I am currently working at the Department for Commissioned Education at Lund University. This department differs quite a lot from other departments at the university, with the main goal of Lund University Commissioned Education (LUCE) being to sell education to professionals.

Do Massive Open Online Courses go well with commissioned education?

Open Online Courses are supposedly open for everyone around the world, and also free. This could mean that these types of courses do not target any specific capacity training or development for professionals. The fact that it is also free would mean that the business model of commissioned education would be irrelevant and subsequently disappear. Commissioned education costs money Open Online Courses generally do not.

Marrying Open Online Courses and tailor-made commissioned education.

Ideally, we could offer Open Online Courses with the option for professionals to opt-in for individual tutorials with a professor on a specific subject, whilst also being enrolled in the Open Online Course. This would ensure the desired (from the employer’s perspective) learning process and the professional’s capacity development. It would also be a comfort for the employer  to know that the acquired knowledge would be measured and evaluated by the end of the course period.