In 2017 I think it is safe to say that e-learning has lost its luster, and that’s a good thing!

There was time when simply having an e-learning course was seen as revolutionary. Now our expectations have changed. Simply having a course is not enough but it also has to be made with a high level of instructional design standards.

Given that e-learning is now quite mainstream (to the point where we often don’t even call it e-learning anymore but simply “learning”), it can be easy to overlook the fact that it is still having a major impact across a variety of sectors.

The infographic above was created based on Coursera’s 2017 Learner Outcomes Survey. The survey is based off of 13,917 responses from learners who completed a course on Coursera from March 2015 through June 2016.

For those of you who do not know, Coursera is the world’s leading free education platform commonly referred to as a MOOC (massive open online community). Major universities contribute course content that people from anywhere int he world can take.

According to their survey there are some real practical outcomes to the online education that they provide. People are using their e-learning experience to learn new skills for their jobs, start a new career, secure a raise, and even to start a new business.

These are just the benefits expressed by professionals. Those identifying themselves as students have used e-learning to choose a formal university, discover their academic interests, and even to earn credits towards their formal degree.

The results from the survey are a great reminder that e-learning is still having a tremendous impact in how we grow both professionally and academically.