This year is likely to mark a pivotal shift in online learning as traditional education models face mounting challenges – from rising costs to inflexible structures.

Online learning platforms are emerging as an increasingly attractive alternative, offering affordable, flexible and self-paced learning.

This is empowering individuals to acquire industry-relevant skills and insight at a fraction of the cost of traditional tertiary institutions, explains online coding school Zaio CEO Mvelo Hlophe.

“Learners with diverse schedules benefit from the 24/7 assistance educational technology companies offer, while the ability to design, deploy and iterate upon courses at unprecedented speeds ensures fine-tuned and up-to-date teaching.”

Further, artificial intelligence (AI), previously a supportive tool, is rapidly becoming a pillar of the online learning ecosystem, as the synergy of innovation and necessity positions AI to redefine how education is delivered, making online learning a cornerstone of the future education landscape.

“As 2025 kicks off, online education is poised to redefine the mainstream learning landscape by leveraging AI, and fostering engagement through gamification and portfolio-building, all while addressing key issues such as credential fraud and exclusion.”

His comments follow the results of a 2024 ICT Skills Survey, which found that South African employers are increasingly prioritising hands-on experience over degrees, with only 32% of companies viewing graduate qualifications as a key hiring requirement.

“This shift underscores a critical need for practical, portfolio-based learning, especially as South Africa faces severe skills shortages in high-demand fields like cybersecurity, AI and data science,” he continues.

Hlophe highlights how Zaio is aligning with this industry shift and the emerging experience-first hiring mentality of employers by equipping students with real-world, project-based experience alongside theoretical learning.

Meanwhile, engagement remains a top priority in online education, and Zaio, by creating goal-oriented experiences that focus on training through portfolio-building projects, has an 81% course completion rate.

“By guiding learners to build real-world projects for their portfolios, Zaio ensures that their students are constantly engaging in courses through small achievable goals that compound towards graduation by preserving learning momentum and consistency,” Hlophe comments.

The online coding school also places emphasis on building soft skills, including collaboration, alongside the hard skills throughout their platform.

Incentivising community-driven learning also fuels engagement throughout the learning experience.

“Sometimes the bonds built through collaboration are also so strong that they extend beyond the digital classroom and develop into lasting professional connections that equip learners to thrive in the real world.”

Zaio, which also arranges job interviews for its students upon completion to ensure that completion rates are maximised, is tackling the challenge of fraudulent credentials.

“While this might sound like an impossible issue to solve, there are actually a variety of effective tools available to combat inauthentic certifications in the edtech space.”

One such tool allows employers to confirm credentials by verifying a student’s ID with their educational institution digitally.

Another solution that has been developed is to incorporate blockchain technology to cryptographically secure and record credentials making it impossible to spoof or tamper with them – a solution likely to gain more traction in 2025.

Another challenge facing the online education landscape is inclusivity.

While online learning promises better accessibility for a wider audience than traditional institutions, new barriers, such as limited Internet access, inadequate computer literacy and costs, have emerged as potential threats to the goal of providing more inclusivity than the education industry did before.