As the New Year is well underway, you may be interested in developing skills to better your career. A MOOC could just be what you are looking for. A MOOC or a Massive Open Online Course is perfect to develop both hard and soft skills and can be delivered in a timeframe perfect for you.
A MOOC is generally free. or very cheap compared to other formalised education options and courses, subjects or topics that can be explored in a MOOC are unlimited and can be both work-related or out of personal interest. They are usually nonaccredited (meaning they aren’t recognised by the AQF and don’t usually allow for academic credit with other institutions) but they do serve as good experience and snapshot learning on particular topics.
MOOCs tend to be delivered through a combination of the any of the following:
- Videos
- Forums
- Reading materials
- Audio
- Quizzes
- Assessments
- Self reflection activities
Pro’s
- Usually free or relatively inexpensive
- There are various platforms to access different MOOCs check out our MOOC resources page here
- Many reputable universities and training organisations provide MOOCs as a taster for further study
- Usually use a variety of delivery methods to help learners
- There are no pre-entry requirements
- Most have flexible due dates or none at all so you can learn at your own pace
Con’s
- Nonaccredited
- They are often not required to meet particular standards so each course or platform may vary in quality
- The outcomes are not set by any standard so the content may not be what you expect
To check out if there is a MOOC out there that suits you, have a look at our extensive list of offerings by some of the largest international MOOC providers out there.