New Platform Aims to Revolutionize Executive Education

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which were expected to disrupt higher education, including executive education, have not lived up to expectations. The drop-out rates are high and students who enroll are usually those who already have a good education. In response, EMERITUS Institute of Management is developing Small, Private, Online Courses (SPOCs).

SPOCs are online courses similar to MOOCs but with better peer-to-peer learning, resembling that of classroom-based programs. EMERITUS has partnered with MIT Sloan, Columbia, and Tuck to offer management and leadership courses in SPOC format. The classes have one to 200 students, which are divided into small learning circles that allow them to share expertise and put learnings into practice. These programs require three to four hours per week, with 75% of the time focused on application of learning. In this way, EMERITUS hopes to ensure higher completion rates.

EMERITUS is focusing specifically on the corporate market. GE’s Crotonville leadership program, widely viewed as one of the best facilities in the world, offers access to a small proportion of the 170,000 GE managers. The ability to use an online platform such as EMERITUS could allow large companies to scale up their leadership training. Ashwin Damera, EMERITUS founder, explains, “EMERITUS opens the doors for tens of thousands of working professionals who cannot enroll in full-time business programs. In international business, with employees working in various locations throughout the world, standardizing executive training is essential to effective global leadership, and doing so without pulling key leaders from the office is imperative. EMERITUS makes continuous, on-the-job improvement in management and innovation a reality, and we anticipate that this unique approach to executive education will have a profound impact on the global economy.”

For more information on EMERITUS programs, or to enroll, visit their Web site.

Albert & Company International, Inc. is a one-stop shop for Executive Development and talent management. Our vision is to help individuals gain the knowledge they need to excel, thereby increasing their efficiency and productivity, leading to better organizational growth. For more information on this and many other courses in our extensive Executive Education database, the most comprehensive and complete of its kind, visit us on the Web at http://albertconsulting.com, or email us at info@albertconsulting.com.