background preloader

MOOCs for Employee Development

Facebook Twitter

MOOCs, corporate training and recruitment opportunities for companies. The rise of MOOCs has proven valuable to businesses wishing to bridge the ever-present skill gap by promoting continuous learning for employees, and enabling efficient talent spotting in providing recruitment resources. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have seen a huge development in the last years, with startups such as Coursera and Udacity striving to democratize access to higher education. With American universities acknowledging the potential of online courses notably as a solution to the challenges of public education, MOOCs have been developing as legitimate supplements to higher education or K-12. In short, the rapid rise of this trend has demonstrated the value of MOOCs, meaning not only students, but companies and their employees, have also sprung on the opportunity of distance-learning courses.

Through their 'massive' accessibility, MOOCs have targeted companies as an asset for continuous learning and recruitment. Continuous learning platforms tailored to companies. How MOOCs Are Training Tomorrow's Workforce. Brian Bonus was suffering from a quarter-life crisis. Having spent his post-college years as a junior editor for broadcast commercials, the 28-year-old was looking to change careers. But like so many other young professionals, the thought of spending the time and money to go back to school was daunting. Instead, Bonus signed up for an introductory computer science course on Udacity, a site that gives real college courses away for free online. Through Udacity and other platforms for so-called "massively open online courses," or MOOCs, he taught himself Java from scratch, all while working a full-time job.

Finally, in February, he left his job as a film editor to become a developer for the site Good.is. "I was surprised how much I enjoyed coding," Bonus says. Much has been made of the potential for MOOC providers like Udacity, Coursera, and edX to radically democratize access to education around the world. A Source for New Talent Bringing Online Ed In-House. HRM Asia - Embedding MOOCs in workplace learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have revolutionised the world of education and most learning & development professionals have started taking note of it.

While there is in-principle acceptance of MOOCs as an important tool for professional development/executive education, there is lack of clarity on how it can be integrated into workplace learning in India. Indian education system traditionally has been content rich but interaction poor so for an employee to adapt to this new way of learning needs careful orchestration. Here are some recommendations to integrate MOOCs within your organisation: 1.

Upskill your Training/L&D team Any new platform or way of working needs evangelism. 2. This is a big next step & would probably consume most of your time. 3. Treat the MOOC integration campaign as any other serious learning solution. 4. It’s important to be a bit directional at the start of the campaign as employees are still figuring out the MOOC mechanics. 5. 6. 7. MOOCs for Corporate Training. Corporate Training: A New Opportunity for MOOCs Since they came to the public’s attention last year, MOOCs have been in a cycle of two steps forward, one step back. The number of institutions offering MOOCs continues to grow and the top providers continue to expand, but the official value (i.e., credit-worthiness) of the courses in higher education is still under debate.

But higher education is only one potential application of MOOCs. As Jeanne Meister wrote this week at Forbes, “far from being limited to higher education reform, the new learning style’s most important legacy could be its impact on the world of corporate training.” Corporate training is currently experiencing its highest growth rate in nearly a decade, a trend that is expected to continue. MOOCs are uniquely positioned to help businesses with their training and development problems. Semi-synchronicity. Some major corporations have already started using MOOCs and MOOC elements in their training programs. MOOC | Beyond Lean. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are a new type of college or secondary education that are starting to pop up across the U.S. The Kansas City Star had a great article about MOOCs earlier in January.

What is a MOOC? MOOCs — massive open online courses — have attracted millions of students from all over the globe to learn from top professors at elite universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Princeton and Harvard.The best part is that MOOCs are free. All you need is time, a computer and the Internet. The courses are anywhere from 5 to 16 weeks long. A student could take one MOOC taught by an MIT professor, another taught by a professor at Harvard and yet another taught at Duke.

We know that with a growing presence of education online the traditional brick-and-motor way of learning is going to have to adapt. The Gates Foundation recently put up several hundred thousand dollars toward grants for nine universities to develop remedial MOOCs. MOOCs: More viable for corporate training than for higher education. My ongoing experiment with MOOC teaching, along with recent readings on this subject, lead me to believe that massive open online course (MOOC) is not a viable alternative to college education, but it can play a role in corporate employee training. MOOCs don’t provide for an effective learning experience The lack of interaction and feedback makes MOOC less effective than a regular online course.

Due to the large number of participants in MOOC courses, there is limited interaction between instructor and learners, and it’s difficult to organize group activities among participants who don’t know and see each other and have various levels of commitment. In my Writing for the Web MOOC class, I see participant comments such as I think everybody would like to have a feedback (recognizing the job, a suggestion, advice, etc.). I wish I could have had more individual feedback from the instructor, but that would be impossible in this setting. Mu Lin Dr. Latest posts by Mu Lin (see all) MOOCs in the Corporate World | Learning Technologies. As the need for an educated global workforce continues to grow, so does the demand to train those employees and help them become life-long learners. And, although many believe that MOOCS — massive open online courses — may provide the answer, it is still in the conceptual phase when looking at it from a business perspective.

Gaining popularity MOOCs are websites offering learning to several thousands of people at the same time. And, even though they have been around for a while, they’ve only gained popularity recently thanks to some big name universities, which have started offering free access to some of their course materials. However, many MOOCs are not modeled around a traditional lecture, but rather an experience that allows learners to share their skills. Do they really work? Software giant McAfee, for example, was recently cited in a Forbes article for incorporating a form of MOOC called, “flipping the classroom,” into its learning program for new sales hires. Drawbacks. Maturing-of-the-mooc.pdf. Companies Create MOOCs To Fill Skills Gaps - Education - Online.

Our (Work) Education Crisis: Send In the MOOCs. (Corrects the identification of Peter McAteer in the seventh paragraph.) In the early 1990s, the late labor economist Jacob Mincer gathered a group of journalists and scholars into a seminar room at Columbia University. Mincer wanted to talk about the role education played in widening income inequality. Among the participants was Fischer Black, a Goldman Sachs (GS) partner, legendary quant, and co-creator of the famed Black-Sholes option pricing model. The conversation revolved around what accounted for the widening earnings gap between workers with only a high school degree and college graduates.

The conversation stopped. For the past several decades, the solution to Corporate America’s widespread lament about under-prepared and under-educated workers has been to concentrate on school reform, from kindergarten through higher education. Companies aren’t devoting large resources to employee training, especially in a weak economy. Enter the “MOOCs.” The timing is auspicious. Real Life: MOOCs Filling Private-sector Skills Gaps by Jennifer Neibert. “The MOOC helped me develop my understanding of responsive design and HTML5. I’ve started working on responsive sites for a few of my freelance clients—and I’ve been on an aggressive knowledge quest ever since the class.” When Boston-based staffing firm Aquent recognized an HTML5 skills gap in their marketing, creative, and digital talent pool they created a MOOC. Known as the “Summer of Learning,” their course on HTML5 attracted 10,000 participants in August 2012 and was specifically designed to bridge their known skills gap and fill open jobs.

Now, less than a year after that first offering, Aquent has placed more than 200 candidates in new positions and is building a course catalog of other MOOCs to offer free professional education throughout the year and better connect talent with employers. According to Alison Farmer, Aquent’s VP of learning and development, the firm saw MOOCs as more than a passing fad. One success story, of many What made the difference?

Making a connection. MOOCs in the corporate world. The academic world is abuzz with the newest form of learning for students – the Massive Open Online Course or MOOC. In just over 1 year, it has become such a force that it already has large groups of supporters and detractors debating on its quality and effectiveness. MOOCs aim to work on an individual’s motivation to self-study and explore topics of her choice. While tremendous number of students and universities have benefitted by MOOCs, in order to understand the possibility and extent of a MOOC’s applications to the corporate world, we must understand its fundamental principles.

Let’s dissect the term for a clearer view: Massive: This form of training is meant to be received by thousands of people. Open: MOOCs were originally designed to be free for all. Online: In order to be massive, you have to go online. Course: These are trainings given by highly qualified trainers with a learning objective for all students. Tweaking the MOOC for the corporate world Making business sense. Online education alliance targets tech work force training. MOOCs for organisational learning. MOOCs are set to radically change the world of learning, providing large-scale interactive participation and open access to learning via the internet. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos and readings, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for learners, blending formal and informal learning. What I'm interested in is how MOOCs could be used in corporate learning. I am looking to firstly start a conversation about MOOCs in general, and secondly to connect with anyone who has had any experience/knowledge of either using existing MOOCs or building their own MOOC for their business learning/training.

Here are a couple of articles which I've found quite interesting relating to how MOOCs could work in the corporate world of learning: 1. 2. 3. What Organizations can Learn from MOOCs. Businesses will always need to train and educate their employees, but by no means does the method have to stay the same. In fact, ignoring education trends could leave your staff woefully behind. Many colleges and universities have started to go beyond the lecture hall with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These online courses reach a large group and foster media-rich interactive education. Excitement over MOOCs has grown to a fever pitch since The New York Times declared 2012 ‘The Year of the MOOC.’ How MOOCs can help your team Forget your memories of boring college lectures.

Because of this, MOOCs offer a lot of exciting corporate training opportunities. For years, Widgets Inc. has held a sales team meeting. This year is different though. By bringing the team together with a MOOC, Widgets Inc. has amplified and extended their training at a low cost, collected valuable employee insights, and fostered a deeper professional relationship between employees. How MOOCs can attract attendees. The LX Designer: A Better (Scalable) Way to Provide Employee Development. Understandably, learning and development leaders struggle with how to provide their organizations with all (over even much) of the development opportunities that employees expect….especially for the so-called Gen-Y, whose expectations of career development is out-of-whack with what organization are providing.

More than 77 percent of pending 2013 graduates expect their first employer to provide formal training, but only 48 percent of 2011 and 2012 graduates report having received it in their first job, according to the April “Accenture 2013 College Graduate Employment Survey.” I don't think organizations should struggle with this. In fact, I don't think organizations should provide most of the development that people "expect. " Look at it this way: do you really think you will ever have the time or resources to create development programs beyond specific job skills? In case you had to pause to think about it, the answer is, "No. " I suggest you look at it a different way. What do you think? MOOCs and Employment - Development. Well my kids return to school in a few short hours, which means it’s time to return to a full schedule here at Degree of Freedom.

The newsletter will return on Monday with a review of Coursera’s English Common Law course that just completed (you can sign up over to the right). And this Friday we’ll be joined on the podcast by some folks who can shed light on an aspect of this week’s theme which is MOOCs and employment. I was actually interviewed in August by the author of this piece which looks at the three aspects of the employment cycle most likely to be affected by MOOCs in the years to come: recruitment, screening and employee development. I’d like to take those three subjects on in reverse order this week, starting with development. If you look at the web site of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), you can see the breadth and scope of topics that fall under the category of corporate education.

Next – MOOCs and Screening. Keeping Your Skills Sharp with MOOCs | Career Plus Work Blog. August 22nd, 2013 Author: Right Management Keeping your skills sharp is a requirement in an increasingly competitive environment. Professionals who expect to succeed must not only keep their skills sharp but also acquire new ones as well. Today, with the proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), it is easier and more affordable than ever to keep your skills current. MOOCs can give you a competitive advantage when you keep your skills current and acquire new ones. MOOCs and other alternatives to learning will benefit professionals, especially if they care about what they can do and not about credentials. Filed under career management, Job search | Comment (1) White Paper: MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses. Using MOOCs in Corporate Training Programs.

Massive Open Online Courses and your Non-profit | Lifelong Learner. Massive open online courses explained | ILM – Insight. How MOOCs Will Revolutionize Corporate Learning And Development. SAP Launches MOOC Style Online Courseware. What are the differences between training and education in MOOCs. Hot Topic: MOOCs, Are They Right for Corporate L & D? MOOCs – A Good Model for Training in SMBs? - Crelate | Crelate. The revolution in training and professional development. 7 big opportunities that MOOCs offer corporates. Using MOOCs For Employee Development and Organizational Learning. Online Education: A New Approach to Developing Your Workforce.

The Workplace of the Future. Gates Foundation Sees Value of MOOCs in Introductory Instruction. Online Learning Gets Massive, Open | 2013-08-13. Massive open online courses emerge as corporate training option. The Potential for MOOCs in the Training and Development World. 100+ Free Online Business Courses & Certificates at MOOCS | OnlineMBAPage.com. MOOCs and Their Relevance to Corporate E-learning.

MOOCs Add a New Dimension to Employee Development. Where is Online E-Learning Headed? | Industry News From GP Strategies. 12 Reasons Why MOOCs Will Change the World. L&D/HR should include MOOCs. TED, Khan Academy, MOOCs and social learning at work. Measuring the Impact of MOOCs.