Is the e-learning market in India set to grow?

Digital technology has acquired an important place in almost all walks of life in Y2K and we cannot think of even a day without it. The new digital technologies and penetration of Internet has even transformed the way of learning and created a “learning revolution” that led to the introduction of E-learning or Electronic learning – An innovation that takes learning globally beyond the boundaries of a classroom.

E-learning Hits Indian Companies

Around the year 2000 or late 90s’, the western countries started to focus more on e-learning and were investing more in this field. Companies in the US wanted to invest in cost-effective offshore market to meet their huge e-learning demands within budget, and this made IT companies in India enter this sector. NIIT Technologies and Tata Interactive Systems are some of the pioneers in the e-learning sector.

According to the Nasscom 2003 report, the global revenue from e-learning market in 2002 is around $23 million, and India’s share in this space is around $5 million. Nasscom also estimated that the expected four year annual growth rate of e-learning market in India is 20-25%. E-learning market globally had a steady growth and estimates state that the e-learning global market size in 2007-08 is over $20 billion, and it has grown ten-fold since 2000.

The steady growth in this sector attracted more IT companies, pure players, KPOs, BPOs, and publishing houses to the market. ElementK, McGraw-Hill, Lionbridge, Skillsoft, IBM, and Oracle are some of the global companies that set up e-learning centers in India after observing the captivating growth in the market. ValueNotes research states that their interaction with the e-learning industry has revealed that the major players are growing at the rate of 30%-50% annually.

Evolution in E-learning Delivery Mediums
E-learning originated with the introduction of Computer-based training (CBT) delivery systems, which had a great penetration in various sectors with its multimedia-rich features and cost advantage compared to traditional classroom training. With the growth of Internet, onlinE-learning delivery systems like Web-based Tutorials (WBTs) became popular among people. However, compared to western countries, the Internet penetration in India is still low and this retards the growth of online-learning in India.

According to the survey from Internet World Stats (www.internetworldstats.com) conducted in Sep 2009, in North Americas the Internet penetration rate is around 74.2%, and in India its around 7% and in year 2000 it was only around 0.5%. However with a huge population rate, even a 7% equates to 81 million Internet users and this makes Indian service providers to still hold their hopes towards the domestic market.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) followed the evolution of WBTs and it’s a big hit with its potential to help learners manage their learning, keep track of progress, and also generate reports. In India, many corporate giants either buy a customized LMS to host a library of courses from service providers or just buy a specific course for training their employees. However, the domestic market for e-learning is still in developing stage, yet e-learning is a high revenue generator for service providers leveraging the offshore model to cater to international clients. Experts state that global e-learning clients in the US and UK are constantly targeting India among other countries such as Middle East, Australia, or the rest of Europe.

So what makes India the favorite e-learning offshore destination? Do you think the e-learning offshore market in India will continue to grow?