eLearning Marketplace Features in The Times

This weekend The Times published an article on how subject matter experts are tapping into a digital learning revolution, making large sums of money sharing their knowledge via online courses. The article ‘Get rich by sharing your knowledge’ features the US Company Udemy, and the UK’s Open University’s FutureLearn and Elearning Marketplace Ltd.

Udemy’s top eight online tutors are making an average of £475,000 each, however it would be a misconception to think that everyone can share their knowledge on line and achieve this level of income. A variety of skills are required to produce a quality learning experience for students. In the article one of Udemy’s top tutors said about creating online courses, “It can be time-consuming, but it can also really pay off. It took me three months to write the first course and I can now do it in under two months, which is as quick as it gets,” Mr Percival says, “You need to think carefully about the course structure, how you’ll teach it, provide projects for students to undertake, keep it up to date and remain enthusiastic all the way along. People can underestimate how long it takes.” We completely agree with Mr Percival, as pages of text and the odd image do not to produce what is required of online courses today. Quality online content that sells well includes video, animation, interactive quizzes, simulations and games, and creating this is a time consuming task.

Elearning Marketplace’s Managing Director, Carolyn Lewis, is passionate about life-long learning and founded the company in 2013 to encourage e-learning producers, whether individuals or businesses, to offer their digital learning content to others and make learning as accessible as possible to everyone. In response to The Times article, Carolyn said, “It is wonderful to be recognised by The Times, along-side well established and well-known brands such as Udemy and the Open University. Our business which was founded in 2013 is growing rapidly and now has a catalogue of around 1,000 online courses. Our customers are a mixture of businesses and individuals. Businesses can purchase training for their staff as and when they require it and manage this training with free use of our learning management system. For individuals our catalogue provides a unique selection of courses for career development, improved employment opportunities and fitness and health.”