During the first quarter of this year, I had written a blog on the e-learning trends for 2018 which mentioned about 5 trends in e-learning that were set to dominate this year. Today, when we have reached the final month of another amazing year 2018, let’s evaluate and understand where do those trends stand and what lies in the future?
1.Personalized learning
Personalized learning refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. Learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content may all vary based on learner needs. In addition, learning activities are made available that are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests and often self-initiated.
Future of personalized learning
We now live in a world that increasingly focuses on personalizing the content. Take a closer look at the mobile apps in your phone like Facebook, Instagram and even the news feeds that are now customized and personalized to your likes and interest. This trend is evident in e-learning where the ‘one size fits for all’ approach of learning is replaced by personalized and customized learning as it has more benefits like a recent study by Brandon Hall Group found that 90% of companies agree that personalized learning supports continuous development and learning among the employees. Considering the future of personalized learning, it will be increasingly driven by technological advancements like machine learning and artificial intelligence and high-speed connectivity options etc.
2.Mobile learning.
Mobile learning is the education or training conducted by means of portable computing devices such as smartphones or tablets etc. During the year 2018, mobile learning as expected continued to be one of the most popular e-learning trends and there were many more companies that opened their doors to mobile learning.
Future of mobile learning or m-learning
Marketsandmarkets forecasts that the mobile learning market will be worth $37.60 Billion by 2020. This makes mobile learning no longer an option but a ‘must have’ learning initiative for every organization in the future.
•Gartner predicts that 45% of businesses will have a BYOD policy by 2020 -This opens the opportunity of using mobile devices for learning by more organizations
•The global workforce is becoming increasingly mobile. By 2022, 1.87 billion people will be mobile employees, comprising 42.5% of the total global workforce- This will make an organization to think beyond the four walls of a traditional classroom training and to shift to the g mobile learning.
•The future will see more organizations implementing the BYOD policy as the BYOD market is on target to reach nearly $367 billion by 2022.’
With these statistics, it is very evident that mobile learning is a rising trend and will thrive in the future. With modern learners replacing the baby boomers in the workplace, mobile learning is the best strategy to suit the needs and demands of this new generation of workers. The growing technological advancements with high-speed connectivity and stable networks etc will be the driving factors of making mobile learning a favorite one for the corporates.
3.AR & VR
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are disruptive technologies. These will change the way people learn in near future. While AR and VR have definitely made the inroads into corporate learning, I believe that the market has not reached the stage to support the growth. For example, the complexity of developing and implementing AR and VR and the high cost associated with it pulls back the companies from trying their hands on it. But as the technology continues to develop and become more accessible, I am sure that organizations will start enjoying the benefits of Augmented and virtual reality for an immersive learning experience.
The 2016 report predicts $300 million in revenue for VR/AR educational software in 2020, and that figure is expected to grow to $700 million by 2025.
Future of AR and VR
AR and VR will continue to be a strong trend in e-learning for the years to come and it’s sure to catch up the pace quickly. With the big corporate houses like Facebook, Google and Microsoft continuing to bet big for AR and VR and develop own economical VR systems, it will considerably decrease the prices and increase the adoption rate. For example, Microsoft continues to explore the capability of using Hololens for immersive learning with Augmented Reality. The future will also see mobile devices and apps to utilize the benefit of AR and VR technology for learning. For example, Udemy has already enabled AR learning experiences on mobile devices for employee onboarding.
4.Gamification
The initial hype around gamification has already passed and now gamification is gaining more acceptance and growth in the corporate world Here are some statistics that tell that gamification is well appreciated by the corporate learners.
•Employees feel that gamification makes them more productive (87%), more engaged (84%) and happier (82%) at work.
•75% of respondents who play games often were more likely to agree that they’d be more productive if their work was made more game-like.
•Game-based learning is expected to reach around $7.3 billion by 2021.
Future of Gamification in e-learning
There is no doubt that e-learning gamification will continue to be a favorite learning strategy for the L&D team in the coming years. E-learning gamification will be also seen to be used along with other learning strategies like microlearning, e-learning scenarios, and simulations etc. The future will also see the growth of more game-like system interfaces and introduction into the fields of virtual and augmented reality. The learning management systems will also become more gamified,
5.Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is already showing up in several areas of e-learning.But it seems that it will require a couple more years for AI to come into full effect especially in the domain of corporate learning which is mainly attributed to the higher investment required.
Future of Artifical Intelligence
The online learning platform like Coursera.Org etc has integrated the artificial intelligence to enable a personalized learning path for the learner. The market has already witnessed the launch of a new LMS that includes the artificial intelligence and can utilize the learning algorithms to process the data and optimize the course content without manual intervention; possibly much faster and accurately than humans.
