Online learning trends, challenges, and the consumers fueling it

Online LearningBy Christopher Ross

 

Elementary schools are using state-of-the-art software to teach kids with creative, predictive learning platforms. Meanwhile, post-secondary educational institutions are so advanced in online learning, they are now even partnering with leading corporations to create Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s) that work for training and online education.

Online education is growing at a remarkable rate and represents new opportunities and challenges for educators, technologists and students alike. Many educators and innovators in the space are suggesting the industry is poised for tremendous change. At the opening keynote of EDUCAUSE 2014 in October, Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen suggested we are poised for massive disruption as a result of new offerings in online learning. But where will this disruption emerge? One thing is clear, there is no singular big idea that will prove to be the individual catalyst. Instead, it will likely be the sum of three key variables: current trends, challenges and having a deep understanding of the current student-consumer.

There are countless changes and advances being made in online education, the following portend five of the big drivers in the coming year.

 

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Game advertising: it’s time to play

By Steven Wise

gaming ()There are many reasons why digital games are an ideal channel for advertising. They reach an audience that is more engaged and receptive than most other media channels, and they eliminate some of the issues that complicate other forms of digital advertising, like viewability and banner blindness. Advertisers who take the time to understand the power of game advertising, are likely to find they can be winners in this ad game.

 PwC analysts forecast game advertising to be the fastest growing (but still smallest) segment of games revenue, growing from $2.84bn in 2014 to $4.75bn by 2019. Globally, the US, the UK, China, and Japan are the largest markets for game advertising, thanks to their advanced ad ecosystems and large potential audiences. There’s ample data to corroborate the effectiveness of the games channel. MediaBrix found social and mobile gaming videos have an average click-through rate (CTR) 30 times higher than those for standard banner ads.

Who’s playing now

Games both reflect and shape some of the major trends in Internet usage. As the Internet becomes increasingly central in facilitating social connections, more and more people want to play games with new or existing friends. Meanwhile, mobile phones make a great platform for gaming and have been a driving factor for drawing additional consumers to online games. In fact, eMarketer forecasts that by next year, 80 per cent of smartphone users will use the device to play games. These shifts are changing the business models for video games and changing the demographics of who’s a gamer.

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Current trends in magazine publishing: it’s a multi-platform world

Magazine Media 360’s October Brand Audience Report provides a revealing look at the trends that the magazine publishing industry is facing today.

Mag Media ()

Overall, the audience across all platforms – print, web, mobile and video – grew 4.4 per cent from 1.68bn in October 2014 to 1.75bn this October. Today, print and digital editions attract 53 per cent of readers, down from 60 per cent at the same time last year with the mobile audience growing strongly to 27 per cent, up from 19 per cent last October. The video audience grew modestly from 3 per cent to 4 per cent this October. While these numbers reflect the market in October, they are pretty indicative of the state of reader preferences throughout 2015 and there is every reason to believe, that next year, these trends will continue.

NYLON, the multi-platform media company and magazine which focuses on pop culture and fashion, led the Top 10 Total Brand Audience ranking for the third month in a row, growing 226 per cent vs October last year. In September, growth was 145 per cent and in August, 214 per cent.

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Making a living from hyperlocal content in Seattle

If you live in West Seattle, a neighborhood just southwest of downtown Seattle, and you’ve lost your dog or are curious about the wail of a police siren, there is only one place to go: the West Seattle Blog (WSB).

Residents know that within minutes of any significant event happening in the area, they’ll be able to get breaking news as it unfolds on the blog – day or night. They’re also be able to find out about restaurants opening and closing, traffic conditions on the West Seattle Bridge (the only way in and out of the neighborhood, for many residents) and who are the best roofers in the area.

Launched in 2005 as the personal blog of editor Tracy Record, WSB attracts weekly visits from more than 35,000 homes and businesses including more than 10,000 who visit daily. Thanks to strong support from readers and advertisers, by 2008, Record was able to convert her hobby into a family business. She quit her job to edit WSB full-time and her husband Patrick Sand joined her to take on ad sales. This bold move by the husband-and-wife team made WSB the first financially self-sustaining local online news organization in the Seattle area. Advertising revenue generated from almost 100 local sponsors is the sole source of income for their three-person household and also covers business expenses, including paid freelance journalists, photographers, and developers.

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How bots and viewability are undermining the ad tech industry

v1According to the recently published IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, internet advertising revenue in the US grew 19 per cent to $27.5bn during the first six months of 2015. While this healthy growth is surely good news for industry players, advertisers are becoming more and more concerned about whether they are getting a good return on their investment and are demanding better accountability for ad viewability and measurement.

A November 2014 report by Google titled The Importance of Being Seen: Viewability Insights for Digital Marketers and Publishers, highlighted why this is a key issue for digital advertisers today. Their research shows that 51.6 per cent of ad impressions are not seen. On average, publishers have 50 per cent viewability rates, but some publishers have much lower viewability. The problem is even more severe for video ads which are generally more expensive than static image ads. The Google study found that just 54 per cent of video ads across the web are viewable.

Making sure online ads are viewable

In an attempt to provide parameters and best practices, this year IAB is recommending that 70 per cent of a campaign’s impressions should meet the minimum standard viewability definition of 50 per cent of the ad in view for at least 1 second.

Clearly, neither advertisers nor publishers can control whether ads will be watched by online audiences, but more and more advertisers are starting to demand they only pay for ads that can be seen. Typically, some percent of ads are not viewable because they are displayed or playing in the background while users look at something else, according to the Google study. Furthermore, Google found 76 per cent of unviewable ads were in a background tab or never on-screen at all, while the remaining 24 per cent were scrolled off-screen or abandoned in less than a second.

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