Challenges of E-Learning Industry

E-Learning service providers in India have realized that they need to come up with strategic solutions and newer trends to compete in today’s rat race and succeed in it. Based on the historic trends in the industry, we can expect some key strategies that the E-Learning companies will adapt for sustenance in the market.

Key strategies
In the future, there will be more small companies entering the E-Learning market and the existing ones may focus on attaining more maturity in this field by focusing on innovativE-Learning methods and differentiated capabilities to deliver E-Learning to untapped global markets.

Looking at the past, some of the mergers and acquisitions, such as LionBridge acquiring Mentorix, NIIT acquiring ElementK, Skillsoft acquiring Netg, Harbinger Knowledge Products entering into an alliance with US-based GeoLearning Inc. have brought in huge success and widened the market reach of Indian vendors. We can expect similar acquisitions to happen in the future with well established E-Learning vendors being targets for BPO companies, looking to expand their horizon.

Indian vendors are also looking for ways to widen their client market across the globe. ValueNotes conducted interviews with various Indian E-Learning service providers and have come up with the following result.

According to the service providers ValueNotes interviewed, the focus will be more aggressive towards the US market. It also states that countries like UAE, Africa, Singapore, and Australia are potential targets with increased demand for E-Learning. The interesting news is that around 47% will focus on the domestic Indian market in the future. With Indian government starting to realize the effectiveness of E-Learning, companies can expect more government projects.

Challenges faced by Indian E-Learning industry

• Internet penetration in India is only at 7% in 2009, which is very less for such a huge population. However, with huge population, even a 0.5% increase in the number of internet users will give an additional volume of approximately 5 million users.
• There is a vast population in India even without a personal computer. It’s not affordable for everyone in India and this is a major challenge. With low cost PCs getting introduced, we can expect this situation to change and internet will also penetrate deeper.
• Most of the e-Learning content is made for English audience but there is also high demand for E-Learning in other languages such as Spanish, German, and Japanese. With around 68% of the world speaking non-English, international customers expect their E-Learning courses in native language. To access worldwide markets, companies should have localization teams with multilingual experts.
• Apart from these, Indians are more inclined towards academic programs and certification courses to prepare themselves for a job. E-Learning industry lacks this and there are no major recognized certification courses on E-Learning.