E-learning industry shows signs of growth
The influence of e-learning is continuing to spread throughout the UK economy and more and more people are becoming involved in its purchase, delivery and use, according to the eLearning Network (ELN) - the UK's foremost professional association for users and developers of all forms of e-learning.
The ELN made this finding after analysing the number of delegates attending the six or so one day conferences that it organises each year. These conferences, which explore leading edge developments in the e-learning world, attract an average audience of 100 people.
Vaughan Waller, an internationally known independent e-learning consultant and the elected chairman of the ELN, commented: "Some 33 per cent of the delegates at each of the last three ELN meetings - held in November 2004, February and March 2005 - attended an ELN meeting for the first time. The figure for the September 2004 conference was 25 per cent.
"These meetings looked at 'technologies for tomrrow', learning content management and how to put the 'wow' into e-learning. From the delegates' feedback forms we know that those delegates who were new to the ELN were also fairly new to e-learning."
From this, the ELN has concluded that the e-learning industry in the UK is growing, both in its use and influence as well as in the numbers of people involved in specifying, buying and distributing e-learning programmes.
These empirical findings are in line with a report - published in 2003 and called 'European Corporate e-Learning Market Forecast and Analysis, 2003 - 07' - from market analysts IDC. According to IDC, the size of the e-learning market in Western Europe was said to be $358m in 2003 (or some £200m). This is predicted to grow to $994m in 2007. The learning content market is said to the largest single part of this.
According to this report, the UK e-learning market was forecast to be some $188m in 2004 and $257m in 2005. It is said to be growing at a compound annual rate of 28 per cent a year (which compares favourably with the Chancellor's recent growth predictions for the UK economy as a whole of some 3.5 per cent).
Commenting on these figures, the ELN's Waller said: "While this report is now some two years old, its predictions would appear to be roughly realistic. Moreover, IDC's figures, along with anecdotal evidence, suggest that the UK e-learning industry is rapidly maturing and, has become an established part of the human resource development sector - with more and more firms feeling the organisational development and economic benefits of making e-learning materials available to their staff."