Research & Surveys
eLearning Market Trends & Forecast for 2014-2016

Docebo published a report analyzing the worldwide e-learning market and setting out the added value of e-learning initiatives. To know more, America Learning Media magazine interviewed Valentina Piccioli, eLearning Analyst at Docebo and responsible of the research.

 

(@americalearning) Entitled “E-Learning Market Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2016”, Docebo’s report aims to help any decision maker needing facts and figures, statements and arguments to prove to stakeholders the added value of e-learning initiatives.

 

The report informed the worldwide market for Self-Paced E-Learning reached $35.6 billion in 2011and the five-year compound annual growth rate is estimated at around 7.6% - so revenues should reach some $51.5 billion by 2016.

 

Image source: Docebo's E-Learning Market Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2016 Report

 

The research also reveals:

  • While the aggregate growth rate is 7.6%, several world regions appear to have significantly higher growth rates.  According to recent regional studies, the highest growth rate is in Asia at 17.3%, followed by Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America at 16.9%, 15.2%, and 14.6%, respectively”.
  • The market for learning management systems (LMS) has exceeded growth predictions in recent years, currently being worth some $2.55bn worldwide.
  • The U.S. and Western Europe markets are the most mature, with the biggest instances of E-Learning adoption ranging from K-12 solutions to business-related training.
  • While the rate of growth in United States market may seem low compared with other world regions (at a mere 4.4%), the revenues generated in this market are extremely high.
  • Sam Adkins, chief research officer at Ambient Insight, has estimated that E-Learning revenues in Latin America will almost double to $2.29 billion in 2016 from $1.16 billion in 2011.
  • The corporate training market is among the most cyclical within the education industry. Since 2010, employers’ spending on training and the amount spent per employee have been declining.
  • However, the corporate market related to outsourced services (net of all ancillary costs) has grown to reach 42% of total expenditure.
  • With the inflow of an estimated $6bn of venture capital over the past five years, e-learning is being driven not only by startup dot-com entrepreneurs but also by big corporations, for-profit spin-off ventures, as well as big and small universities.

 

Image source: Docebo's E-Learning Market Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2016 Report

 

And identifies the following game changers:

  • Cloud solutions universe is changing the way organizations, employees and partners interact and collaborate
  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is playing a major role and is helping to increase the size of the e-learning market. Surveys show that SaaS brings: speed of implementation; savings on capital expenditures, and savings in terms of operational expenses.

 

“The Corporate Learning market is also growing and, as such, it is attracting big investments from all over the world. The U.S. is the most active global fundraiser for Education. Europe only accounts for 6% of total fundraising volumen (…) Investing in the Distribution sector appears to be highly attractive at present, as investment returns from the Management Systems and Content sectors fall behind. However, thanks to the SaaS business model, the LMS Market has been growing fast so far -- and should continue to grow”, Docebo’s report adds.

 

Image source: Docebo's E-Learning Market Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2016 Report

 

State of the Industry

 

E-learning is experiencing constant growth:

  • the number of people using internet for training purposes is increasing
  • more and more companies use elearning for training
  • companies of all sizes can now include elearning in their list of training tools
  • online course content is increasingly broader (in terms of choice) and more varied

 

This basically defines a  global consensus: i.e. a consensus coming from a widely differentiated user base which is using online tools for new training purposes.

 

Docebo’s elearning report shows companies of all sizes can access and benefit from elearning, from small to large organizations.

 

 

“This is happening mostly because of the possibilities offered by Cloud and SaaS technologies. Moreover large enterprises are using these technologies to update their previous Learning Management Systems and embrace a new vision where the primary ‘themes’ are: integration, ecosystem, interconnection, and mobile”, says Valentina Piccioli, eLearning Analyst at Docebo (www.docebo.com).

 

“Limits imposed by old Learning Management Systems, that previously made elearning a niche choice, are now surpassed by new Cloud LMS platforms, which are accessible from any browser, both mobile and desktop, accept all kinds of digital content and can be used also as LRS (Learning Record Store) – greatly augmenting delivery opportunities”, Piccioli explains.

 

“In this technological renaissance, new training strategies are available. Elearning becomes a fundamental ally in order to achieve success in productivity and sales (LMS+CRM) and becomes a faithful partner in Talent Management strategy and Human Resources development (LMS+HR). These are just two examples of alliances to support new strategies”, Valentina Piccioli adds.

 

Interested in getting more answers about the report “E-Learning Market Trends & Forecast 2014 – 2016”, America Learning Media magazine interviewed Valentina Piccioli, eLearning Analyst at Docebo and responsible of the research.

 

Valentina is the creator of all of Docebo’s courses in the Docebo LMS course catalog, and has extensive experience in the following: Safety in the workplace, Compliance Training, dissemination of organizational models and control systems, Privacy Training, and the development of soft skills. Currently, she coordinates a research project with the University Suor Orsola Benincasa which aims to define the specific needs of the University in relation to elearning.

 

What are the main contributions that this study provides to e-learning market?

Valentina Piccioli: Decision Makers, we have recognized in recent years, need strong arguments to make changes happen within organizations. This report provides strong arguments for those who are seeking to implement an e-learning project for the first time, for those who are trying to switch from previous legacy systems to a modern LMS on the Cloud, and for those who are hoping to start a successful business in the ed-tech market.

 

 

 

What progress and regressions can you detect from previous studies?

Thanks to the opportunities the Cloud brings, e-learning is growing fast for the second time after a period of stagnation. And in the meantime (and this is even more interesting) e-learning is enlarging its own base of users, and the boundaries of the market are becoming more and more open. This is a worldwide phenomenon. What I have detected as a regression is the detachment of some players in the mature market towards those new frontiers of e-learning. The ones you expect to be the "early adopters" are the very ones that have more reservations.

 

What do you think thee-learning market needs to develop or incorporate?

This is not only my opinion, but something already defined - e-learning will incorporate (or will be incorporated by) HR software and in particular software related to Talent Management, Carrier Management, Assessment and other issues related to "people".  But while e-learning is enlarging its base of users, completely new needs are arising - I'm thinking about the needs to have vertical authoring tools within the LMS for special teaching purposes (science, arts, math, etc.)

 

What are the perspectives for e-learning in 2014/15?

If we look at the worldwide market we observe the "consolidation" of the SaaS/Cloud experience, the definition of a consolidated e-learning path for post secondary education (MOOCs vs. Certificated Acquisition, Pay vs. Free, Open vs. Qualified access) and the increasing use of such within the organization thanks to the adoption of a Mobile Strategy within each company.

 

 

Click here to download the free elearning market report, or contact Docebo www.docebo.com

 

Graphics and information published with the permission of Docebo & Roberta Gogos.

 

April 2014