Technological Growth in the eLearning Space

Jessica Sowalsky, Ph.D., Enterprise Learning Technology Systems Manager, at the University of Maryland, College Park

What are your current roles and responsibilities at your organization, and what are some challenges in the eLearning space?

I am responsible for the Learning Management System (LMS) and its third-party tool integrations. Our team makes a collaborative effort to support these technologies.

When implementing a tool for our end-users, we need to make sure the product is accessible, meets IT Security and Compliance standards, and we test its capability for our end-users. However, we face challenges when communicating the needs of stakeholders to vendors. Since we are the middle ground between the vendors and users, and we need to be the user’s advocate to satisfy their needs.

What are some trends that you have witnessed in the space?

There is an abundance of growth in the eLearning space. I have noticed a lot of growth in self-paced courses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Users have started to enroll in courses at their own pace to enhance their careers and professional development.

Additionally, customizing a platform to make sure it works for the end-user is a challenge because the product itself might not be up to their expectations. So, the platform has to be as accessible and usable as possible for the end-user.

“Organizations need to personalize their learning according to who the end-user is and what they want to achieve.”

For instance, registration for eLearning courses should be smooth so that users can access their courses easily. Also, providing users with the tools necessary to succeed in the course is important.

In addition, I am working on a platform where people can self-enroll in courses offered by multiple organizations for different purposes. Those organizations can receive the analytics report of the learner and see how successful they were in completing the course requirements.

How the eLearning space evolved before and after the pandemic?

More organizations are offering learning opportunities to end-users. Additionally, there have been many career-shifting cases, especially in educational technology, regarding the public and private sectors. During career shifting, people want to increase their knowledge and professional development and move towards the eLearning space to attain this education.

Where do you see the eLearning space headed in the next 12 to 24 months?

The eLearning space will skyrocket because of educational technology moving online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More people will not only want to increase their education, but they will also want to increase their professional development, depending upon where they are in their careers. In particular, enrollment has been increasing a lot because more organizations are marketing their courses, or people hear about the courses through word-of-mouth and do some research on their own to determine whether or not they want to enroll.

People will also enroll in online courses to increase their professional development by learning new skill sets. It has become important for people to find new ways to develop themselves every three years, either by taking a new course or learning a new hobby, so they seek these new opportunities online.

What advice would you give your fellow peers?

Two quotes have resonated with me during my academic and work life. “The journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step,” and “It’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Relating the two quotes to online learning, there is a value that people take out of courses, but they also need to offer the same value to others as well. Users need to reach their end goal with the effort they put into their courses to understand the value of their learning. 

Educational Technology

Learning Management

Marketing