Goodwill has leveraged its existing network of stores and the employees it trains for re-entry into the workforce …into being a MOOC powerhouse, as the article below from Forbes elaborates. 

One of the big takeaways here is that new fields such as dynamic online learning may be “serviced” by entities which have a part of the puzzle we might not think of.

IOW, when a new field exists with more moving parts than any one entity can encompass, we should expect to see ‘players’ arise from anywhere that leverage can be obtained. We’ve noted this idea previously with online learning being offered in-house by McDonalds. Walmart offers online learning support as well with their college for employees program.

In the case of Goodwill, they can leverage their aggregated “population” of unemployed who are motivated to participate in programs to become employable. Goodwill already has very good connections with that group, and can thus confidently invest in “EdTech” that will enhance their programs. 

Other large institutions with a built-in clientele for online learning and other online services exist… such as the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses, and other religious groups with highly motivated group coherence, such as “Born Again” Christian groups. One can often recognize an area of economic disturbance and high unemployment by the number and size of the evangelical churches. Those are places we might also expect to discover new forms and MO for online learning and support for employment skills, because of the high motivation and the cohesive pre-networked population.

[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Why-Goodwill-Not-Udacity-EdX-Or-Coursera-May-Be-The-Worlds-Biggest-MOOC.pdf”]

Kudos to Gary for the link.