E-learning has outgrown its initial inertia and emerged as a popular learning platform, but a learner behaviour study by global e-learning company Edureka claims that more than 50 per cent of e-learners in the IT industry, drop out before completing the course. The report shows that although upskilling has gathered importance due to the decreasing lifespan of technical skills, low course completion rates continue to plague the e-learning industry.
The problem lies in the way the IT companies allocate projects, said Vinod AJ, All India General Secretary, Forum for IT Employees (FITE), "Even if the employees acquire training they do not have the right projects assigned to them that would let them use those skills. We are trying to figure out a model to provide training ourselves. If the companies and the government join hands with us, we can come up with a model that would be helpful for the employees and also increase productivity."
The survey was aimed at understanding the modern Indian IT Professional’s relationship with learning on the job and their behaviour when it comes to learning. The online survey was conducted among 339 Indian IT professionals who were interested in online courses.
It found out that almost half of all IT professionals who start learning on their own, regularly give up without completing the course
due to inability to motivate themselves and lack of hands-on guidance. Ease of access is a very important factor for IT professionals when they pick their learning platform. Most technology professionals prefer a high level of interactivity and engagement when they learn. Indian IT professionals don’t mind spending on quality learning and support.
“Low course completion rate is a critical problem that plagues the e-learning industry, but it’s often forgotten in the race to acquire more customers. As the industry matures, completion rates will define the adoption of e-learning among professionals. Tech learners need constant motivation, high-level interactivity and engagement from learning platforms. Today’s e-learning platforms need to offer the best of both worlds – online learning’s inherent convenience and ease of access with offline’s real-time interaction and engagement," said Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka. "Our report has revealed key behavioural insights that give a roadmap to building better digital learning platforms for the industry. We’re also proud to say that our live, online, instructor-led learning model has helped us achieve the highest course completion rate in the e-learning industry.”
According to a KPMG and Google study, India’s online education market is set to grow to $I.96 billion and encompass around 9.6 million users by 2021, with reskilling and online certification being the largest category standing at $93 million. A separate study by FICCI-Nasscom and EY states that 9 per cent of the country's 600 million estimated workforce will be deployed in new jobs that do not even exist today and 37 per cent in jobs that have radically changed skill sets.
An earlier study had also found that IT professionals need to up-skill 15-20 times in their career to stay relevant in the industry. In such a scenario, there’s a dire need for effective e-learning platforms that can train professionals on the job. E-learning platforms need to rethink learner engagement and course completion seriously as accessibility and affordability will cease to be advantages soon.
