PreK-12 Leads Electronic Learning Growth

An unlikely source for a virtual schooling news item, but this just showed up in my inbox from T.H.E. News Update for December 5, 2007.

:::::: NEWS & ISSUES ::::::

: PreK-12 Leads Electronic Learning Growth

In the United States, the demand for self-paced electronic learning products will hit $13.6 billion by the end of 2007 and will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.01 percent over the next five years. This according to a new forecast from Ambient Insight detailed in report released this week entitled, "The U.S. Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2007-2012 Forecast and Analysis."

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http://www.1105newsletters.com/vgbbvjj_qorenroro.html

It seems that online learning at the PreK-12 level is growing at twice the rate as it is for higher education (i.e., approximately 40% to approximately 20%). We should keep in mind that higher education came to this game much earlier than the PreK-12 folks, so that while the growth may be twice as much the actual numbers still favour higher education by a long shot.

We should also be a bit cautious because they don't report actual numbers. For example, say you had a city of 200,000. This city was located across a state or international border from another city of approximately 2 million. Say this city that had experience two murders in 2005, but in 2006 there were four murders (and let's assume the bigger city had 50 murders in 2006). If the deadline read "Murder rate doubles in 2006!" that would be true, but wouldn't tell the full story. Using the same information, the headline could also read "Murder rate in bordering city low!" and be just as accurate.

So, the fact that online learning is growing twice as much at the PreK-12 level as compared to higher education may be a big deal or it may not, we simply don't know because this article doesn't provide the actual numbers or raw data.

Tags: virtual school, cyber school, high school, education