Archive for the ‘e-learning’ Category.
June 30, 2009, 4:40 am
The outbreak of the H1N1, better known as swine flu, has led schools to close/be suspended in May and June. This has been primarily implemented as a safety precaution, resulting in teachers and students remaining at home indefinitely. However, from the news articles and blogs I’ve been reading, this situation seems to have sparked off a much needed debate in current educational methods. What forms of learning can be made possible for students in the absence of the traditional chalk and board? This may serve as a wake up call for educators worldwide, exposing their learning tech-readiness in light of campuses shutting down. It is no surprise that the schools and colleges that are tech savvy and already have these frameworks in place will face the least pressure from campus closure. Digitized content, distance learning methodologies, and multi-directional online communication would go far in encouraging teachers to keep their students engaged, and learning, even at home.
E-learning service providers and specialists can be expected to pounce on this opportunity, and present their case for the need to include online learning & communication methods in such times.
Continue reading ‘e-learning – the cure to the learning deficiency pandemic?’ »
June 15, 2009, 3:05 am
The new e-learning report released by ValueNotes (more here) places the revenues from the Indian offshoring industry at $341 million in the calendar year 2008, growing at a CAGR of 15% until 2012. Many readers will, however, interpret these numbers differently, and rightly so. We thought we should elaborate on our means of deriving the growth figures especially, given the multitude of plausible arguments and individual projections.
A pertinent blog post by Amit Garg, CEO, Upside Learning (found here) asserts that the industry will grow at a more bullish 25-50% over the next four years, driven by prominent players. Our primary research did throw up companies who have grown and will continue to grow at 50-100% (some even at 300 %!) in the future, but these were in the minority. Several companies, including one of the industry leaders, mentioned that they had static growth in 2008, with a spillover effect expected through 2009 into 2010. Companies mentioned that their clients were delaying buying decisions amidst the recessionary climate. Studies by bodies such as ASTD (2009) also hint at this trend, with fast shrinking resource allocations to training initiatives in the US, the biggest client market for many e-learning providers. Hence we believe the industry growth for India could be slow, at 10-15%, until 2010.
Continue reading ‘Growth in the Indian e-learning offshoring industry’ »
May 26, 2009, 12:45 am
My Google Alerts faithfully informed me this week that Blackboard Inc. is set to acquire ANGEL Learning by the end of this month. First thoughts… Why? The press release mentions that Blackboard:
- hopes to achieve great economies of scale with this takeover;
- will have access to Angel’s service expertise in K-12 and higher education;
Continue reading ‘Will the e-learning tech behemoths reign supreme in the years to come?’ »
