North America E-Learning Market to Reach $27.9 Billion by 2018 

The revenues for self-paced e-learning in North America reached $24.4 billion in 2013. Revenues will reach $27.2 billion by 2018, according to a new report by Ambient Insight called, "2013-2018 North America Self-Paced E-Learning Market." North America is the most mature market in the world with a modest five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2 percent. 

The Ambient report provides self-paced e-learning revenue forecasts for Canada and the United States. The growth rate for self-paced e-learning across eight buying segments in Canada is 4.5 percent, while the growth rate in the United States across all the buying segments is 1.9 percent. 

"While the growth rate may seem low compared to the other regions, the revenues in North America are the highest in the world," comments Ambient Chief Research Officer Sam S. Adkins. "A modest growth rate in a region with very high revenues means that revenues will remain steady over the forecast period," adds Adkins. 

The four major catalysts driving the sales of self-paced e-learning products in North America are: 

• reduction of training and education budgets in the organizational buying segments

• content digitization efforts in the PreK-12 segments

• steady increase of online enrollments in the two academic segments

• adoption of digital products in the commercial training and education industry. 

There are two sections in this report: a demand-side analysis and a supply-side analysis. The demand-side analysis breaks out five-year spending forecasts for eight buying segments for both Canada and the United States: consumers, federal government agencies, provincial/state/municipal government agencies, PreK-12 school systems, higher education institutions, corporations & businesses, associations & non-profits, and healthcare organizations. 

"While the growth rates are below 5 percent in the two U.S. academic segments, in terms of revenue, higher education and PreK-12 are the second and third-largest buying segments after the corporate segment," reports Adkins. "In Canada, the top buying segment is also the corporate segment, but the second-largest buying segment is the Canadian federal government, followed by PreK-12." 

Additionally, the report provides forecasts for U.S. consumer spending on packaged eLearning content by eight subject matter categories and forecasts for self-paced language learning courses by five languages. 

"Language learning is the top self-paced content type purchased by consumers in the United States," adds Adkins. "The breakouts by language are interesting. English language learning will be the top revenue-generating self-paced product in the US consumer segment throughout the forecast period, but Chinese language learning products have the highest growth rate at 20.8 percent." 

More than 150 suppliers operating in Canada and the United States are identified in this report to help suppliers identify local partners, distributors, resellers, and potential merger and acquisition (M&A) targets. A free Executive Overview is available at www.ambientinsight.com/Reports/eLearning.aspx. 

Top Industries Using E-Learning 

The recently released Mindflash E-Learning Report provides insights into corporate e-learning trends based on data from hundreds of thousands of e-learning software users in the first quarter of 2014. 

Mindflash reports that the software industry surpassed health care to become the top industry using e-learning (based on percentage of companies), followed by financial services, IT services, and marketing. Software also spent the most investing in e-learning, followed by health care, financial services, health/wellness, and IT services. 

The report also examines a few basic trends around course design and use. For instance, study respondents report favoring shorter courses. Most courses (nearly 60 percent) were 30 minutes or less in length. The number of slides included in the average course, however, varied greatly: 25 percent had 10 slides or fewer, 33 percent had between 11 and 25 slides, and 25 percent had between 26 and 50 slides. Finally, 75 percent of courses included an assessment for learners. 

California took the Number 1 spot among U.S. states for training, based on percentage of users (21.64 percent), followed by Massachusetts (11.12 percent), Illinois (9.49 percent), Georgia (6.79 percent) and Florida (6.7 percent). 

To access the full report, go to www.mindflash.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/eLearning\_Report\_Q1\_2014.pdf. 

E-Learning for the Mobile Generation Infographic 

E-learning has grown in complexity due to the introduction of mobile devices and the growth in operating systems. With the increased demand for mobile learning, clients need to understand the complexities and requirements involved in creating mobile learning courseware. 

The corporate environment is under increased pressure to offer learning solutions outside of mandate browsers and devices, with the ease of access to smart devices employees and students require learning materials to be readily available. On the flip side, the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices opens a new world of training opportunities to organizations that have not considered mobile learning. 

Pulse Learning, using data from Forrester Research, W3 Schools, and mobi Thinking, has compiled the following mobile learning infographic to highlight the important changes and aspects organizations need to consider. 

TrainingIndustry.com Announces 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List 

TrainingIndustry.com has announced its 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List, as part of its mission to continually monitor the training marketplace for the best providers of training services and technologies. 

Selection to this year's Learning Portal Companies Watch List was based on the following criteria: 

• breadth of functionality and capabilities

• commitment to the corporate training market

• industry visibility, innovation, and impact

• ·number and strength of clients

• geographic reach. 

“This year’s Learning Portal Companies Watch List illustrates the growth and entrance of many new and upcoming organizations in this segment,” said Ken Taylor, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer. “These companies are used by major organizations to successfully support their corporate learning and development initiatives.” 

“The companies selected for this year’s Watch List show the depth of the Learning Portal market with each exhibiting growth and innovations to enhance the impact of corporate learning.” said Doug Harward, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to seeing what these companies will contribute to the LMS landscape in the coming year.” 

The 2014 list includes (in alphabetical order): 

• 24x7 Learning

• Aparta

• Brainshark

• Dale Carnegie Training

• Docebo

• E-Doceo

• Franklin Covey

• G-Cube

• Growth Engineering

• Indecomm Global Services

• Michael Management Corp.

• Mindflash

• Saffron Interactive

• Total Training Network

• Upside Learning Solutions

• WestNet Learning. 

For more information, go to www.trainingindustry.com.