So let’s talk about market landscape. After all, there are lots of different platforms and technologies, and one can be easily confused with this vast range of possibilities.
Basically, the market players can be categorized into several segments, each serving different needs of customers.
Preschool and school education
These platforms are aimed at preparation for standardized exams, such as for applying to schools or graduation exams. The largest platforms in the world are indian Byju’s, american Apex Learning and others. There are also lots of them in Russia, providing lessons for preparation to “ЕГЭ” (state exam), for example, Фоксфорд.
Higher and professional education
These are primarily platforms for B2B customers - universities and colleges. All of us, GSOMers, are familiar with BlackBoard, but there are also such platforms as Ellucian and 2U.
Additional professional education
Who else needs online platforms? Obvious answer is companies, to provide their employees with continuous self-development. Such possibility offer such platforms as edcast, Codemy, Sweetrush and others.
Massive open online courses (MOOC)
This is the most interesting part - well-known and loved platforms which provide thousands of courses in different subjects. Here you can learn almost anything. Most probably, you are familiar with all of them - edX, Coursera, Khan Academy and Udacity. Russia can also be proud to have several national platforms - Открытое образование, Универсариум, Stepik.
Language courses
Finally, another major part of market - language courses. With globalization, more and more people are willing to learn to languages, with the help of new interesting approaches and without need to go anywhere. Here are couple of them - Duolingo, Busuu, Lingualeo.
Of course, there are other forms of online education - Skype tutors, online encyclopedias, YouTube videos. All of this is big, big market and it is constantly evolving, because people are eager to learn more and more.