Headquartered in Vellore, VIT University is a private deemed university offering undergraduate, postgraduate, integrated and research programs in Engineering, Technology, Applied Sciences, Management and in many others.

During the last two decades, learning habits, requirements, and modes of learning of individuals have changed significantly. Considering the life span of the knowledge learned which is diminishing and requirements for learning new skill set is increasing, there is a need for lifelong learning. To enhance knowledge and to improve the skills - eLearning is proved to be the most promising & effective method. As per different market forecast agencies, eLearning market is expected to touch revenue of $325 billion by 2025. This is a triple jump when compared with the revenue of $107 billion during 2015. Several factors that are fuelling rapid growth in eLearning are the workplace requirements, skills that are required, learning habits and modes of learning of individuals are rapidly changing. Hence, individuals are in the need of continuous learning and upgrading their skills. Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud technologies have facilitated the growth and adoption of eLearning. It may be noted that it is not just the internet which is behind the current growth of eLearning. While internet has started in early 1990s, the present millineals have taken the true advantage as they have grown with internet, mobiles, and other digital disruptions.

Due to the amount of work pressure in the workplaces and other distractions learners are looking for a flexibility in what, when, why, where and how they learn. As per a study by Bersin research, 80 percent of workforce learning is happening via the on-the-job interactions with peers, teammates and managers, indicating the importance of role of collaboration in learning. In order to improve the productivity of employees, many firms are opting for eLearning platforms for re-skilling their employees. This is making a positive impact on the eLearning. In the enterprise’s training, job specific technical skills and soft skills are the main focus. Main goal of such training and learning is to improve the productivity and performance. The second priority is to convert the knowledge into business outcomes. Individuals and organizations have realized that eLearning as most viable solution to enhance the skills and productivity.

The eLearning and technology platforms are able to meet the demand from the learners. Virtually on almost all topics now courses and materials are available online and many are from the best people who have rich experience and expertise. Learning experience in the eLearning

platforms is exciting and highly engaging than the traditional learning model. Reputed Universities and governments are promoting eLearning. University of Florida’s eLearning platform UF Canvas is one such example. Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), Govt. of India has designed an online platform SWAYAM to provide learning from School to Postgraduate education. While course content is free of cost, certification has the fees. At present SWAYAM is hosting 2000 courses and 80,000 hours of learning spreading across School, Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Engineering, Law, and Management courses. National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning(NPTEL)has more than 950+ courses offered by 30+institutes across 24 disciplines. So far around 105,266 students have received certificates. YouTube Channel of NPTEL has 30,000+ video hours, 640 million views and eight lakhs subscribers. University Grants Commission(UGC)has taken measures to provide credits to the students for these courses. The wide popularity of eLearning platforms and resources is due to the ease of access, collaborative learning facility, continuous engagement during the entire period of course and beyond. These new technologies have the advantage of reaching a wider audience at a very minimal cost that of traditional classroom mode.

Through the technological platforms and learning management systems such as Podia, Schoology, Absorb, Moodle, and the online course providers are providing services such as learning, evaluation collaboration, hands-on experience, and so on. Piazza is one of famous online platform, supporting the classroom teaching. It is engaging faculty and learners in effective manner through online discussions, follow-up activities, course materials, and feedback. The new generation learners are always on the go. In the entire internet traffic, mobile traffic stands close to 50 percent and in developing countries such as India it is above 60 percent. Hence, all the eLearning service providers are designing mobile device enabled content and applications. While U.S. is leading in funding to educational startups, India ranked 2nd followed by China & UK.

Technology is making learning more exciting and engaging than the traditional classroom mode of learning. Learners are expecting curated, on-demand and engaging content. While video lectures are the major part of digital content in online learning, peer learning and socialized learning, personalized learning through Artificial Intelligence and analytics are also playing major role. Gamification, micro-learning, macro-learning, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, and many others are providing a rich learning experience.

The new generation learners demand social and collaborative learning. Even in traditional model of learning students learn from their peers. However, such collaboration is restricted only among the class students. In eLearning, now the technology is matured enough to provide similar learning experience among a wide range of learners spreading across different locations, having different levels of expertise. This networked learning is also providing a network-based mentoring and guidance, which is informal, adhoc and on-demand. This collaboration opportunity is leading to great engagement, active learning, sharing the knowledge, mentoring each other. Further, this experience is fostering the cognitive skills on how to: consolidate ideas, put forward thoughts in a more appropriate and understandable manner, ask questions, manage time, exhibit a social behaviour, communicate effectively with others, value the efforts and sharing of knowledge, deliver logical and reasonable conclusions from the discussions and interactions. These skills are needed for the future jobs.

Future of eLearning is going to be around MOOC's, mLearning, micro-learning, and macro-learning. However, from statistics of the MOOC courses such as number of students enrolled, number of students completed the courses, and number of students successfully obtained the certification by all these one can understand that only eLearning is not the future. Lot of innovation in content preparation, pedagogy, engagement and collaboration are required. With the current pace of progress and investment there is a bright future ahead for eLearning industry.