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. 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. One result of this less-than-desirable learning experience is the low participation rate. The power of communities and peer-to-peer engagement adds to a MOOC MOOCs can prove instrumental in employee development and organizational learning. And the offline face-to-face group meeting has proved helpful: Mu Lin Dr.
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 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.” MOOCs are generating a great deal of excitement in higher education circles. The timing is auspicious. Most important, MOOCs could help solve the accreditation problem.
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. 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. MOOCs have been growing in popularity because of its affiliation with “connectivism”, where thousands of students can interact with each other to share notes and thoughts. Obviously, some of the above aspects of MOOCs do not go down too well with corporates. Making business sense Saving money
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.
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
White Paper: MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs are on the Move: A Snapshot of the Rapid Growth of MOOCs A White Paper by Dr Lindsay Ryan - January 2013 What are MOOCsMOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses and they are rapidly changing the game for higher education, executive education and employee development generally. This paper presents a snapshot of current developments in MOOCs, noting that MOOCs have really only gathered momentum in the past year and are constantly developing and evolving almost on a weekly basis. BackgroundThe original concept for a MOOC came from academic research in the early 1960s with the idea that people could be linked by a series of computers to listen, discuss and learn about a particular topic. MOOCs provide free online courses that enable people with an interest in a selected topic to study and learn through interaction with others also interested in the same topic. The growth of MOOCs is phenomenal. The key to MOOC success is interaction among participants. The Significance of MOOCs
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. 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. The place of MOOCs in higher education is still being worked out, but as the potential of this technology and format expands, other opportunities are presenting themselves.
Hot Topic: MOOCs, Are They Right for Corporate L & D? The Hot Topic question this month is whether MOOCs (massive open online courses), which are being exploited by universities such as Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to serve thousands of learners worldwide at low cost via the Web, will work in corporate learning situations. MOOCs, a recent innovation in distance education and e-learning, are assembled from existing open software and delivered free to millions of students via partnerships. Two prominent MOOC players are Coursera and edX, each financed by different groups of prestigious U.S. universities. MOOCs have raised many questions in the academic arena. Mitchell Duneier, a Princeton University professor of sociology, used the MOOC format to deliver his introduction to sociology as a free online course. MOOCs are “still brand new,” Duneier said in a New York Times article. A skills gap remedy? What it takes In the Bloomberg Business Week article, Ferrell further notes, “The timing is auspicious.
Using MOOCs For Employee Development and Organizational Learning Like any large organization, JLT Group spends a lot of effort on continuing education for their workforce. JLT is one of the world’s largest providers of insurance and employee benefits related advice, brokerage and associated services, and lately their Mumbai, India office, which includes over 850 employees, has started using MOOCs as part of their employee development and organizational learning. We first noticed JLT’s use of MOOCs when a group of employees enrolled en masse in Introduction To Public Speaking, taught by Matt McGarrity at the University of Washington via Coursera. It turns out that about 30 people in the Mumbai office, in a variety of positions and at a variety of experience levels, have formed a “study group” to support one another in that MOOC. Managers at the office first started working MOOCs into their organizational learning activities by simply by encouraging employees to take a look at them. Courtesy of Sunder Ramachandran Robert McGuire Sunder Ramachandran