E-learning is a structured course or formalized learning program delivered electronically over the internet. For the past ten years, the eLearning industry has been on a rapid growth trajectory, as online learning is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of education.

Due to the COVID pandemic, many academic institutions were forced to adapt and utilize online teaching tools. 

Since 2011, 80% of employers have used online learning for employee training and upskilling. By 2025, online learning is expected to make up a $320 billion market.

In this article, we’ll dive deeper to understand the rapid growth of the eLearning industry, what it takes to execute a successful eLearning strategy, and how to make videos accessible and engaging for everyone. 

Advantages of eLearning 

There are many advantages that eLearning offers. The most obvious of those are cost and convenience. Online learning allows educators and learners to participate in education without commuting or the need for a physical meeting space.

It also offers educational institutions a cheaper way to disseminate information, lowering costs for both educators and learners.

While eLearning formats differ, some models provide even more flexibility with prerecorded video lectures, which allows students to participate when and where they choose.

According to Edgepoint Learning, eLearning takes 40-60% less time than traditional in-person courses and training.

In addition, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced most educators and academic institutions to transition to some kind of online format and at least offer the option of online courses. Many found that online learning was the safest way to teach students to learn new concepts and skills in the comfort of their homes.

Challenges of eLearning

While eLearning has many benefits and advantages, it doesn’t come without challenges, especially when it comes to student engagement and accessibility. Some of those challenges for students include retaining information when text isn’t available and a lack of access to the video. 45% of students say their Wi-Fi at home is too slow for digital learning modules. 

Less than 1/3 of K-12 teachers think online education tools engage students effectively.

Lack of access, minimal technology funding, and inadequate teacher training are also challenges for education providers. Only 1/3 of classrooms are equipped with the right technology for eLearning.

On top of that, less than 50% of teachers say they have been effectively trained to leverage that technology.

Another critical challenge for academic institutions is facing potential litigation lawsuits if their videos aren’t accessible to everyone. Educators must-have tools in place that target every type of student – from hard of hearing, to deaf, to those learning in a traditional environment or learning from the comforts of home. 

For these reasons (and many more), video transcription is a win/win, providing a powerful resource that benefits educators and students alike. Video transcription has been shown to promote a greater sense of community, and increase engagement and retention. 

How Video Transcription Addresses eLearning Challenges

Studies show that visuals – from captions to text – can better engage students and assist with long-term memory. There are many benefits of video transcription that resolve some of the most significant engagement and retention challenges. How? 

• Transcripts drive more traffic to your website. Major search engines can index the content and improve the course’s online ranking by transcribing video lessons, enhancing overall awareness and traffic.
• Transcripts ensure courses are accessible to everyone. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require all “non-text content” (including videos and podcasts) to present the user with an alternative that’s accessible to everyone. By using an automated transcription service, you can have accessible content ready to go in minutes and ensure you always remain compliant. 
• Transcripts can improve user retention by 25-60 percent. Additional studies have shown that participants learn more than 5x more material, compared with face-to-face training that doesn’t offer visuals.
• Transcripts allow educators to market their courses more effectively. Educators that want to churn each video into a marketing opportunity can, simply by using automated transcription to create content and publish it on multiple platforms for a greater reach. Publish transcripts on your website, share highlights of your course on social media, or add transcript highlights to your monthly newsletter. 

Rev-Up Your eLearning Video Strategy

As educators and academic institutions focus on improving the eLearning experience, video accessibility and speech-to-text will be critical. So, whether you want to help students engage and learn more effectively in remote settings, or you want to foster a stronger student-educator relationship visual tools like captions, transcription, and subtitles offer a powerful solution!

It’s a win/win – and one that falls right in line with a teacher’s budget.

Rev offers a bundle of tools and services that help video creators create online learning experiences that actively promote engagement, accessibility, and searchability. These include: 

• Automated speech-to-text transcription
• Human transcription 
• Closed captions
• Foreign subtitles 
• Voice recording app
•  Live captions for Zoom

 How to Get Started with Rev 

If you’re an educator or video creator looking to create engaging and optimized eLearning course, Rev makes the transcription process easy to navigate. Ready, set, teach — in three simple steps. 

Record and Upload a High-Quality Video Lesson

Make sure you record a high-quality video with clear audio. To guarantee clear audio, use a sound-proofed room, if available to you. You can also use a microphone to filter out any background noise. Save your video file in a standard format (i.e., MP4).

Create a Transcription File 

With Rev, you can choose from two options when you create an online video transcript file:

• Have your audio transcribed within 12 hours with accuracy greater than 99%. Choose this option if your audio files have any background noise or even heavy regional dialects.
• Our AI tool can perform automated transcription within 5 minutes and up to 80% accuracy. Your online video closed captions will vary with this option based on audio quality.

Once you choose from the two options, you can upload your file to Rev’s order page. You’ll be given a final price and an estimated delivery time for your online video with text.

Use Transcription to Grow Your eLearning Courses 

With your eLearning video closed captions ready, you can upload them along with your original video file to your online learning platform. In addition to adding text to videos online, you should also upload the text file as a resource, so students can refer to it while watching the video and taking notes.

Ready to get started? Rev makes it easier than ever.