7 Keys to Succeeding with E-Learning in 2021 and Beyond

COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges with its increasing grip over the world, and learning centers across the globe are forced to transition the teaching method with a whole paradigm shift. The worldwide education system has been disrupted due to lockdown situations and business dynamics requiring organizations to upskilling and reskilling their employees, to stay ahead of the competition. The pandemic has pushed instructional organizations and businesses to work remotely through virtual training classes. Globally, e-learning market is estimated to grow 5% between 2016 and 2023 to over USD 240 billion.

Employees also want to keep learning, growing, and adapting to the new e-learning trends, offering more opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills. Joining online professional learning programs also increases the chance of employee retention and makes employees fit for purpose. Organizations can extensively organize specialized training and development programs to increase employee retention. Because one of the prominent jobs of leaders is to provide employees with continuous development opportunities in order to motivate them.

E-learning platform can be a scalable tool for employees to use a development strategy and know what’s happening in the eLearning space. Working from home is the new normal now and this will become a growing trend in the coming years to work remotely. As a result, organizations explore the possibilities in work from home, as the permanent solution and not a survival strategy amidst pandemics.

Everything seems to move online these days, including education and sometimes it can make you wonder, `` Is it even still worth joining an online course, as competition in the market is really getting tough. We will be discussing how E-learning succeeds in 2021 and beyond. Following and adapting the latest eLearning mode can be a challenge for even the most experienced educator. Nowadays e-Learning is shifting towards enthusiastic collaborative approaches and verge on including engaging formats, adapting gamification and Augmented reality as a tool to grab and hold learners’ interest.

Continuing advanced development and evolving digitalization in terms of social media, and the rapidly growing use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, provide the students with more control over the creation and sharing of knowledge. This in turn empowers students, and instructors to find this enhanced student control to increase their motivation and engagement. Furthermore, artificial intelligence along with virtual and augmented reality have further emphasized the role of technology-enabled learning.

Some major trends in technology can be game-changing for the e-learning industry.

1)Mobile learning:

Technology has revolutionized the e-learning industry beyond imagination. Smartphones help people to access anything, anywhere with the advent of the Internet. E-learning materials are mobile optimized and learners can access their course material on smartphones or desktops, anytime when they need it. This way e-learning helps to implement micro learning when your employees want to upgrade their existing skill sets to learn new skills. Micro learning platforms are considered as a strong tool for learners for impactful learning and help learners learn subjects effectively. Gamification allows organizations to reap rich rewards for performance and is helping organizations. Educational organizations create and publish micro learning courses on scalable and robust mobile and desktop optimized digital learning sessions, seamlessly, and can assess the learner's performance including pre and post-formal virtual classrooms. Learners' expectations have risen significantly since the year 2020, as learners also gained some experience in e-learning during the 2020 global shutdown. User- interactive platforms already scaled up expectations of old-pros learners and digitalization has even contributed more to it. Digital fatigue is common these days, so educational portals should be user-centric and more engaging so that learners can interact with your content in meaningful ways, otherwise, chances are high that you may lose them. Course creators can really make a difference in the market. Additionally, design should bring meaningful learning outcomes, therefore enhancing productivity.

2)Blend of Education:

Face-to-face online sessions and seminars increase your chance to stand out in a crowd, as learners are more comfortable having access to multiple options to study online. Specific needs of learners can be addressed this way and learners can get strongly connected for a better online experience. Self-paced learning courses, live courses deliver a high-value output in terms of what the audience is demanding. Generic hybrid learning is an integration of classroom-based teaching often supplemented by online learning management systems and through other and digital assets, for full courses to be provided online. Blended or hybrid learning is an integrated education system where classroom time is reduced but not eliminated, but more focused on online learning. This blend of teaching and learning requires a focus on face-to-face sessions between students and instructors, and what may best be done online, such as providing flexibility and wide access to resources and experts. This requires calibration of learning practices where more interaction can take place between students and instructors, in-person or virtually.

3)Anywhere, Anytime, Any Size Learning:

Smaller modules are incorporated with online learning to fulfill the criteria for part-time and full-time learners, as well as those needing greater flexibility or additional help with their learning. This sort of Flexibility resulted in the increased expectations of people who are going to expect that e-learning is available in smaller, more focused doses. And breaking larger course modules into shortest mini versions possibly can be purchased individually, or maybe bundled together for learners who want to explore further on the same expertise. These modules undoubtedly save their time and fit in an immediate learning need. The creation of these modules provides open access to learning for students who successfully complete such modules, bag the credentials and earn badges. Smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices enable education systems for the prompt delivery of curriculum and assessments anywhere, anytime learning provided through online learning. Students are continually exploring the possibilities of gaining maximum benefits through online learning.

4.)New Forms Of Assessment:

Digital learning provides the platform to store and collect assessments of a student's multimedia online activities. Peer assessment involves students reviewing work and required feedback that may be used in the revision of a subject matter. Digital earning demonstrates the digital activities of students and finds it easier and more scalable. Such regular feedback can result in finding areas of improvement that enable students to focus on areas of weakness before a final assessment. Instructors also employ digital analytics to assess the quality of courses and also aids them to track student participation, providing opportunities for intervention if necessary. Artificial intelligence makes learning easier according to the pace that matches their student’s needs, interests, and capacities. Credit learning helps you earn new accreditation, foster competencies among peers, and enhances recognition learning.

5.)Network Sell:

Consistent high-quality content delivery is valuable and you can provide the content to attract people and convince learners that your course is worth paying for it. Content being so noisy and competitive these days makes it hard to get people’s attention and convert them into potential buyers. Most instructors find it tedious and often find it not easy in the starting days of their business journey. So tapping into other people’s networks to reach highly qualified prospects for your course is of utmost required in terms of network selling in the future. With the advent of online education with each passing day, learners have the privilege to have endless options these days, and definitely, you want to end up being the only choice for consideration. Mass media or paid advertising is followed but expensive, and as a result, conversion is low due to lack of trust. Getting a higher ranking in search engines or maybe on high-rated reviews can do a lot better, and it requires consistent efforts in the long run, but it can be very competitive and labor-intensive. Network selling can help you grow significantly through establishing relationships with other people who have audiences that align with or even overlap with yours. Webinars can be the most adapted and productive strategy to do this, where you share valuable knowledge and skills with their audience and vice versa. Building a network of relationships can get you hidden audiences and gives you a platform to introduce you to audiences. Network selling leverages your high-quality audience and a bunch of potential collaborators who share similar goals as a top priority for all course creators moving forward.

6.)Gamification for better motivation:

To motivate students, a psychologically-driven approach known as gamification is implemented for e-learning. Gamification uses the game design elements that gain user attention and increase satisfaction, hence assists the learning process. Creating lessons and learning programs contribute to higher levels of student motivation, minimizes dropouts, and increases productiveness. Furthermore, it helps you stand out among your competitors and contribute to higher retention rates. So in this era of digital education, gamification ensures the success of both educators and their audience. This ongoing trend will continue to gain momentum and will go beyond 2020 and coming years as well. Globally, amidst pandemic, companies and educational institutions pursuing reskilling revolution and upsurge demands in the job market are trending for earning non degree credentials with value-added skill sets. With continued digitization around the world, businesses' economies are prioritizing the jobs and skills with digital and cognitive capabilities, technical adaptability, etc. to compete with strengthened individuals and as well as help them add value to their business teams.

7.)Adaptive Learning Going to the Next Level:

The mode of adaptive learning emphasizes personalized learning, uses a data-driven approach to give instructions. Teaching is based on utilizing personalized learning space, leverages robust analytics and pre-learning. This technique delivers content at specific points when learners need it to make progress, you can take skill-based tests according to your strengths and weaknesses. Adaptive learning uses large stores of data through analytics to monitor students' progress and extend the benefits of individualized learning to a large number of students. With the advent of adaptive learning, statistical mode adapts course material based on performance. It has potential as more data collection of students over the next several years, make it more accurate. The adaptive learning approach has revolutionized corporate training, accentuating the individualized learning activities for each learner. Algorithmic adaptively relies on personalized feedback to deliver content that meets the unique needs of each learner. Therefore, algorithms keep a track of the learner's learning habits to create the most effective strategy.

Also, adaptive learning mode funnels learners via different learning paths based on their specific preferences and needs. Organizations are optimizing their training processes purposefully to reach optimal ROI.