Is it worth launching new educational projects in a new reality and investing in existing ones? How will the online education market change during and after quarantine and pandemic? Such issues began to arise from our customers due to the announcement of quarantine. 

We are interested in developing our customers’ business and do not stand aside. Our marketing and business analysis team conducted their own research (for our clients in the field of education) and formed the top market trends.

Let’s first determine what reality we are in. It can be clearly defined as a situation of uncertainty. In such a socially significant sphere as education (secondary and higher), distance learning will gain more and more popularity. As for online training services for business, and private persons they also will not stand still. Some enterprises, unfortunately, have now suspended or reduced their activities. Others try, if possible, to adapt to remote work. People found themselves in difficult situations, but this is not a reason to panic. Many perceive the current situation as a new opportunity to improve their own professionalism, to obtain a new specialty.

Who needs online training? And is society ready to pay for distance education?

1. Using the latest technology provides teachers and students around the world with amazing new opportunities for online education. And this means that the need for the development of educational projects will grow and require new approaches to their filling and communication between students and teachers.
2. The main audience of online training services is small and medium enterprises and ordinary people. Most of the private audience are people of medium or high income. They are now working, have savings, and are considering investing in education. Moreover, it is unlikely that anyone is currently planning holidays abroad.
3. People will look for online training opportunities in order to gain additional skills and become a valuable specialist in their own company, or find another, higher-paying job.
4. SMEs are now in limited operation mode and are more than ever interested in expanding the knowledge and possible functions of their staff. Companies employees and entire businesses who have switched to remote work are interested in improving their digital literacy, personal effectiveness, and consider online training as an opportunity for pumping personal qualities. This means that in the near future a decline in sales in the online education market is not expected.

It is also worth noting that some types of distance services are seeing increased demand for their products. If you were planning to launch your own educational product, start now. The situation of uncertainty is not a reason to postpone your plans for later.

What online services are in demand in the market?

• Training programs. Modern professions that make it possible to work remotely: IT specialties, designers, online consultants, online sales. People actively master these specialties in order to find remote work or part-time work on freelance.
• Separately, it is worth noting the training of professions in the field of online education. The industry has a noticeable shortage of personnel and a high demand for technical administrators, methodologists, and producers. Therefore, training services in these areas is a great investment.
• Internal online training systems for companies. Educational services that allow companies of any level and field of business to quickly integrate new employees into the workflow, adapt to innovations or organize new business processes for current employees.
• Financial knowledge. Online courses where people are taught to plan the budget and effectively manage the company’s money and personal income in current realities are very important.
• Online courses on sports and a healthy lifestyle. Of particular interest are personal online training with a trainer or drawing up a personal healthy lifestyle program. In conditions of quarantine and the intensity of modern life, such services will become increasingly relevant. And people are willing to pay for such individual lessons.
• Upbringing and children’s development. Such courses have always been particularly popular and very relevant during quarantine when parents must figure out what to do with a child locked with them in four walls and forgetting what walks and games with peers are. Entertainment products are also popular – for example, online modeling or painting lessons for children. Online lectures for teenagers using troubling topics.
• In the field of psychology, there is a high demand for online courses on how to maintain self-control, how to get along in the family, and avoid stressful situations in family isolation (this is an urgent problem while quarantining).
• Time management and personal effectiveness. Many specialists who switched to remote work were not ready for the features of such work and were looking for courses where they would be taught how to work more efficiently and competently in managing their time. Also, various time tracking services should be included here.

This is just a small list of online educational projects that are relevant now and will gain more and more popularity in the nearest future.

What can be done to make your products in high demand?

• Practice-oriented training. Please clearly communicate the measurable and concrete results that students will receive using your online service.
• Focus on successful cases. Tell in your communication how the life of your students has changed after training.
• For vocational training services, consider providing employment assistance. People who are in search of work, consider courses where during training they can take an internship in companies and after graduation receive job offers.
• Offer short courses (1 to 3 months). Long-term programs are less in demand in a situation where people do not know what tomorrow will bring them.
• Project training. Your service will attract more attention if students study and develop their own, working project. By the end of the training, students will receive a ready-made project, ready to be launched on the market, or already started during the training process.
• Offer an inexpensive product or a profitable package. The issue of price in a crisis becomes painful, and people even longer decide to buy expensive educational products.
• Pack your courses under quarantine. How to be effective at remote work? How to play sports at home without equipment? How to find a new niche for the business? How to optimize resources or costs?
• Open the asynchronous learning format. Most often, services only practice synchronous learning (when a student listens to a course with a group and the lessons open sequentially, one after the other). Offer people the opportunity to learn asynchronously and access all learning content at once. This will be a very popular service for students who want to quickly learn, for example, a new skill. Asynchronous learning allows students to design their own learning schedules.
• Consider the option of installment payment for training, offer the sale of training “parts”. Depending on the orientation of your service, this way you can attract more customers who want to study.
• Try to show why your product is worth the money. A potential audience always has this question. And you’d better answer it than your clients will go to think and find convincing arguments.

Pay your attention. You need to talk to your audience. Talk to them on your educational service website, in reviews, in articles, in advertisements, speak at online conferences (a great opportunity to declare yourself and your product). Remove objections, talk about the opportunities that your products provide at this particular time. In conditions of total uncertainty, there is nothing worse than silence. Provide new products in response to market demands, and then no economic crisis will stop the development of your project.