Introduction
A new online education platform competes with well-established companies and public projects, such as Coursera, edX, Udemy, and KhanAcademy. Despite the high competition, the popularity of massive open online courses (MOOC) and technology development suggest that there is a market for new niche online learning platforms. During the pandemic, the online education resources gained more traction and popularity. Moreover, Altmann et al. (2018) argue that the industry of higher education is disrupted by emerging technologies. This report will analyze the current target market, consumer profile, and present SWOT and PEST analysis.
Consumer Target Market: Demographics, Geographics, and Psychographics
The goal of online education is to enhance the knowledge of people who want to pursue a particular career for a fee that is lesser when compared to offline studies in Universities. An exclusion is a competing platform KhanAcademy (n.d.), which is targeted towards school students and is free to use, which requires the platform to request donations from learners and organizations. Hence, the demographics of online education that the new product will target are men and women aged 18 and above because platforms targeted at younger users may struggle to compete with a free of charge Khan Academy.
Since the learning platform provides professional training that one can apply to enhance their resume and build a career, the focus is on people with a degree or some professional education background—for example, some college education, associates, or bachelor’s studies. In terms of psychographics, the people who engage in such programs want to enhance existing skills or gain a new one to gain a new job, change an industry they work in, or have a promotion. Hence, they are motivated and have well-defined goals, and have an understanding of what interests them or what knowledge they need for professional development. The second category of MOOCs participants show little engagement with the studies and never finish them because these courses do not require a commitment or monetary input from the learner (Romero-Rodríguez et al., 2020). However, this category would not be interested in a learning platform with no free of charge content and would not contribute to profitability, hence it can be excluded from this analysis.
The competing products have the following demographics characteristics: edX (n.d.a) reports that the age range of their learners, based on self-reported data, is from 19 to 26 years, although there are older and younger learners as well. In terms of psychographics, 30% of people on edX (n.d.b) report having secondary education, and 29% have a Bachelor’s degree. Additionally, 65% of learners are male and come from the United States. Hence, the competing platform edX is used predominantly by people from the United States, 59% of who have some secondary education background.
The niche for the new learning platform would be to target the learners interested in a specific career. The competitors have a wide range of professional training opportunities they focus on, which can be explained by the number of courses in different fields that they offer. The differentiation point of this learning platform should be a specific field of study, for example, Computer Sciences. To be credible and work with people who have credentials in this field of studies, the platform should partner with an education institution, similar to Coursera and edX partnerships with Harvard or other universities. Moreover, the goal should be to give learners a degree that would make them compatible in the job market. Hence, one suggestion is to create a platform exclusively for online studies that will offer a degree. Additionally, to address some issues and consumer concerns, the platform should include mentorship support to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interactions that existing MOOCs have. These concerns and implications for learners will be reviewed in detail in the following sections with SWOT and PEST analysis.
Points of Difference and Positioning Strategy
Point of differentiation for this online learning platform from the competitors, such as Coursera, edX, Udemy, and others:
- Focus on a specific career or skill
- Compulsory homework that is reviewed by assistants
- Enhanced engagement between an educator and students
- Earning a degree
- Education credits
- Benefits of online learning, such as access and no time restrictions
The goal of this new platform would be to assist students in their learning and ensure that they progress in their studies. In comparison, platforms such as edX and Coursera offer primarily self-paced courses, where an individual sets a schedule for themselves and learns whenever they want (Romero-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Although this provides an excellent opportunity for people who work and learn at the same time, it also results in a low completion rate for these courses. Only about 10% of people who sign up for a MOOC finish it (Romero-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Hence, this platform should employ some strategies to increase the engagement of students. First and foremost, it will offer only degree studies that students can enroll in to learn through a set of courses. Additionally, there should be cooperation between students and educators, including homework and discussions similar to the traditional face to face studies. These factors, however, limit the ability for mass learning and create a more exclusive experience for students.
Positioning Strategy
This platform will aim to address the learning issues that people enrolled in MOOCs face: lack of engagement, no feedback from a tutor, self-paced environment, and low course completion rate. This strategy implies that this online platform will be structured similarly to a class in a college. When compared to traditional MOOCs, the students will receive more technical and professional support through mentorship that will guide them through their students. Additionally, this program will offer degree programs and not individual courses and will not have content that one can access without enrolling. These measures are required to enhance the engagement and motivation of students. Hence the basis of positioning is the combination of traditional learning attributes with the benefits of MOOCs. The students will be able to access their study materials from anywhere, but they will also communicate with tutors and support staff and will be held accountable through homework and discussions.
Relevant Category Trends
The primary trend of this category is gaining a full degree online from a trusted university with accreditation and credentials. Hence, platforms aim to gain more relevance and credibility by partnering with universities and offering programs that were developed by qualified educators. edX (n.d.c) uses a similar approach in partnership with WGU, ASU, Doanne University, Rice, and SHNU, where students can enroll in a MicroBachelors program for $400-$900. edX and Coursera now offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees that a person can receive by studying online full time. These programs are designed in partnership with universities, which means that students receive actual credit and diplomas. This is perhaps the most important trend in the industry because it shows that there is a demand for full-size degree programs and not only for individual courses. Also, this suggests that consumers want to receive more benefits from their online learning, such as credits or a degree that will verify their skills and knowledge. More consumer trends will be discussed in the next section.
Another trend is the mass shift towards online studies as campuses are closed on a lockdown. Students and educators who previously studied offline now have to use online learning tools. According to Chen et al. (2020), “during the COVID-19 pandemic, social education has shifted from face to face to online in order to avoid large gatherings and crowds for blocking the transmission of the virus” (p. 7329). Hence, a major category trend is more consumer attention towards online education and willingness to cooperate from the education facilities that were forced to switch to teaching online partially or fully.
Consumer Trends
Consumers face the issue of having a lot of information for free and pressure from being enrolled in a plethora of courses at once. Due to a surplus of courses available to them free of charge, a person may enroll in several and never finish them due to a lack of time or motivation (Romero-Rodríguez et al., 2020). This discredits the mass online learning and its ability to replace institutional education altogether in the eyes of a consumer.
Another issue is the perception of MOOCs and online learning by learners. Currently, the main concerns of consumers include “access speed, reliability, timely transmission technology of video information, course management, communication and interaction, and learning and technical support” (Chen et al., 2020, p. 7329). Thus, they are worried about the quality of experience they will have with online learning. This analysis of consumer trends suggests that consumers are concerned with the quality of the services they receive and the technological problems that may affect their learning. Additionally, the factors of interactions and management of the course are serious issues of MOOCs that contribute to low completion rates since students show a lack of engagement when they do not communicate with professors directly.
Another trend is affordability since, in countries such as the United States, where edX (n.d.a) reports having the largest number of users, the cost of education is extremely high. One expectation from online studies is that they will cost less with comparable benefits and job prospects since there are fewer administrative costs and no need to maintain large physical facilities for classrooms and libraries. Thus, core consumer trends are technological availability, cost, and ability to earn a degree from online-based studies.
SWOT and PEST
Table 1 represents a SWOT analysis of the online education industry. Currently, the environment is favorable, with multiple opportunities for growth due to coronavirus and people’s desire to improve their skills to compete in the job market. However, there are many unaddressed issues with online learning platforms, such as low completion rate, lack of accreditations, and technological complexity. However, the pandemic and Skylink launch will allow online learning platforms to receive more attention from potential learners due to expanded fast internet access and restriction for gatherings of people.
Table 1. Online learning SWOT (created by the author).
Table 2 is an assessment of industry factors in accordance with the PEST framework. Most importantly, online learning depends on technology,following and there have been some new and useful developments recently. For example, Devanesan (2021) states that Starlink is close to disrupting the telecommunications industry with its satellite internet. This will provide access to fast and affordable connections to people globally, which is essential for watching educational videos or having online meetings. Companies, such as Zoom have gained more attention as well, which means that the technology for online conversations will continue to improve due to investments and consumer interest. These technological developments mean that a new platform can leverage fast internet and new communication tools to create a better learning environment.
Table 2. PEST analysis (created by the author).
Conclusion
In summary, this report is an analysis of the market for a new online learning platform. The online learning industry is competitive, with many platforms in the market already. However, one opportunity for establishing a new company in a niche is to take advantage of the technological developments and address the issues with low completion rates and technological problems. The pandemic and attention towards online learning provide a multitude of opportunities for this since people turn towards online education.
References
Altmann, A., Ebersberger, B., Mössenlechner, C., & Wieser, D. (2018). The disruptive power of online education: Challenges, opportunities, responses. Emerald Publishing Ltd.
Chen, T., Peng, L., Jing, B., Wu, C., Yang, J., & Cong, G. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on user experience with online education platforms in china. Sustainability, 12(18), 7329. Web.
Devanesan, J. (2021). Elon Musk to disrupt telecommunications next with Starlink internet satellites.Tech Wire Asia. Web.
edX. (n.d.a). 4.3. Age demographics. Web.
edX. (n.d.b). 4.4. education demographics. Web.
edX. (n.d.c). MicroBachelors® programs for undergraduate education. Web.
Khan Academy (n.d.). About. Web.
Lee, S. & Chung, J. Y. (2019). Lessons learned from two years of K-MOOC experience. Educational Media International, 56(2), 134–148. Web.
Romero-Rodríguez, L.,M., Ramírez-Montoya, M. S., & Aguaded, I. (2020). Determining factors in MOOCs completion rates: Application test in energy sustainability courses. Sustainability, 12(7), 2893. Web.