Corporate MOOCs: Structure And Why You Need Them
Today, for both companies and individuals, it does not make sense to simply sell content. Everything is already available online for free on sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, or traditional MOOC platforms. The added value of corporate MOOCs resides in personalized coaching and projects.
Let’s take a look at the great advantages of corporate MOOCs, often referred to as COOCs.
5 Benefits Of Using Corporate MOOCs
1. The Quick And User-Friendly Formats Used In Corporate MOOCs Stimulate Employees From All Generations
Course content is highly appreciated and the learning experience is pleasant and not seen as an imposition or inconvenience. Similarly, by placing learners at the core of the learning experience, internal COOCs are extremely engaging and inspire employees to learn more. How does this translate into business? Participation rates that are generally very disappointing for classic eLearning programs are much higher and the number of employees trained on a given topic increases.
2. The Company Becomes Agile And Responsive
Which means that it can instantly produce courses perfectly aligned with current needs. Employees are trained quicker and are better armed to adapt to rapidly changing markets and global competition. Companies that take six months to produce a course are not on the same playing field as those capable of creating courses within a few days.
3. Internal COOCs Encourage Collective Intelligence Within The Company
Also, they create a much more favorable context for creativity and innovation. For example, during a sales training course on handling client objections, employees can share their experience in the field and discuss aspects that the trainer may not have thought of. They share this information directly with the entire community and this shared reflection makes the course more efficient and impactful. The company as a whole becomes part of the learning experience. Furthermore, an internal COOC can effectively recreate the attended class experience and successfully combines the need for individualized learning and an industrialized training strategy.
5. Profitability Remains A Top Concern
By using widely accessible web formats, COOCs can be produced on a large scale at low cost and provide higher-quality training for a wider audience than classic eLearning options that often require producing complicated training modules with expensive graphics and animations. This means spending thousands of dollars on each training program and only a small number of top priority topics can be addressed.
Simply making MOOC-like features available is not sufficient for a company to truly appropriate this way of learning. All internal COOC projects must be run by experts who support clients with their communication strategy, project deployment calendar, show them how to monitor learning communities and help with change management – factors that will determine whether or not the project is a success.
MOOCs For Training Organizations
For training organizations, MOOCs and COOCs are also communication tools. Launching a MOOC over the course of several weeks and using PR campaigns to communicate about the course is an ideal strategy for generating brand visibility.
The training organization will identify, or reinforce, their position as a specialist on the topic. The MOOC/COOC should be announced to all potential clients that could be interested in the topic and, ultimately, in the training organization’s services. Contacts generated during the course registration process are transformed into leads for the company. If enrollees are interested in this course, it is probable they will also be interested in other (paid) courses the training organization offers.
Overall, digital training has proven to be a new sales channel for training organizations. By providing free (or paid) training online, organizations reinforce their market position, generate interest, and identify new business opportunities.
Structure Of A Corporate MOOC: What Added Value?
Let’s go into more detail about what makes up a corporate MOOC. Programs last on average 4 to 8 weeks with 30 minutes to 4 hours of weekly coursework.
The workload is divided accordingly: 1/3 time spent consulting audiovisual content or documents, 1/3 multiple-choice evaluations or open questions, and 1/3 time spent working on an individual or group project throughout the MOOC.
- 1/3 Consulting content
- 1/3 Evaluation with answers
- 1/3 Individual or group project
Corporate MOOCs aim to create a community of learners among employees. The technology used and the social and collaborative aspects they offer play a key role in engaging learners. Ideally, projects carried out during a MOOC should be integrated with operational business needs. As part of a MOOC on Big Data, marketing teams could, for example, work on a project focused on implementing Big Data into their everyday job responsibilities including the qualification and identification of leads.
The MOOC-related project becomes a perfect means to test tools and methods while appropriating and implementing them within the company. In addition to the ongoing project, learners are also coached throughout the MOOC using webinars. There are generally one or two of these sessions organized during a course and these webinars are the ideal opportunity to answer course-related questions or organize guest speakers.
If you want to learn more about corporate MOOCs, download the eBook MOOC & COOC - Creating Effective And Impactful Digital Training Programs.
