"The UK eLearning market 2009", a report published at the end of last year by Learning Light, a company that focuses on promoting the use of eLearning and learning technologies, has prompted positive responses from both the commercial and academic worlds.

Using financial modelling and third-party research, the report - which updated an earlier market survey by Learning Light, published in 2007 - suggested that the annual size of the UK eLearning industry is currently between £300m and £450m. Growth rates of between 6.7% and 8% have been forecast.

"This is exactly what I'd been looking for", comments Anita Pincas, Senior Lecturer and a specialist in eLearning at the Department of Continuing and Professional Education at the University of London's Institute of Education. "The report is extensive, clearly presented, and among the best things I've seen in the field."

Endorsing Anita's viewpoint but from a commercial-sector point of view, Vaughan Waller, Senior Instructional Designer with the international accountancy firm Moore Stephens LLP, says, "The eLearning sector has always been extremely difficult to define and, therefore, to quantify accurately. So far, Learning Light is the only UK-based organisation that has grasped the nettle firmly and has produced trends and forecasts that are realistic and believable."

"The Learning Light reports make interesting and informative reading", comments JJ van Delsen, sales director of Giunti Labs UK - the UK arm of Giunti Labs, the multi-national learning and mobile-content-management solution provider. "Importantly, the report also draws comparisons between the state and sizes of the eLearning markets in a number of European states."

Matthew Lloyd, Managing Director of Omniplex, a provider of eLearning solutions with bases in the UK and North America, adds, "Our own market research data in the UK is beginning to confirm some of the findings in the most recent Learning Light report. In particular, we're seeing an increase in demand for simpler, easy-to-use learning-management systems, as well as a significant rise in interest in mobile learning, along with the personalisation and contextualisation of learning content."