Growth of eLearning
The global market for corporate elearning will grow nearly 27%, compounded annually (McGee, 2004). IDC forecasts that the elearning market, which was about $6.5 billion in 2003, will increase to more than $21 billion by 2008, and hit $52.6B by 2010.
The 2007 U.S. e-learning market is presently $17.5 billion (Kopf, 2007). The U.S. enterprise elearning adoption accounts for 60 percent of the market, while Europe's accounts for 15 percent, overall usage of e-learning in Asia is expected to reach a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent to 30 percent through 2010.
According to Training Magazine (2006), training organizations are shifting their staffing models away from a dominant focus on trainers and are now more focused on design, elearning, and service and support activities. In addition, they are now outsourcing much of the delivery. A few years ago, more than 70 cents of every training dollar went to payroll. Today the figure is about 65 cents. Training magazine also reported that elearning now accounts for 15 percent of all training delivered, which is a two-fold increase from just one year ago, and signifies that elearning is here to stay as a mainstream training delivery vehicle. Meanwhile, classroom training has dropped from 70 percent to 62 percent, however, it still remains the dominant form of training.
ASTD's 2010 State of the Industry Report shows that elearning is still increasing as it now accounts for 27.7 percent of corporate training, its highest level since ASTD began collecting data on the use of technology for this report 14 years ago (in 2008, it was 23.1 percent).
Education
Almost 3.5 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2006 term; a nearly 10 percent increase over the number reported the previous year (Allen, Seaman, 2007). In addition, the 9.7 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.
What We Can Be Sure Of
As shown, elearning is definitely a growing field in the educational and training market. But exactly how much of the market share it will eventually grab is anyone's guess.
References
Allen, I. E., Seaman, J. (2007). Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning. Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium.
ASTD (2010). State of the Industry Report. Retrieved December 1, 2010 from http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2010/Nov/Free/1110_2010+State+of+the+Industry.htm
Kopf, D. (2007). e-Learning Market to hit $52.6B by 2010. The Journal: July 2007.
McGee, M. (2004). E-Learning Predicted To Recover--Again. Information Week: Nov, 9, 2004.
Training Magazine (2006). Training Industry Report. Retrieved August 7, 2007 from http://www.trainingmag.com/managesmarter/images/pdfs/IndRep06.pdf