The Effects of COVID-19 on The Online Course Industry

When COVID-19 prompted lockdown measures across Europe and North America in March 2020 and the impact it had on brick and mortar establishments were immediate. From sprawling factories to mom-and-pop corner shops, the pandemic forced employees and customers back into their homes and forced business owners to rethink their plans for the future.

A lot of these companies decided to use online education as a way to keep their business in the black. In early 2019 the online learning business was estimated to grow by $300 billion in 2025. The pandemic has rapidly increased this timeframe, as entrepreneurs, businesses and educators shift their focus to onto the web, leading to a 221% surge on the number of courses created during the initial days of the epidemic.

In light of this initial boom, we asked a couple of key questions:

• What will this development play out in the long time?
• What kind of skills are those who learn online, given the change to a remote work environment?
• What is this going to mean for present and future online course creators?

In the trend report which follows, we dive into these questions and more.

Understanding the information

The report provides key insights in the online course industry, based on the first-touch reactions to COVID-19 and the slower-burn trends that followed.

For these findings, we looked at two distinct time periods. The data from March 15 to 31 showed the immediate effect of pandemic related security measures. Data between April 1 and June 30 provided an overview of the ongoing trends in the wake of the world settling to a new norm. In order to gauge the progress of the two periods, we compare both to average benchmarks within the 6-month time frame prior to March 15.

Across these three timeframes We've evaluated new course creators, new student enrollment, and the creation of new courses. Be aware that in this report, when we reference increase in the creation of courses, this amount is based on courses with 10 or more student enrollments in order to make sure that numbers don't get inflated due to vacant courses.

The data obtained from's business model specifically, and therefore may differ from other online course providers based on a range of socio-demographic factors however, it provides a glimpse of trends in the online course industry built on one of the most popular online educational platforms.

The Early Boom

The pivot to online courses

In the early weeks of COVID-19's lockdown measures we observed a 21 percent increase in the number of new creators of courses on our platform. This is a wide range of different types of creators, who have different goals that range from to:

• Entrepreneurs as well as businesses that have established brick-and-mortar enterprises that switched to online sales and service as COVID-19 required them to close their doors.
• Education institutions all the way from kindergarten to post-graduation that took their teaching material online to support the services of tutoring and distance learning.
• Changers in careers as well assolopreneurs who have taken an existing skill or talent and used it to create the creation of a brand new online course to supplement their incomes when faced with lay-offs and shifts in their careers caused due to economic instability.
• Businesses andhuman human resource professionals who have developed online courses for training to assist their new employees to be on the same page remotely.

In the event that many creators created courses that were more than one, we tracked a 3688% rise in courses created using the platform over the last two weeks of March.

When we looked at the growth of every aspect 3 industries jumped out as first adopters:

• Arts & Entertainment course that has exploded by an astounding2108%with the help of talented entrepreneurs who offer anything from marketing, photography, and graphic design to weaving paintings, weaving and hip-hop dancing.
• Education followed and grew by881 percentageand classes that cover everything from macroeconomics and economics to AP historical.
• Health & Fitness courses grew by543 percent as pilates studios, yoga instructors, and other health professionals moved their practices online.

We also tracked a 7988% increase in the number of courses that creators declared themselves as Other or whose industry was not captured.

Online course growth across the globe

A large proportion of the creation of courses prior to pandemics was centered in North America, the online market growth in the industry of course was international.

• The United States and Canada saw a combined growth rate of 691% when compared with course creation in the 6 months prior to COVID-19.
• Hungary saw the highest growth rate beginning with just a few of courses during the six month prior to the pandemic and then soaring with the1015 percentage increase in new courses in the second week of March alone.
• Mexico witnessed theinitial increase of 383 percent in late March, but they've had the most steady growth throughout the month of April and June because their growth has been steady at263% above pre-pandemic averages.
• As Mexico continues to show a steady trend of expansion, India and Spain trail close behind by registering 230% and 215 percentage growth, respectively.

Although many countries experienced a dramatic spike in course creation in late March and a steady levelling down throughout the subsequent months the top 15 countries settled into the midst of a significant increase in course creation rate - ranging from 115% to 263% higher than the pre-pandemic average. This demonstrates that around the globe, online classes are still a very effective instrument to help the world transition into the new norm.

Students' engagement in online classes

It's one thing for entrepreneurs and businesses to move on the internet, but how students engage is a different matter. In the wake of the epidemic that has everybody indoors, what was the students who were able to do during their free hours?

Certain sectors stood out as clear winners with significant jumps in student enrollment:

Software & Technology earns an honourable mention in this article. While enrollment rose by 234% during the early days of lockdown, they skyrocketed by more than 1150% in the months following. This should come as no shock, as many are seeking for ways to improve their abilities to work remotely, in which technology-driven jobs are plentiful.

the Slow Burn

So far we've touched upon a few instances where metrics have stood out for their growth in April-June and for their initial figures in late March. But let's explore further what trends emerged during the time immediately following global lockdown measures.

Evolving student demand

Between April and June, the student enrollment growth was relatively stable at 20 percent over pre-covid numbers which indicates that the growing students' demand for online classes is here to stay.

Most industries showed steady growth in enrollment of students:

All but three of these industries experienced significantly higher growth in this period than they did in the initial post-lockdown expansion phase. This speaks volumes about the trend of student demand toward courses that are in line with an evolving post-pandemic curriculum. For example, Software & Technology and Education provide a number of opportunities to meet the needs of a ever-growing remote workforce. students looking for ways to improve their fitness at home are choosing online Health & Fitness courses.

Online course continues to grow

As student demands have increased as time passes, course developers have been able to meet the demand as new course growth has increased across every category with significantly higher growth rates as before the onset of the epidemic. Take for instance that Business & Marketing has the lowest growth rate of all categorical categories, at just 261% of its rate before the epidemic, whereas Education and Arts & Entertainment are the top performers with increases of 722% and 732 percent, respectively.

Despite these figures, student enrollment figures across all countries and industries surpass those of course creators, spelling continued opportunity for current and aspiring course creators who are eager to fill in the gaps.

The Long Game

These figures paint a picture of a thriving online course industry, where entrepreneurs are able to find new ways to showcase their expertise regardless of the financial challenges caused by COVID-19. The explosion in online courses isn't just a one-hit wonder driven by lockdown and is continuing to grow when businesses, entrepreneurs, and educational institutions turn online courses into their solutions for a uncertain future.