During the 2023 SAFETY4SEA Limassol Forum, Evros Damianou, Education Program Lead, KeelX Education, referred to the major challenges of e-learning and the new technologies which will framework the future of the eLearning market.
Technology has revolutionized everything and education is no exception. E-learning has drastically changed the landscape of education. In the last few years and especially during Covid-19, the establishment and the growth of the e-learning market was accelerating.
Statistics show that the future of e-learning will be promising. The e-learning Market is currently worth over 315 billion dollars and is forecasted to grow at a 20% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2028.
The mobile e-learning sector is estimated to grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate between 2023 and 2028. Particularly mentioning the mobile learning sector because in the shipping industry is considered a g sector since seafarers are constantly moving and it is easier for them to access e-learning courses and platforms through their mobiles.
E-learning is not a firework. Statistics and relevant research show that e-learning provides 60% faster learning and observation, than physical classes while 95% of global firms are switching to online learning, completely or at least as an alternative.
We live in the blooming time of e-learning. Because of the opportunities, we can see several e-learning platforms and video creators to come on stage and rush to catch up or take advantage of the current market. The competition is high but few will thrive.
What are the challenges ahead?
- Competition
- Collaborations
- New generation
- New technologies
My generation, which grows up during the beginning of the internet, used to download music and movies for free and we could never thing that one day we will have to pay a subscription for almost every service.
We used to wait for three hours to download a song, if we were lucky, but believe me we could never accept, back then, since that was our state of mind, that one day we will pay a subscription for a pleaid of services.
Nowadays paying a subscription for almost every service is common for business and individuals. We are all exposed to many subscription policies concerning the e-learning Market as well as other online markets, but in time the market will calm down and eventually the consumers will start choosing their subscriptions wisely, by evaluating their choices.
The consumer will ensure that they gain the benefit they are searching for from a quality product or service before buying that product or service So, the first challenge is to thrive the competition since consumers will screen the products before choosing to pay. Ultimately, they will only buy when quality is guaranteed, new technologies are applied and the correct methodology is followed.
There are 3 more challenges that I will discuss. Collaboration, some of the characteristics of the new generations, and the new technologies, which all relate to the competition, in the sense that you will eventually survive the competition if you consider the challenges of collaboration, the characteristics of the new generation and the new technologies.
Collaborations
Collaboration with other stakeholders will be a key factor to develop quality products. You are not supposed to know everything. The stakeholders in the shipping industry who have different levels of expertise and knowledge, or they have developed technologies you don’t have. Respect that, be open and aim to establish promising collaborations. Through collaborations, you will be able to develop better content and apply new technologies to your products.
For example, for us at KeelX, it is a procedure to establish collaborations with other experts while we develop our e-learning courses. This way we enrich our end product, and we make sure that our end product is a valuable tool for our audience, unique and complete. On the other hand, as video creators, we are also searching for the leading e-learning platforms to host our courses.
We are searching for providers who respect our hard work, are up to date and can host and provide new technology features through their LMS systems andtheir platforms have certain features, important to our industry, such as offline and online features, mobile applications, assessments, certifications and so on. We strongly believe that collaboration on different levels will help us withstand the competition.
New generation
In this challenge, I will concentrate on Millennials and Gen Z. Millennials were born in a world without the prevalence of social media platforms and computer technology, but they witnessed the evolution of this type of technology. On the other hand, gen Zs were born and raised immersed in this technology and their upbringing is defined by the world division, social unrest and global pandemic,the market crash and a lot of tik tok.
Millennials are those, who born between 1981 and 1997 which means that in 2023 are between the age of 36 to 32 years old and members of Gen Z are those born between 1997 and 2015. In 2023, Gen Z are between the age of 8 to 25 years old. The main characteristic of the new generations, which we must analyze to adjust for the future of education, is attentions spans, which are getting shorter and shorter.
The attention span of Millennials is just 12 seconds while the attention span of Gen Z is 8 seconds. Instead, a goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds. Is this something we should be worried about? Truth is that this is a funny example, you may have already seen on the internet used for marketing reasons. We can’t compare the attention span of a goldfish to humans because intention isn’t a single process but a group of smaller processes using different contexts. Attention spans are changing, but this isn’t because we’re getting worse at focusing. Instead, our digital environment makes it harder for us to apply the most effective attention. In a few words, it will be a battle for attention. Essentially, the less goldfish-friendly you can make your content, the better.
To achieve content that will attract the most effective kinds of our attention, like sustained and selective attention, we need to apply new technologies such as learning via video which is already prominent in teaching new generations. We also need to apply social learning, collaboration counts for the new generations that seek to engage shared knowledge for creating with and learning from others both online and offline.
Different levels of challenge and assessment, learning by doing, is a way of teaching in our days in a fully immersive environment that lets the audience contact their researchers and make decisions.
Hybrid learning can achieve a blend of the traditional classroom with methods used in e-learning and AR/VR Technologies which will bring lessons to life through simulations.
In conclusion, the methodology of educating people, remains the same at the core. People love to be connected and they see learning engages and moves towards more interesting formats.
Above article has been edited from Mr. Evros Damianou presentation during the 2023 SAFETY4SEA Limassol Forum.
Explore more by watching his video presentation here below
The views presented are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
