Webducate, the Amazon of e-Learning

Chances are that even if you’ve never bought a book from Amazon, you know who they are.  You probably even know that they don’t actually “own” the books they “sell”.  Amazon are a marketplace and distributer for businesses that could never hope to create an online presence close to Amazon’s dominance.

Amazon were one of the first to successfully utilize what has become known as the Web 2 business model.  EBay, Blogger, YouTube and LinkedIn are others.  Web 2 businesses essentially “harness collective intelligence” and work on the principle that when everyone contributes, growth is exponential and everyone benefits.    In the Amazon example, when a few bookstores offered products on Amazon, it attracted buyers.  When more buyers started purchasing through Amazon, other bookstores saw the value of joining “the party”.  Buyers soon realised that if they wanted a book, Amazon would have it.  And the whole concept snowballed until a Web 2 giant was born.   Web 2 enables collaboration, teamwork and networking.

Webducate is a Web2 business, unique to VET in Australia and the first of its kind worldwide.  It operates on integrated collective intelligence and true Web 2 networking.  Webducate is an LMS (Learning Management System), CDP (Content Development Platform) and Resource Marketplace all rolled into one SaaS (Software as a Solution) product.  As a Web 2 business, Webducate enables content developers and training organisations to collaborate and leverage their respective strengths.  Simply speaking, when one content developer creates units on the Webducate CDP, the units attract training organisations who use these units to offer qualifications to students.  They often deliver qualifications online that they have previously been unable to provide thus expanding their offerings and increasing student numbers.  These training organisations then require other units which are in turn created by other developers who join “the party”.  More units mean more training organisations resulting in even more units, training organisations, students and better educational flexibility.  Another Web 2 giant is born. 

One of the reasons that Web 2 businesses have been so successful is that the volume of sales means that users only pay a fraction of the price that a similar online solution would cost a single entity.   Webducate is no different in that members don’t pay tens of thousands for software, hosting, training and support.  The Webducate SaaS ranges from entirely free to set up to only a couple of thousand dollars for a fully featured and branded portal.  And when we say free, we mean free.  Webducate doesn’t charge extra for training, hosting and support or require a full time IT person to make sense of it. 

The 2010 E-learning Benchmarking survey identified that the uptake of e-learning by smaller private and industry-based RTOs is much slower than the larger RTOs.  Most small RTO’s still aren’t using e-learning in any meaningful way.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is because they don’t have time to wade through the plethora of often irrelevant information and are unwilling to risk a high entry investment without understanding the potential return.

The Web2 SaaS model, cost effective entry, simplicity and useability of learning management systems is particularly important for small to medium training organisations.   Webducate offers a solution at a minimal entry price, provides access to resources from quality developers and even allows training organisations to develop their own materials and be paid to license them to other members.

Globally, e-Learning has seen a consistent 12%+ compound annual growth rate but Asia (which includes Australia and New Zealand) is expected to achieve a 33.5% CAGR and to become the second largest eLearning market after North America.  With this in mind, Webducate would like to extend an invitation to any training organisation who hasn’t yet joined the “party” – Welcome to the Amazon of e-learning.