Has The Moment Arrived For The Online Learning Marketplace?
And here you already thought you knew what “reality” was.
The online learning marketplace is estimated to be approximately $42 billion in 2020 and expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35-40% through 2024. The widespread adoption of this innovative approach to education has been borne by the traditional mother of invention: necessity.
While the coronavirus pandemic has not single-handedly ushered in the age of remote learning, it has greatly accelerated a trend that has been in place since services like the YouTube launched Khan Academy in 2008. The Harvard and MIT collaboration EdX began in 2012 by offering a single MIT sponsored course “circuits and electrics.” The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider currently offers, through 140 institutions ranging from corporations to academic institutions, Professional Certificate courses as well as “MicroBachelors” and complete graduate degree programs.
As the non-profit space began to proliferate in the early 2010s, so did the for-profit space with companies like Canvas (2008), Udemy (2010), and Coursera (2012). As students and parents brace for what looks to be a very different back to school event in the coming months, investors will be evaluating opportunities across the digital education landscape as well as supporting infrastructure.
