takers of the courses enjoy their affordability and greater incomes, the online course makers also experience a rise in their revenues. This is fueling the growth of the e-learning markets even further. 

For example, brands like Smart Blogger earn nearly $1 million from just their online courses and workshops. This makes up most of their income. But it’s not just the big brands that are making money. Even individual course producers are generating good revenue from them. 

In fact, Gladice Gong earns nearly $100 per day from her online courses. Similarly, Christopher Stafford was able to make more than $35K from his first online course. 

Final Thoughts

All the statistics point to only one thing – virtual-learning is here to stay, and it’ll continue to grow at a rapid pace for the years to come. The ease of use, affordability, higher profit margins, and convenience make it a great way to learn. This is perhaps the reason why large and small brands are all moving towards it. 

Have you taken an online course before? Let us know your experience in the comments.