The drivers of employer support for professional skill development in MOOCs

Abstract

This paper looks at the job-, employee- and organization-specific drivers of support from employers for MOOCs. A survey of 1481 employed learners is used to test the hypotheses. Results show that employers are more likely to support MOOCs if the MOOC content is more closely related to learners’ job content and if learners plan to use the content in their current job or at their current employer. Learners lower in the organizational hierarchy are less likely to receive financial support. Organizations that invested more in employee development in the 12 months preceding the survey are more likely to support MOOC.