With dozens or even hundreds of online courses from which to choose, it can be overwhelming to decide which ones you should consider pursuing, in order to remain relevant in today’s job market. In this article, we share five critical questions that will help you choose the right online course.
Regardless of your current qualifications, today’s workplace requires workers who are prepared to adapt and evolve. As a result, upskilling and reskilling are critical and strategic considerations to remain relevant – and to be considered capable – for the types of roles that have been emerging. To that end, continual evaluation of your current skillset against your current role, and your anticipated career path, is critical.
Although employers may provide or facilitate employee training, the support provided tends to vary widely across countries and industries. Moreover, staff also need to be proactive in identifying what deficiencies they may possess in their current role, or to be positioned for a future role or career path, and thereafter decide how best those gaps can be filled.
With the explosion in the number of online courses available in the past five years, there is considerable flexibility and choice. However, it also means that more careful thought may be needed to make the best decision. Below, we outline five key questions you ought to answer when selecting an online course.
1. What are the skills I need to learn?
Regardless of your area of study, there will most likely be dozens of courses to choose from. However, they will differ in the depth, breadth and topics that will be covered, and consequently, how well they complement your current skillset and provide you with the right knowledge and skills that you wish to acquire.
It is thus important to carefully examine the outputs of the programme against any specific skills or competencies that you would like to develop. A detailed course description that indicates the topics that would be covered, plus the learning outcomes, should help you determine whether a particular course will satisfy your needs.
2. Do I want a self-paced or scheduled course?
This question is one that is not often considered but is usually crucial for the successful completion of almost any course. In answering this question, it is important to understand your learning preference, the time commitment you would be able to make and the time frame in which you would like to complete the course.
For disciplined learners, who do not require much oversight, and are able to schedule study time consistently into their schedule, in order to complete a course by a specified time, a self-paced course could be selected. On the other hand, those among us who need fixed appointments or deadlines to ensure their commitment may prefer a time-driven course that has organised sessions and activities.
Course descriptions should contain information on how courses are structured and will be delivered, plus the number of study hours they expect you to reserve for every unit or every week. It should also include any other requirements you would need to fulfil in order to successfully complete the course.
3. How important is peer interaction?
Similar to the previous point, it is important to consider your learning preference and whether or not you prefer to study alone. Many of the self-paced online courses are best suited to those who are sufficiently self-motivated and comfortable studying alone. Those who thrive when there is peer interaction ought to consider courses that are either delivered in a group setting, such as a live online class and/or have forum discussions through which topics from the course can be discussed by students and are mediated by the tutor.
4. Is accreditation or certification important?
Selecting an accredited course or one that offers recognised certification can be a strategic move based on how you intend to leverage the skills gained. For example, if you planning to change career paths, or wish for certain skills to feature more prominently in your arsenal, then an accredited course that offers certification may be best. On the other hand, if you are hoping to strengthen your skills that would enhance your existing expertise or your abilities in a particular role, such as technical writing, public speaking, or conflict resolution, an unaccredited course may suffice.
Having said this, there is almost always a good argument to select accredited courses or those that offer certification over those that do not, as it is always nice to have a certificate or some assurance that the training satisfied some recognised requirements. However, accredited or certification courses tend to be more structured and could be more expensive, which would need to be factored in.
5. How much am I willing to spend?
Finally, and to some degree, your budget may have the greatest influence over the online course you choose, as a broad range of factors, some of which have been outlined above, influence their prices. Although there are many free courses (or even Youtube videos) available through which you can learn, there can be limitations, such as the completeness of the offering, or not being an accredited programme.
At the same time, paid courses are not automatically better than free ones, but the prestige of the institution and the materials and resources that are included could be reflected in the price. Hence depending on your budget, you may need either need to compromise on the course you choose to fit what you can afford or opt to defer enrolment for a particular course that meets your requirements until to have secured the funds to do so.
Image credit: Tim Mossholder (Unsplash)
