To many, the entrepreneurial lifestyle is unendingly alluring. Boasting authority, prestige, and nearly limitless potential, successful entrepreneurs seem to have it all. Yet, before you can decide to become an entrepreneur, you should have an idea of the type of business you will build and manage. Fortunately, we have an awesome business idea for you already: eLearning. Thanks to the convenience and effectiveness of online courses, the eLearning industry has exploded in popularity in recent years. More people than ever are looking to better themselves through online training, so entrepreneurs in this field will find an ever-growing audience of excited and engaged consumers. However, before you jump into eLearning with both feet, you should learn a bit more about the past, present, and future of the industry.

There is no question that working with adult learners is different than working with “traditional” college students. Someone with several years’ worth of career experience and additional responsibilities outside of work is most likely going to have different expectations from their instructors and coursework than someone who is still in the exploratory stages of learning and focused on the overall college experience. Many adult learners are there specifically to build skills to advance their careers and are making sacrifices in other areas of their lives to do so, so it’s important for those developing adult training programs to focus on what matters to these students in order to keep them engaged.