As the restaurant, hotel and many other industries were experiencing major hits and bankruptcies during the covid-19 pandemic, a few industries took a massive upward movement, with some companies experiencing up 520 percent growth. That’s over five time increase in revenue. Payoneer, a global payment company, recently surveyed stakeholders in the online learning business. The survey was titled “E-learning in the wake of a pandemic: an analysis of today’s e-learning industry…” The result proved one thing; the elearning industry experienced tremendous growth during the pandemic and the future looks bright for e-learning post-pandemic, as the e-Learning Market is expected to reach $350 Billion by 2025.
If you are looking to alternative source of income or to switch careers, continue watching this video to learn how to profit from the lucrative online learning industry. I’ll draw from the key findings from this survey to share with you valuable insights into why and how the online education industry exploded during the pandemic and how you can become a player in this inspiring and lucrative industry. Before we get to it, be sure to subscribe to After School TV for more insightful videos like this.
A brief background
Over the past two years more than 6 million learners worldwide have had the opportunity to gain new skills or improve existing ones through online courses. However, the recent outbreak of the corona virus pandemic thrust the e-learning market into the spotlight almost overnight. To be better equipped to stay ahead in the face of the current challenging economic situation, many more people are improving their existing skill set, or changing direction to developing new ones. Based on the result from the survey, up to 74% of online teachers joined the online education industry within the last two years. Some reasons for this are;
- Advancement in video communication tools which now enable people to more easily work or learn from home
- freelancing is quickly becoming the preferred lifestyle of choice
- Due to Covid-19 and the sudden shift of remote work.
Online teaching platforms reported Up to 520% increase in enrollment since late February 2020
While online education has been growing steadily in the past few years, the covid-19 pandemic rapidly paved the way for even stronger market growth. Millions of people worldwide had to quickly adapt to a new reality, connecting solely online to teach, work and learn. Those who found themselves out of their jobs had to quickly shift to learn new professional digital skills. As a result, global e-learning platform, Coursera saw drastic growth during the peak of the outbreak with more than 25 million enrollments since mid-march – a 520% increase from the same period last year. Udemy, another online learning platform, also reported 425% increase in enrollments of students and 55% increase in courses created by instructors. These companies probably experienced 5 years worth of growth within 4 months.
You Don’t need Formal Qualification
The survey found that 73% of those who teach professional skills do not have any formal or recognized teaching qualifications. They were just knowledgeable and experts in their fields. You may be thinking that teaching online requires some formal or recognized qualification. But skill and expertise is a more important requirement to teach than academic qualification. Opportunities exist in online teaching for those with or without teaching qualifications. We are increasing drawing towards a future of inclusive opportunities. People are not longer disadvantaged because of lack of formal qualification or certification. Rather opportunities are available based on what and how much you can deliver.
e-Learning is a great way to earn side or full income
One of the attractive aspects of online learning is the earning potential. About 1 in 2 online teachers earn over $500 per month; about 1 in 5 earns between $1,000 and $3,000; and 1 in 10 earns more than $3,000. Interestingly, considering the growing trend, around 90% of online teachers would consider making e-teaching their primary source of income. This isn’t surprising since about82% of online teachers saw an increase in course registrations during the pandemic. And 87% expect that demand will increase in the long term.
How to Start Your Online Teaching Career
So if this entire prospect in the $350 billion online learning industry interests you, how can you take advantage of this opportunity to jump-start your online teaching career? Here are some tips to help you get started.
- Identify your niche
You can only teach what you know and have experience about. Examine the areas you have excelled in professionally; fields you have built a long career in or a traditional craft you have perfected your skill in. You also want to consider the demand of the course you choose. You can find inspiration by looking at what courses are already out there. And the enrollment rate of the courses.
- Select an online learning platform
Once you have decided on the field you want to teach, research on the different online learning platforms out there. Some are more inclusive of teachers than the other. Platforms like Udacity and Coursera are not open for regular instructors. Udemy is a more inclusive platform that allows everyday people to teach what they know. There are also niche elearning platforms that focus on specific subject areas like language or IT courses. Most online platform offers a lot of resources to help instructors get started with learning how the platform work, deliver and manage their course.
- Get organized and plan your course
This is the part where you plan your lessons, create the course outline and record the actual classes. There are free and low cost tools that can ease the process like Google doc for creating the course outline, camera for recording the video, and editing tools. You want to hire freelancers to help with the video and graphic design.
How your class is delivered can make the difference between a mediocre course and a course that gets high reviews. So while planning your course, think about including learning aids like quizzes, assignments, projects, and deadlines.
- Market your courses and get paid
Most e-learning platforms will help recommend your course to their users. But you can’t rely on this as your sole marketing strategy. Usually, these platforms have thousands of courses in different categories. Courses that have been on the platform for longer and have had more engagements tend to be recommended more often than new courses. It’s like, when you are new to social media, you don’t expect your social media post to be shown to as much people as someone with a large following. That is why you have to take your marketing into your own hands. Upload your course to multiple platforms to increase your reach.
Invest in marketing your course using social media, blog posts and paid advertising. It’s also best to build your own audience-base through email marketing so that you can easily reach them when you have a new course or promo.
Unless you already have a large following online and are an already established expert in your fields, you are likely to experience low enrolment for your class. This is not a get rich quick scheme. You have to invest your time, effort and money to get your online teaching career off the ground. So you should be in it for the long haul.
The good news is that the future is bright for the e-learning industry with huge growth opportunity. While the industry was already on steady growth, it has propelled forward at greater speed and expanded to wider audiences due to the covid-19 pandemic which has certainly pushed e-learning into the spotlight. The opportunity is twofold; e-teaching and e-learning; huge opportunity to teach and huge opportunity to learn. When as much as 90% of online teachers would consider making e-learning their primary source of income, it’s goes to show that e-learning has evolved into a full blown industry – and there is much room for growth. The future is indeed bright for this inspiring industry.
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