A different kind of learning to boost your resume (maybe) :: Career-Resumes®

A different kind of learning to boost your resume (maybe)

Okay, I’ve heard of taking classes online to improve your job search opportunities and bolster your resume, but until now, it was always the “distance learning” model. You get a sort of “office hours” interaction online with a professor once a week or so, sign off to do your homework, and rarely – if ever – step into the same room with any of your classmates.

Well, what’s going on now at the likes of Yale, Notre Dame, Stanford, and other renowned colleges is much the same … except for one crucial difference. Instead of paying for a remote class, more and more schools are offering classes online for free.

Yes, you read that right. Free.

Anne Marie Chaker, writing for the Wall Street Journal Online, reveals that “more institutions are posting online everything from lecture notes to sample tests, and even making audio and video files of actual lectures publicly available. The sites attract anywhere from thousands to more than one million unique visitors each month.”

At the head of the pack is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which posts the content for just about all of its classes online. In fact, they’re the folks behind the “OpenCourseWare” project:

An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality university-level teaching materials – including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams – organized as courses. OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiatives typically do not provide a degree, credit or certification, or access to instructors. The materials are made available under open licenses, for use and adaptation by educators and learners around the world.

Now, what’s that mean for you? Well, you can’t earn credits or degrees for going through the course material. Would it be proper to include “coursework” as a line item on your resume if you honestly mastered the material for a class? Possibly … but if asked to provide a transcript, you’d be in a sticky situation.

So if you decide to pursue online learning like this in hopes of furthering your executive career, best to bring it up in an interview as an example of your initiative. And you might even impress and inspire your interviewer to boot.

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