Many of us have observed that the online learning industry has been steadily evolving and is predicted to continue growing in the predictable future. When the 2020 pandemic hit, the industry almost doubled. Those of us who were already in the online learning space had an advantage over those who only offered in-person services. People everywhere began scrambling to get online when the world shut down.

Now the challenge is to  keep up with the needs of today's learners and expectations of what a learning experience should look like.  Since the onslaught of virtual meetings instructors, students and remote workers are suffering from a new form of exhaustion known as ‘Zoom fatigue’ (also known as virtual meeting fatigue). This is one of the issues that has caused people to become a lot more discerning about the courses they invest in. This means that course creators need to do a better job at creating more engaging content and better reach your learners. The following online learning trends are things to continue to watch out for in 2022 and beyond.

Trend 1: Gamification

This trend has actually been around for a while but has been largely ignored in the online business world for far too long. Gamification helps us to engage learners in our courses, which makes it more likely that they will remain committed and motivated throughout course completion. It also helps the learner's retention and memory integration. The more opportunities to obtain higher scores within a game by achieving various tasks throughout the course of the game, the better a learner's outcome usually is.

Think Starbucks. Have you ever wondered why they remain so popular? They don't have the best coffee or even the best prices (a medium roast is $1.49 at McDonald’s and $2.10 at Starbucks). So why do they have a super loyal customer base (aside from having  34,317  stores in 80 countries and giving back)?  It's their gamification that gets people hooked for life. Let's talk about those stars (yes, what worked on us in elementary school, still works today). It works like this:

1)  Make purchases
2)  Collect stars
3)  Redeem for rewards
 

Trend 2: Social Learning

This a major trend to integrate into online courses. Online learning can be lonely because we are social. Humans are inherently social and social interactions are an important element of our development at every stage of our lives. So, when it comes to online courses, it is now important to add an element of social interaction. You can create cohort-based courses in which, similar to normal college environments, your online students form groups as they progress through your course together with built-in collaboration and feedback capabilities--all of which facilitate social learning online. There are many digital tools to make it easy for students to work collaboratively (sharing ideas, building off of each others work, etc.). Through social online learning, students can share their struggles and successes. Learning doesn't have to be solitary anymore.

Trend 3: Micro-learning

In today's world, we are always receiving small bursts of information on-demand. We can perform Google and YouTube searches 24/7. People are looking for shorter learning videos, bite-size mini-sessions and more frequent check-ins rather than hour-long lectures.  Micro-learning involves smaller content chunks delivered over time via quick learning activities rather than one full-blown course on a topic.  An instructor might break the lecture into four, half-hour chunks, each of which is followed by a number of supporting tasks.  Think quality over quantity and people will gladly pay you more for faster results. If it is 115 degrees outdoors and your air conditioner just stopped working and the repairman can't get to you until two days from now, wouldn’t you prefer to watch a couple of concise 5-minute videos on DIY repairs rather than an hour-long video? Micro-learning is well suited for online learning, as there are many tools that make it simple for instructors to chunk and divide work into manageable pieces .

As you can see, these trends are focused on an improved learning experience and a “less is more” approach. And the best part about this is that these are super easy for you to implement.