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For MBA and business school students, it means an online network of additional knowledge to tap into outside of the classroom, free of charge. For the learning technology companies that produce the courses, it is a way to turn their enormous popularity into cash, and widen their student pools.
These online learning specialists now offer businesses tailored online content for a fee, with perks like user analytics and the freedom to create their own subject matter.
According to Bersin by Deloitte, a HR research firm owned by the consultancy, the corporate training market is worth $70 billion in the US alone. Deloitte says that 44% of training outfits it surveyed say they are experimenting with Moocs.
The operators of these Moocs including edX, Coursera and Udemy are tapping into this market with a cadre of courses aimed at executives – pitching them against business schools – and customized corporate programs which are developed in collaboration with universities.
It is one of many measures designed to monetize the Mooc which both learning tech companies and business schools are researching, and represents a potentially lucrative market to move into.
Earlier this year, edX ran a pilot course on big data that enrolled 3,500 people from more than 2,000 organizations including Microsoft, the computer juggernaut, grossing about $1.7 million.
An initiative of leading US universities MIT and Harvard, edX has shown signs it is evolving into the fee-paying market with courses that target business professionals.
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Source: BusinessBecause