Make the Most of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Staff training is managers’ responsibility.

With the proliferation of online knowledge sharing enabled by computers and the internet, high-quality professional training has become readily available. Many top educational institutions provide free courses online, and numerous established platforms such as FutureLearn, Udemy and LinkedIn offer extensive learning opportunities.

To harness the power of MOOCs, managers and peers can champion learning and encourage others to share their experiences. This builds a network - an informal classroom where people feel they are doing something meaningful together. Many people already complete courses but don’t tell their employers. This is especially true in the technology industry, where things evolve rapidly and people must keep learning to stay current with trends and job market expectations. To encourage people to take MOOC learning seriously - as if it were in-person workplace training - managers can include learning in their teams’ objectives and factor it into performance evaluations.

References

Frick, W. (2016). 3 Ways to Use MOOCs to Advance Your Career. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/07/3-ways-to-use-moocs-to-advance-your-career [Accessed 4 Oct. 2016].