Disruption: Corporate MOOCs

Many of my previous posts have indicated the transformations taking place in the world of learning, whether academics or corporate training. The shift has been observed since last few decades regarding the way learning experience is enhanced and modified to incorporate real world scenarios. This shift is becoming a source of disruption in traditional learning world where conventional modes of learning no longer seem satisfactory or sufficient to make learner ready to go ahead in the competing world. This article would see how corporate learning and training is changing and greatly being disrupted by revolutionary concept of corporate MOOCs.

It is true that technology is changing the landscape of learning and education faster. It seems amazing to see all the ways learning, education and teaching programs have evolved since last few decades, mostly driven by high advancements in technology. Mobile technology, social media and more have now changed the expectations organizations and individuals have when it comes to learning experiences[1]. One of the technology oriented education and training approach that has been able to receive much focus in recent years is the MOOC. I have shared a number of articles on that before and many of them clearly specify that which is and is not qualified as a MOOC. Here, we are not interested in definition, but the different implications of the model, that is becoming a source of disruption in traditional corporate training.

In general terms, the disruptive innovations had been technologically straightforward, comprised of off-the-shelf elements tied together in certain product architecture that was usually simpler than the previous approaches. These provided less of what consumers in stable marketplace wanted and so could hardly be initially deployed there. They provided a different attributes package considered valuable just in emerging markets far from, and insignificant to, the mainstream[2].

For corporations, MOOCs matter since they might become a main source of technical training and hiring. It doesn’t matter if 150,000 out of 160,000 students in class drop out in an online programming class, there are still 10,000 learners being trained, a substantial potential resource in the world anxious for technical talent. Speaking specifically, the organizations develop and use their own MOOCs, customized to their own needs. That’s one of the objectives for EdX, for instance, which issued its code as open source back in June 2015 and has also issued its hosting scripts[3].

Some disregard the concept of Corporate MOOC based only on the open aspect. The concept of corporate knowledge being distributed among population at large is viewed as risk. In some rare cases, that may seem true, through I am struggling to think of what corporate secrets are cooked into a average communication or leadership course. However, even if opening a corporate learning program for the public seems off the table, that doesn’t imply MOOCs should be off the table for you[4]. The open part of the MOOC might mean “open to all team members or employees”, or some other adaption of the supposed MOOC model.

It is the adaption that keeps the corporate sector interested in a concept of an Organizational or Corporate MOOC. We have already recognized the MOOC adapted for small scale groups in local areas through the SPOC (Small Private Online Course) model[5]. I am of the opinion that there would be more adaption in coming days as increasing number of organizations are taking the bones of MOOC model to apply them in different and interesting contexts. As a person that has spent a significant part of his career in organizational or corporate environments, I look forward to view how can businesses take the generic meaning of MOOC shared and tweak it so that it gets fitted into it and strengthens an organization’s learning, training and performance ecosystem.

In my view, a comprehensive MOOC strategy that an organization should pursue, has the following three elements:

• Curate

There are a number of off the self providers who provide a catalog already. EdX, Coursera and few more are the examples. Between their validated certificated, academia relationships and an environment, they provide great starting to the organizations to test and adopt[6]. Business needs to just identify the list of related courses in catalog and make it accessible to their employee community.

• Create

EdXm Udemy for organizations, are only few examples of the platform that help you creating a MOOC like experience for employees. Moreover, your own environment can be created by cobbling together a portal CMS, social groups and video gallery platforms.

• Collaborate

Almost every MOOC provider offers today a partnership program through which you can co-create the content with present university partnerships, infrastructure and other things. Along with this, you can also evaluate the new partnership opportunities for the particular specialization areas.

[1] http://davidkelly.me/2014/05/moocs-corporate-world/
[2] https://sites.google.com/site/moocdisruption/
[3] http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/team-building-and-staffing/rise-of-the-corporate-mooc/d/d-id/1112784
[4] http://www.academia.edu/11817645/The_Disruption_of_MOOC
[5] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140522212746-13687950-three-pillars-of-your-corporate-mooc-strategy

Copyright 2015 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director of CapitalWave Inc.– Being a big believer in Technology Enabled Learning, Bryant seeks to create awareness, motivate adoption and engage organizations and people in the changing business of education. Bryant is a entrepreneur, trainer, and strategic training adviser for many organizations. Bryant’s business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering the individual.
Learn more about Bryant at LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bryantnielson