MOOCs at work: what induces employer support for them?

Abstract Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are the learning technology with the fastest adoption rates in recent years, and they have the potential to transform corporate development practices. There is, however, only fragmented evidence on how employers use MOOCs. This paper relies on human capital theory to formulate hypotheses about the antecedents of employer support for MOOCs. It tests the hypotheses using data from a survey of MOOC learners and secondary data on the courses and on learners’ countries. The results confirm that small employers that lack the scale to invest in in-company formal training are more likely to provide support for MOOCs than their larger counterparts, and that some organizations grant learners time off from work for MOOCs with not only core, but also non-core but still job-relevant content. Overall, however, employers fail to capitalize on low-cost MOOCs to compensate for a lack of formal training. On the contrary, what little MOOC support they offer goes to executives and full-time, rather than part-time employees.