The Growth of Online Education

By: Justin Ferriman • February 18, 2014
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A lot is being said today about elearning and earning an online degree or certification. It seems that every day there are new television commercials and press releases for course providers.

The target audience for these programs varies quite a bit depending on the courses being offered. For instance, I would contend that edX has a different target audience than Coursera, and same can be said with Udemy and Lynda.com.

While the audience may be different across these platforms, the motivators are generally the same:

  • Convenient
  • Affordable
  • Entertaining
  • Accreditation

Well, perhaps we are not quite at the last one, but it is probably reasonable to think we will eventually get there.

The leading topics across these platforms varies quite a bit, but in general the most popular are Business, Design, and Technology.

These are rather broad topics, but most people looking to take an online course are doing so to directly impact their current careers. Sure, this may not always be the case as there are people out there that take course just for fun, but these topics do allow for enticing benefits (such as potential certification or test preparation).

As one would expect, the parts of the United States with the most activity in online education are the more populated areas, especially along the east coast. That said, the infographic below (created by Udemy) shows that the west coast is rather high in online course participation, likely due to both population and the fact that it is the birth place of one of the most popular MOOCs today.

Have you used any of these course providers to learn a new skill? Or, perhaps you teach on one of these platforms (or have considered doing so).

If you do offer courses on one of these providers, why not take complete control over your brand and content by using a tool like LearnDash? You keep 100% of the profit, and you build your own business instead of someone else’s brand!

Who’s-Taking-Advantage-of-the-Online-Education-Revolution-Infographic

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter