Massive open online courses emerge as corporate training option

Generally unpopular with users and now facing competition from massive open online courses, once-stodgy learning management systems are being reinvented with cloud, social and mobile technology, said Bersin by Deloitte analysts in a presentation at this week's HR Technology Conference...

Company principal and founder Josh Bersin devoted a long segment to massive open online courses (MOOCs), advising the audience of mostly HR practitioners to give the technology a serious look as a new way to deliver career training to employees.

Defining the category as "branded college courses at [a] low cost," Bersin explained that most MOOCs provide courses for free, but charge $30 to $50 for completion certificates. That's posing an especially serious threat to for-profit institutions -- such as Capella University and the University of Phoenix -- that are trying to grab a chunk of the corporate education market.

Bersin said he believes the growth of MOOCs is a reaction to the sharp rise in college costs -- a 1,134% climb since 1978, according to U.S. government figures...