New Frontiers in Corporate Education
Key Lessons for Creating Effective MOOC-Based Education Programs
Authors: Dr. Eva Ponce, Ken Cottrill, and Katie Date
The dramatic growth in the number of MOOC (massive open online course) programs has opened a new frontier in corporate education. Using content from MOOCs, educators are creating courses tailor-made for specific groups of learners within companies. However, to deliver these benefits, companies and program providers must organize, structure, and format MOOC-based programs to fit the needs of corporate learners.
Multiple MOOC applications
A MOOC is an online course that uses the web to reach vast numbers of learners worldwide. A lot of MOOC platforms were launched in the past decade. One of the biggest providers of MOOCs, edX, was created in 2012 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and had 26 million registered users in 2019. It now offers more than 2,800 courses and 56 MicroMasters from more than 150 universities.
Successful MOOCs use innovative teaching devices such as interactive videos and insightful graphics that enable individuals to learn at their own pace. Corporate programs aimed at employees derive material from MOOCS and can combine it with synchronous and interactive instruction (online or in-class instruction delivered on-site if required).
Corporate learners can use a MOOC-based platform to update their professional expertise; increasingly important in today’s fast-changing workplace.
Also, many individuals welcome the opportunity to familiarize themselves with other disciplines within the company. For example, we have designed programs in supply chain management for companies in industries such as chemicals, food, and high-tech, that draw on material from our MITx MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management that includes five MOOCs. Members of supply chain management teams attend the programs, but so do employees from other departments such as finance, marketing, and sales.
Knowing more about what other functions do and their impact on the organization builds teamwork, gives people a richer, more holistic view of the enterprise, and helps employees to understand how unfamiliar systems and processes affect their performance. For example, it can be enlightening for a person in manufacturing to learn why the supply chain department has changed its forecasting methods and is now building more safety stock. A sales representative benefits from a deeper understanding of why certain product deliveries are more prone to delays than others.
Some people use the knowledge gained to help plan their careers. We have instances where people from finance have moved to operations, or where employees have used the insights they gained from a corporate course to plot a career path.
Tips for HR professionals
To deliver such benefits, these programs must be designed to meet the company’s business goals and educational needs. And that requires close collaboration between corporate sponsors such as HR and program providers.
Here are some pointers to help you create effective programs that deliver on your business and budgetary targets. These lessons are drawn from our experience of designing and delivering programs on supply chain management, but they apply to any MOOC-based corporate education offering regardless of the subject area.
Have clear course goals and learning objectives
A pitfall to avoid is to allow the lure of online education to override the reason for pursuing this option in the first place. It is essential that you have a clear idea of your learning objectives from the outset. For example, is the primary aim to give employees an opportunity to upskill or to acquire more knowledge about a key area of company operations?
Choose your audience carefully
What mix of disciplines and competency levels are you aiming to accommodate? Are you catering to an international audience? Is the program geared to a single function or a multi-disciplinary audience? If the content is fairly technical individuals who have been out of school for a long time may find the classes challenging. These employees might need support.
In our experience, giving class members time to meet offline in small groups to talk about the program, and having someone from within the company to guide them through the classes, enhances programs.
Curate the right content for your learning outcomes
Obviously, the program content should match the class profile as described above. However, keep in mind that a primary advantage of MOOC-based programs is that they are extremely flexible and content can be sliced and diced as needed. No two programs are the same.
Choose the right format
Having decided on what content you wish to convey, develop a program format geared to your teaching goals. A key consideration is to design a course that busy, full-time employees can handle.
We have found that a weekly commitment of around two to three hours is a compromise that allows employees to juggle classes with their job responsibilities.
Course duration should match the pace at which employees will learn the material. For instance, in one company, we stretched 12 weeks of content to fit a 24-week schedule to make it more consumable.
There are many other format elements to weigh. Do you want to include synchronous instruction? We have found that interspersing blocks of virtual classes with live, interactive in-class sessions help to keep learners engaged. Programs may or may not include exams. You may shy away from practice problems, and put more emphasis on getting immediate feedback on employees’ knowledge levels at various stages of the program. Do you want to include case studies, and if so, should these sessions focus on your company or incorporate experiences from other enterprises?
Set your employee expectations and learning
It’s important that employees know what they are signing up for in advance. For example, a multi-national food company that has organized several corporate MOOCs encountered problems initially because employees assumed that they could simply drop classes when their workloads became demanding. Interrupting classes too many times undermines the value of the program. You must ensure that learners are clear about the time commitment before classes start. It helps if individuals can commit to specific blocks of time. Some employees use their lunch breaks or commute to study, for example. Having a regular spot to review the course is very helpful.
Also, reinforce employees’ expectations with kick-off sessions to get everyone on the same page. And continue to re-enforce those expectations throughout the course.
In our experience, touching in with your learners once or twice a week helps to increase course engagement and retention.
Use participant analytics to improve the program and build a cohort
When instructors use systematic progress monitoring to track performance, they can design stronger instructional programs. It’s also important to share with the group aggregate statistics about the course progress, so they feel that they are part of a cohort. It has been demonstrated that creating a cohesive cohort brings additional benefits to the group.
Higher demand for corporate programs
There are compelling business reasons for adopting MOOC-based education programs for corporate learners. In today’s globally competitive environment, employees are more likely than ever to work in multi-disciplinary teams that put a premium on individuals’ cross-functional knowledge. Moreover, given the increasing complexity of doing business, a broad knowledge of company operations can enhance employee performance.
However, the proliferation of MOOCs and their inherent flexibility and demonstrated learning effectiveness mean that the number of offerings is rising, so companies need to be highly selective when choosing providers to partner with.
We believe that these partnerships will increase in importance as companies become more familiar with the medium. This is happening as MOOCs enter the educational mainstream. Moreover, the current COVID-19 crisis and company efforts to encourage employees to work from home have raised the profile of education programs that can be accessed online.
If you want to learn more, please contact Dr. Eva Ponce, Executive Director of the MITx MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management and a Research Scientist at MIT the Center for Transportation & Logistics.
