Giving a talk for developers on using MOOCs to grow as a professional
June 5, 2015 4:31 PM Subscribe
I've been preparing a 'lightning' talk (8 minutes) for a statewide technology conference. While I'm relatively new to the software dev world, I'm going to be presenting to people who have been professional developers for years, sometimes decades. So I need to pick some more experienced brains (presenters, developers, professional conference attendees) if I'm going to give a presentation that will truly be useful.
I am but a lowly intern, but I got to be a lowly intern by taking advantage of free massive(ly) open online courses rather than any formal education in comp sci or programming, so I thought I would make taking advantage of MOOCs the topic of my talk.
My questions:
- Prezi or traditional slides?
- How familiar are you already with the world of MOOCs? How familiar do you think your peers are?
- I have time to give the short pitch for six different specific MOOCs, two for (experienced) developers, two for general career management and advancement, and two for (mostly aspiring, but some experienced) entrepreneurs. I'll include their locations in a handout I'll offer at the end. I haven't decided which ones yet. Suggestions?
- I'm going to discuss the pitfalls of MOOCs, especially low completion rates, and some known remedies, like participating in learning communities and putting skin in the game with a public commitment or monetary investment. Any lesser-known strategies for overcoming these pitfalls?
- I'm also going to address how to leverage this kind of experience, the kind that's not usually accompanied by a meaningful certification or formal credit, to move forward (up?) in one's career. I'm going to talk about doing portfolio projects that make use of that knowledge, and how study without an agenda demonstrates passion. (I also would like to talk about which employers and work environments are more likely to respond to MOOCs, but I feel like I'd be talking out of my ass without extensive experience or hard data.) Strategies for leveraging MOOCs I may not have thought of?
- What are your favorite approaches to and pet peeves of short presentations?
There are more subtopics to my talk than I mention above (yes, I've timed it out with placeholders), like finding and evaluating MOOCs yourself, for example, which I feel much more confident of.
Any and all insight is appreciated.
I am but a lowly intern, but I got to be a lowly intern by taking advantage of free massive(ly) open online courses rather than any formal education in comp sci or programming, so I thought I would make taking advantage of MOOCs the topic of my talk.
My questions:
- Prezi or traditional slides?
- How familiar are you already with the world of MOOCs? How familiar do you think your peers are?
- I have time to give the short pitch for six different specific MOOCs, two for (experienced) developers, two for general career management and advancement, and two for (mostly aspiring, but some experienced) entrepreneurs. I'll include their locations in a handout I'll offer at the end. I haven't decided which ones yet. Suggestions?
- I'm going to discuss the pitfalls of MOOCs, especially low completion rates, and some known remedies, like participating in learning communities and putting skin in the game with a public commitment or monetary investment. Any lesser-known strategies for overcoming these pitfalls?
- I'm also going to address how to leverage this kind of experience, the kind that's not usually accompanied by a meaningful certification or formal credit, to move forward (up?) in one's career. I'm going to talk about doing portfolio projects that make use of that knowledge, and how study without an agenda demonstrates passion. (I also would like to talk about which employers and work environments are more likely to respond to MOOCs, but I feel like I'd be talking out of my ass without extensive experience or hard data.) Strategies for leveraging MOOCs I may not have thought of?
- What are your favorite approaches to and pet peeves of short presentations?
There are more subtopics to my talk than I mention above (yes, I've timed it out with placeholders), like finding and evaluating MOOCs yourself, for example, which I feel much more confident of.
Any and all insight is appreciated.
My first reaction would be, how does an intern have any idea how to advance my (hypothetical) 30 year career? You're going to need some serious data backing up anything you say along those lines.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 9:14 PM on June 5, 2015
posted by the agents of KAOS at 9:14 PM on June 5, 2015
Best answer: Sounds like some of your audience might include folks hiring people who may have developed their skills using a MOOC format instead of another means. Perhaps that could be an element of your talk: giving some ideas about what's new about this format and what kinds of questions a hiring manager might ask about a MOOC experience, as well as just ways that you could showcase your work as a prospective hire.
posted by deludingmyself at 10:31 PM on June 5, 2015
posted by deludingmyself at 10:31 PM on June 5, 2015
Best answer: A specific relevant concern that might hook your audience is of becoming sidelined in one's career working on technologies that are no longer in demand. Otherwise I think they may all tune out thinking this stuff is only for junior developers.
The other obvious relevant application is training new junior staff, particularly graduates. It's often desirable to hire someone who's bright but who doesn't have experience in specific technologies, and this kind of online training is a good cheap tool to help bring people up to speed.
Your audience can well afford to pay for online learning content, so you may want to briefly address why you would confine yourself to the free stuff. In general it's my perception that material from a university will be less relevant to the working world than stuff coming from industry.
Like all developers, I'm well used to solving problems by finding learning materials online, and to me your concern about "completion" sounds odd. I'm highly motivated to keep going until I have what I want, and I have no interest in consuming the whole of the material for the sake of it. Solving programming tasks is its own reward, we don't need to gamify it.
Final point: a lot of your audience have families and in my experience, most parents put their families first and would rather spend time with their kids when they get home than sit in front of a computer. So if you can address the issue of how to do this on work time, that's going to help.
posted by emilyw at 2:49 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
The other obvious relevant application is training new junior staff, particularly graduates. It's often desirable to hire someone who's bright but who doesn't have experience in specific technologies, and this kind of online training is a good cheap tool to help bring people up to speed.
Your audience can well afford to pay for online learning content, so you may want to briefly address why you would confine yourself to the free stuff. In general it's my perception that material from a university will be less relevant to the working world than stuff coming from industry.
Like all developers, I'm well used to solving problems by finding learning materials online, and to me your concern about "completion" sounds odd. I'm highly motivated to keep going until I have what I want, and I have no interest in consuming the whole of the material for the sake of it. Solving programming tasks is its own reward, we don't need to gamify it.
Final point: a lot of your audience have families and in my experience, most parents put their families first and would rather spend time with their kids when they get home than sit in front of a computer. So if you can address the issue of how to do this on work time, that's going to help.
posted by emilyw at 2:49 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Update: thank you for the feedback. I used it to revamp my talk towards MOOCs as a resource for tech professionals in general, which I felt much more in my wheelhouse with. Thank you for helping me see that that was a valid alternative approach. The presentation went okay, though I was obviously nervous (more so after reading these reactions). They nodded at my statistics, laughed at my jokes, and signed up for more information. I don't think that would have happened without your insight.
posted by dee lee at 4:42 AM on June 17, 2015
posted by dee lee at 4:42 AM on June 17, 2015
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posted by clockzero at 8:23 PM on June 5, 2015