MOOCs: Not Just for College Students-How Organizations Can Use MOOCs for Professional Development

摘要

The initial promise of MOOCs (massive open online courses) centered on lowering the cost of college and helping students complete their educational credentials in a shorter amount of time. Yet in the early stage of MOOC development, researchers have estimated that 65 to 75 percent of MOOC students already have college degrees. In addition, one study found that more than two-thirds of those who had taken one or more of 24 MOOCs through the University of Pennsylvania (which offered the second-largest number of MOOCs in the country through the popular Coursera platform) identified themselves as employees. Moreover, just 13 percent of these students took a MOOC to gain knowledge to earn a degree, whereas 44 percent enrolled to gain specific skills to do their job better, and an additional 17 percent signed up to learn skills necessary to get a job (see Christensen et al. in Note 1). Clearly, many individuals are taking MOOCs to prepare for or advance in their careers.