With 2011 nearly behind us, I’d like to look
ahead to the New Year and share my predictions for the eLearning industry and how to cope with the changes. As is constant in the technology field, I believe eLearning will continue to evolve and change to better meet the needs of upcoming tech-savvy generations. I’ve divided my predictions into three categories: eLearning Management, eLearning Design, and eLearning Technology.
| 2012 Prediction | How to Cope |
| eLearning Management | |
| eLearning Groups Formalize Position Credentials – Movement takes off to qualify various positions within eLearning. eLearning Master’s degrees proliferate. | Get over your reluctance to invest in professional development. As Patti Schank says, “It’s your brain and skill set and your employability at stake.” If you’re in the technology field, it’s all about change. |
| eLearning Integrated into High School Curriculum – Idaho is on track to became the first state to require high school students to take at least two credits online to graduate following a board vote to incorporate eLearning into the curriculum. More states will follow suit. | Stay young. Make a commitment to enroll in an online course in 2012. |
| eLearning Design | |
| Professional Development Courses Integrate – Integration of formal discussion threads with social media platforms. Read more about my thoughts on Social Media vs. Formal Education. | Reach out to the silo that controls your social media to collaborate and connect to formal courses. |
| Declining Interest in Tutorial Format – More emphasis on performance support tools (at least to supplement tutorials). | Stay ahead of the curve, establish community to promote process mapping and come up with different ways to assemble just-in-time information. |
| Rapid eLearning Morphs for Tablet Use – Alternatives to Articulate gain speed. | Alternatives to PowerPoint conversion emerge, watch for an app to do this. |
| LMS will Synch and Control Tablet – Picture a teacher synchronously turning the page for all students. The paperless classroom gains ground. | Sit back and enjoy formality of all learners being on the same page in live classroom. |
| Online Micro-Lectures Impact eLearning Design – Resources like Khan Academy will continue to impact the design of formal eLearning and advances in learning object indexing. | Think short, learning nugget. Develop ways to sell this concept to the non-believers. |
| Technology | |
| Game Development Platform Chaos – Chaos will continue as online game developers seek alternatives to Flash as their development software of choice. Development tools like Unity will be the benefactor. | Dedicate one project to using an alternative platform in 2012. |
| HTML 5 Struggles to Replace Flash in eLearning – Flash will continue to dominate as the quality eLearning development tool of choice. Read more about my thoughts on Flash vs. HTML 5. | Chill, do not react unless someone wants to invest in your foray into HTML 5 as a replacement to Flash. |
| LMS Satellites Grow – Corporations and associations contract with SaaS-based companies for eLearning initiatives. One size LMS does not fit all initiatives. | Get over it. As long as it’s in the cloud, its ok to maintain more than 1 LMS for your educational initiatives. |