Even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, demand for online adult learning was on the rise with the online learning market forecast to reach $319 billion in value by end of 2025.
In 2019, there were 120 million adults engaged in online learning, a figure that reached 180 million at the end of 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic. But this global interest in online education has not translated to the Middle East, and the region accounts for only 1.5 percent of the 180 million students, said Awfa Mustafa, founder of UAE-based Najahi Events, a motivational events and seminars organiser.
“This statistic is scary for us as a business, but also exciting because there is a huge potential to hit the market first and pioneer it,” said Mustafa.
Driven by the opportunity in online learning, Mustafa launched iKew, an online Video-On-Demand platform containing motivational speeches, trainings, courses and “edutainment” content, for students in the Middle East.
While there are several similar international platforms with presence in the region, Mustafa is hoping to learn from their mistakes and has conducted a market survey asking Middle East learners to identify what they believe are the gaps in the region’s online learning offerings.
One issue could be the lack of sufficient learning content in Arabic and the dominance of the English language on such platforms.
“The Middle East is a melting pot of expats who speak different languages. What I noticed in the events we host, both online and virtually, is that we only see the people who are very strong in English because our content is in English. Worldwide as well, most of the platforms are English so I am trying to deviate from that and provide an opportunity to host content that is not in English and from non-native English speakers,” said Mustafa.
Awfa Mustafa, founder of UAE-based Najahi Events
“We already have Arabic content and are contacting coaches and speakers to increase it,” she added. Content on iKew will be translated to English, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish and later Hindi.
Demand for online learning, both before and after the pandemic, can be attributed to different reasons.
“Prior to the pandemic, adults were attracted to online learning because of the convenience factor of controlling and managing your time,” said Mustafa.
“With the pandemic we saw that 50 percent increase in students because those that used to attend in classrooms couldn’t anymore and moved to virtual. They also had more time on their hands,” she continued.
However, the pandemic had some adverse effects on online learning. Event companies rushed to move their seminars and talks online, the result being that content was hastily produced and often not engaging or developed enough, according to user feedback.
Mustafa launched iKew, an online Video-On-Demand platform containing motivational speeches, trainings, courses and “edutainment” content, for students in the Middle East
Also, people spent so much time video-conferencing for work and to stay connected with friends and family during the lockdown measures to curb the spread of coronavirus that they became “Zoomed-out” and could “not stand to see themselves on a screen anymore,” said Mustafa.
As a result, iKew focuses on on-demand videos which subscribers can watch anytime. For a subscription fee of $27 per month, iKew members can also watch videos of live events and webinars they’ve missed.
“We have a five-year plan to take iKew from an online platform to a binge learning app and are looking for the right partners and investors,” said Mustafa.
“We have a wide variety of content topics available. Older students are more interested in financial topics such as investments and cryptocurrencies,” she added.
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