Pandemics, although tragic in nature, often bring about periods of increased innovation. For instance, e-commerce and the technology surrounding it increased significantly post-SARS. If you look at Ecommerce today, it hasn't stopped growing, and Covid-19 will most likely fast-track its growth even more.
But e-commerce isn't the only sector primed for growth during periods of social distancing. Over 1.19 billion learners worldwide have been affected by the outbreak of Covid-19, which equates to roughly 68% of all learners worldwide.
eLearning was already experiencing significant growth before 2020. Investments in ed-tech reached 18.66 billion in 2019 and were estimated to reach 350 billion by 2025. However, the current social climate has made eLearning a necessity for many schools, universities, workplaces, and even entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to create their own sources of income after losing their jobs.
If eLearning courses weren't on your radar before, they have become more relevant than ever before today.
Learning from home won't go away anytime soon
Of course, pandemics don't last forever. However, it's important to note that the eLearning industry is one of the only industries that hasn't been losing out on investments during these times.
And with all these resources being put into eLearning, it won't go away anytime soon.
Now that more people in the workforce and more students of all ages are being introduced to eLearning, everyone involved is starting to understand the benefits it can bring in comparison to traditional learning.
Just like working from home may become a staple for many businesses – at least partially – eLearning will most likely keep its place in the world of education long after people have returned to their regular lifestyles.
This means that learning how to create effective eLearning content will become a crucial skill in the workforce.
Reduce required learning time
Did you know that eLearning reduces the amount of time it takes to learn the same material by 40-60% compared to a traditional learning setting? Whether this setting is in a classroom or the workplace, this saves a significant amount of time that can be invested in other ways.
For employees, faster learning means they can resume regular activities more quickly than ever before. In the classroom, this allows students to spend more time on other learning activities that can help further their critical thinking. Additionally, teachers can spend more time helping students with learning disabilities when less time is spent on teaching itself.
Cut costs of education
Because learning takes less time, eLearning can also help reduce the cost of education. But it isn't just time that gets saved.
In a business setting, instructors are often expensive. Every time a business needs to train a new batch of employees, update their knowledge, refresh their certifications, or more, this requires another investment to have an instructor perform the training.
When IBM switched to eLearning instead of traditional training, they saved about 200 million.
eLearning content can be created once and used forever. Of course, the best eLearning courses are constantly updated with the latest information, but the cost of doing this is significantly lower than relying on an instructor, especially when employing an easy-to-use tool like Absorb Create.
Not only does eLearning cut costs, but it also increases company revenue. When IBM conducted their study, they found out that every dollar spent on eLearning generates $30 of productivity. Overall, revenue per employee for companies that implement eLearning is 26% higher than those that do not.
Companies also noticed an 18% boost in employee engagement after introducing eLearning content, which may be the reason why revenue is increased so significantly.
So in short, eLearning is good for business, and now more than ever is the perfect time to introduce it to the workplace since fewer options are available to train staff due to social distancing.
Help learners increase retention rates
The time it takes to learn the material is not nearly as important as how much of that material gets retained. When learning retention is low, more time needs to be invested to relearn the same material.
Traditional classroom settings and company training scenarios don't offer the flexibility that many learners need in order to learn in a way that is best for each individual. This not only increases the time it takes to learn but also decreases retention, thus making these learning scenarios vastly ineffective. Average retention rates for a traditional learning setting vary from 8-10%.
Compare this to eLearning courses, and you'll notice a huge difference. 25-60% of learning materials are retained when using eLearning courses. At worst, this is nearly a 3 times better result, and at best, it provides 6 times the retention.
At the same time, it would take to learn in a traditional setting, learners can learn up to 5 times more content while also retaining much more of that content. It's easy to see why so many businesses and schools want to keep eLearning as a staple of their learning processes even when social distancing comes to an end.
Education shouldn't have to suffer
Due to the current social climate, there have never been more investments made to improve the industry of eLearning. Although employees and students are stuck at home, for the time being, this shouldn't mean their learning needs to be negatively impacted.
In fact, the studies we have discussed above have shown that social distancing should have a positive impact on learning, not the opposite. It allows for faster learning, improved retention rates, more flexible learning styles, reduced costs for those providing the learning, and so much more.
One of the biggest hurdles to implementing eLearning is the learning curve of most authoring tools. However, this is not a necessity. Absorb Create is designed to work just like your brain does, thus offering a streamlined, user-friendly approach to creating engaging eLearning content for learners of all types.
The best part? Absorb Create doesn't require separate hosting and learning management systems, since it provides an all-in-one solution that anyone can pick up and learn in minutes.
