As a homeschooling parent who runs an eLearning software company from home called LifterLMS, I’m watching a collision of variables at a global scale that could create societal change quickly.
Change could accelerate fast in terms of how we work, educate our children, and approach adult learning.
I could see more people wanting to work from home, pursue homeschooling, and explore self education from home.
Let’s explore the 4 colliding forces…
FORCE 1: College tuition costs continue to climb and student loan debt is the highest that it’s ever been
According to Forbes, student loan debt is at $1.5 trillion and climbing.
The price of college is increasing 8 times faster than wages according to Forbes.
College costs and student loan debt are exploding.
FORCE 2: The eLearning industry is expected to triple its size from 2020 to 2025
It’s projected that by 2025, the global eLearning market will reach $325 billion USD.
When asked, 60% of internet users reported that online courses are preferable to fit their lifestyle and schedules.
Online learning software tools have never been more affordable for the eLearning entrepreneur.
As an example you can download a WordPress Learning Management System (LMS) plugin like LifterLMS for free and launch an online course or training based membership quickly. All you need in addition is a domain name (costs about $10 per year) and web hosting (costs $6 – $40 per month) account with WordPress installed to create an eLearning business.
Online education is exploding.
FORCE 3: Remote work is on the rise
16% of global companies are fully remote.
40% of global companies are hybrid (remote and on-premises mix).
69% of millennials will trade other work benefits for flexible workspace options.
Remote workers earn salaries higher than $100,000/year, 2.2x more frequently than on-site workers.
Global Workplace Analytics found that businesses can save up to $11,000 per employee every year – just by allowing them to work from home.
AT&T saved $30 million in real estate by offering remote work options.
This week Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft asked their Seattle-based staff to work from home because of coronavirus.
Remote work is exploding.
FORCE 4: WordPress’s market share is now 35% of all websites
According to W3Techs, WordPress powers 35% of all the websites on the internet, including those without a content management system (CMS) or with a custom-coded CMS … WordPress powers over one-third of the web!
WordPress has been consistently growing its market share by ~1-4% (in overall market share numbers) for the past 8 years.
WordPress and the WordPress LMS category is exploding.
Weathering the perfect storm
The collision between increasing college costs, eLearning adoption, remote work popularity, and WordPress proliferation is causing this perfect storm opportunity.
Parents, communities, and countries will turn online at a staggering rate for education opportunities for the youth and themselves.
Parents and single adults will pursue remote work opportunities at their existing jobs and look for new opportunities if their employers can’t provide work via telecommuting.
As adults look for new ways to earn a living from home, people will inventory their skills, passions, and life experiences looking increasingly at creating online courses, virtual consulting service offerings, and creating training based membership websites.
Because WordPress is perfectly positioned as a global tool for self publishing a website from anywhere in the world, these new online business entrepreneurs will turn to WordPress to create their online platform.
They will turn to news sources like the LMScast podcast to develop skills and keep up to date in this emerging entrepreneurial online education industry.
Once these new education entrepreneurs have their WordPress website online, they can add an all-in-one learning management system (LMS) plugin like LifterLMS to their website.
From there they can begin selling, creating, and delivering online courses, coaching, online community, other resources, and virtual consulting services for profit from home.
There are online education opportunities for both learners of all ages and aspiring online business owners looking to teach online and make money from home.
