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26 September 2014
Ronald Alsop
When Luis Ochoa wanted to make the leap from investment banking analyst to
corporate strategist, he didn t follow the usual path of getting a master s of
business administration degree. Instead, the Stanford University graduate took
a few free strategy and financial accounting classes on Coursera, one of the
major providers of so-called MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which have
grown in popularity globally over the past few years.
I gained a foundation with those courses that helped me transition into
corporate strategy at Oppenheimer Funds, the 29-year-old New Yorker said.
Now, I m not interested in an MBA because I m where I want to be.
Like Ochoa, a growing number of people are hoping MOOCs will be a ticket to a
new job or promotion without the cost and time required to secure a
traditional university degree. The challenge is to increase employers
awareness and appreciation of the value of online courses. We still get
questions from companies about how good MOOCs are, but we re finding that
businesses are more and more willing to consider them to help fill skill gaps,
said Sebastian Thrun, chief executive of the MOOC platform Udacity, based in
Mountain View, California. For some jobs, companies are looking for specific
credentials that MOOCs can provide, and not necessarily a degree.
For some jobs, companies are looking for specific credentials that MOOCs can
provide, and not necessarily a degree. Sebastian Thrun
A Bainbridge Strategy Consulting study of US human-resource professionals found
that only about a third were aware of MOOCs, while about half of the managers
and directors in a global survey by CarringtonCrisp said they are uncertain of
what a MOOC offers.
There s a generation gap between those doing recruiting and the younger people
taking online courses, said Andrew Crisp, director of CarringtonCrisp, a
London-based higher education market research firm. The older people in
companies got their degrees 10 or more years ago and have limited comprehension
of the changes taking place in higher education.
Global reach
MOOCs are appealing because they are typically free of charge and available to
anyone in the world with a computer and internet connection. Schools across the
globe, including Stanford University, Princeton University, University of
London, University of Melbourne, Universita Bocconi and Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, are creating MOOCs.
The online courses feature videos of lectures with discussion forums for
interaction with the teacher and other students. Some offer certificates of
completion or achievement for a small fee, and some companies are packaging
several related courses in business or technology to create a sort of
mini-degree with affordable tuition.
When employers do understand MOOCs, their attitudes are generally positive. In
the Bainbridge study, more than half said they have begun to notice MOOCs on
applicants resumes, and 60% said such courses are a valid certification of
one s skills or knowledge.
Steve Coman, an HR executive at Celanese, isn t seeing these educational
courses on resumes yet but says he would view them quite favourably because
they would show the job candidate still has an appetite to grow and views
education as an ongoing need.
Although he already has an MBA, Coman is taking four MBA courses on Coursera
from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to earn a certificate
and refresh his skills. I m finding instant applicability in the workplace,
he said. If I m sitting with a finance group talking about budgeting or cost
accounting, I m more in tune with the conversation and can add something of
value.
Even full degree programs are starting to use MOOC platforms, but they aren t
massive because people must qualify for admission. Georgia Tech in Atlanta
began offering a master s degree in computer science using Udacity s platform
this year, and has admitted more than 1,000 students so far. One of the
measures of success will be acceptance by employers, but we re confident about
the degree s appeal because the courses are identical to those we offer on
campus, said Zvi Galil, dean of the College of Computing. Students will pay
less than $7,000 for the MOOC version, a bargain compared to the on-campus
degree, which can cost nearly $45,000.
Some technology companies are helping fund and develop MOOC courses. AT&T Inc
is perhaps most active, providing $2m to Georgia Tech s computer science master
s and partnering with Udacity to create a customised nanodegree, with a series
of classes on such topics as web development and mobile applications.
We need more skilled individuals in data science, engineering and software
development, and these online programs can provide a deeper talent pool than we
can get on campus, said Scott Smith, senior vice president, human resource
operations, at AT&T. The company expects to hire both Georgia Tech and
nanodegree students for internships first and then move some into full-time
positions. In addition to recruiting new talent, AT&T is sending some of its
employees to both the Georgia Tech and nanodegree programs.
While a series of three or four related MOOCs in business or technology would
look most impressive to employers, even a single course can sometimes provide
an entr e to a new field. Pablo Philipps, who worked at a Trader Joe s grocery
store, parlayed a Harvard computer-science course on the edX platform into a
junior application developer position at St Louis-based Fusion Marketing.
MOOCs are absolutely perfect for coding and computer science, said the
27-year-old who majored in philosophy in college and expects to take more
online courses. One thing I ve learned since completing the class is that a
computer coder must constantly be learning that s the only way to keep up.
Acceptance
The major MOOC platforms realise they need to reach out to more employers to
explain and promote their courses. They must try to overcome some of the
negative perceptions of their online classes, notably the low completion rates,
which often are 5% or less of total course registrants.
The completion rate jumps considerably, however, when students have some skin
in the game, even if they re paying only a small fee to obtain a certificate of
achievement or receive special services. For $150 a month, Udacity has added
some premium services, including personal mentors and access to telephone help
lines, to keep students from falling behind. As a result, Udacity says,
completion rates can reach as high as 60%.
Coursera partners with LinkedIn to help students add MOOCs to their online
resumes. It also has reached out to employers over the past six months to
encourage them to get more involved with MOOCs, such as through collaboration
on capstone projects in certain courses. In an Android programming course, for
example, students will create apps, the best of which will be featured in the
Google Play store, said Julia Stiglitz, director of business and international
market development for Coursera. This kind of project is important in adding
value to MOOCs; it will give students a portfolio to show employers what they
learned.
Most MOOC takers already have undergraduate or master s degrees and are
acquiring practical skills for career reasons. It s unclear whether MOOCs also
can help low-income, less educated individuals improve their station in life. A
small University of Michigan study of underprivileged MOOC learners who couldn
t afford a formal college education didn t find evidence of job offers. But
MOOCs did expose people to fields they didn t know anything about, said
Tawanna Dillahunt, an assistant professor at Michigan s School of Information.
And they helped build people s confidence to take more classes.