2019 Annual Conference

Workforce Development, Continuing Education, and Professional Development

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

Corporate learning and development departments seek ways to deliver educational content to global employees in order to develop an educated and engaged workforce. Using established best practices to guide the development of MOOC’s has resulted in employee retention, professional growth, and a unique set of best practices for this sector.

Our target audience will be those who work in the corporate sector and are directly involved with training or learning and development departments. We also consider those in academia to be part of our target audience as they are familiar with MOOC's and possibly have been on teams who collaborated with organizations to assist in developing MOOC's and online learning programs. Those who are in Human Resource departments or who work with HR personnel fit our target audience as they are closely involved with the development and delivery of training content within corporations. 

Participants will understand how MOOC’s benefit corporations by analyzing and discussing the following statements:
• MOOC’s provide a plethora of learning opportunities for employees who may not otherwise be able to take part in learning opportunities offered outside of their organization.
• MOOC’s offer a variety of content that is delivered in chunks or small increments so employees can fit this into a workday schedule.
• MOOC’s allow employees to develop leadership skills in order to increase professional growth resulting in promotion.
• Employees will receive feedback from training managers and directors in order to measure outcomes and gains.

MOOC's have changed the accessibility of educational content within higher education and the same change is taking place within corporations. MOOCs have made previously unavailable content accessible to those in the workforce who don't have the time or resources to attain educational advancements. This accessibility has resulted in a more educated workforce and an employee base that is more loyal to that organization and who is eligible for professional advancements. MOOCs are a pathway for adult learners within organizations to advance and apply new knowledge in a workplace setting and display this knowledge among managers who are responsible for tracking employee development and conducting performance reviews. Organizations understand and appreciate the andragogical best practices that provide the framework for MOOC's offered within an organization's learning management system. These best practices are considered, along with professional development objectives that benefit an organization as a whole, when investing in MOOC's that employees can access during their working hours or when they are off-site. 

We will use a PowerPoint and discussion and will each present equally. We will also share examples of MOOCS's that are offered at a teleconferencing corporation and share data regarding access, completion, and outcomes.