Education Hacking

“Education
Hacking”
Useful Tools &
Resources for
Corporate
Learning
V1
Peter Palme
September, 29, 2015
INTRODUCTION
For those who came across this Whitepaper directly you
might wonder what education hacking means and why I
have written this whitepaper. You will find the answer to
your question in the Post “What Corporate Learning &
Development can learn from Education Hackers and
employees? -> Linkedin: http://bit.ly/educationhacking
In this whitepaper I have summarized a number of
helpful resources and tools. I have put them in
categories that I thought would be helpful for people
working in corporate learning & development and as
well as for employees taking their personal &
professional development in their own hands.
In the first segment I give an overview on Open
Education Resources. How to find resources and who
are the key providers.
In the second segment I focus on language acquisitions.
There are many tools available. And dependant on the
learner the best strategy and tools can be selected to
achieve results not yet achieved with the traditional
language acquisition approach.
For each tool I will give an overview of the benefits and
the key features. Additionally I will list the systems
requirements and the costs. Most tools are free to use
in a basic version.
As a lot of venture capital is now flowing into this
education area. You can expect more and more tools to
be developed and more and more resources added. I
will keep track on the most relevant. Yet if you think I
am missing an important tool or resource please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Most of these tools and resources are in English.
Wherever available I added German sources as well.
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My contact details are:
Peter Palme: petepalme@gmail.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterpalme
Blog: http://ppalme.wordpress.com
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction ............................................................ 1
Search for OER & MOOCs ......................................... 6
Class-Central ..................................................... 6
Degreed............................................................ 9
Academic Earth.................................................. 9
Mooctivity ....................................................... 10
Mooc List ........................................................ 11
OER = Open Education Resources............................ 13
MIT ................................................................ 13
Khan Academy ................................................ 15
MOOCS & Online Courses Provider ........................... 16
Coursera ......................................................... 17
edX ................................................................ 19
Canvas.net ...................................................... 21
Udacity ........................................................... 23
Iversity ........................................................... 26
Open University ............................................... 27
Open edX ........................................................ 27
Alison ............................................................. 28
YouTube Edu ................................................... 29
Ted- Ideas Worth Spreading .............................. 29
MOOCs relevant for HR & Corporate L&D .................. 30
Curricula .............................................................. 31
Data scientist .................................................. 31
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Tracking ............................................................... 31
Language Acquisiton .............................................. 31
Speaking .............................................................. 32
Language Exchange/Community Platforms ...................... 33
Italki .............................................................. 33
Wespeke ......................................................... 33
Livemocha ...................................................... 34
Busuu ............................................................. 35
Language Teacher Platforms ....................................... 36
Listening ................................................................ 36
Podcasts .......................................................... 37
Radio Online ..................................................... 37
Film / Video / Television ........................................ 37
Pronunciation ..................................................... 38
Forvo.com ....................................................... 38
Rhinospike ...................................................... 38
Reading ................................................................ 39
Lingua.ly ......................................................... 39
Readlang ........................................................ 40
LingQ ............................................................. 40
Writing .................................................................. 41
Interpals ........................................................... 41
Lang-8 ............................................................. 41
Lyrics Translate ............................................... 42
Spaced Repetition Tools ......................................... 42
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Memrise.......................................................... 43
Anki ............................................................... 44
Understanding / Meaning ........................................ 45
Wiktionary ...................................................... 45
WordReference.com ......................................... 45
Bab.la............................................................. 45
Translation Tools ................................................ 46
Google Translate .............................................. 46
Babelfish ......................................................... 46
Other Tools ........................................................... 46
Interactive courses ............................................. 46
Duolingo (free) ................................................ 46
Foreign Service Institute ................................... 47
Education Hackers & Hacks ..................................... 47
Workshop “Education Hacking” ................................ 49
About Me .............................................................. 50
Thank you ............................................................ 50
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SEARCH FOR OER & MOOCS
These search sites are also called aggregators.
CLASS-CENTRAL
Class-central https://www.class-central.com/
This aggregator is showing all MOOCs provided by 523
Universities and 196 Institutions across the globe. Most
of these courses are delivered by 39 providers. How
important MOOCs are now for universities is supported
by the fact that 22 of the top 25 US universities in US
News World Report rankings are now offering MOOCs.
Class-central will give an overview of the content in this
course and the scheduled dates. People can vote on the
quality 1-5 stars and leave a review.
MOOCs usually have a start date and end date. Only 6%
are self-paced courses that can be started at any time.
55% of all MOOCs do not have an upcoming start date.
Therefore if you miss a MOOC you will not know when
this MOOC is offered again. Class-Central provides a
MOOC Tracker that will alert you when your desired
class is offered again. They track now 250 000+
MOOCs.
You can also build your own catalog of courses on classcentral by adding courses to your personal list:
”Interested”, ”Enrolled”, ”Completed”, ”Audited”, etc.
Once you have added a course to your catalog, the
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MOOC Tracker will inform you when the course is
scheduled again.
Alternatively you can search keywords to the MOOC
tracker. When those search keywords match new
courses you will be alerted.
In total there are 3641 courses.
Subjects
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Business & Management (604 courses)
Science (416 courses)
Social Sciences (394 courses)
Education & Teaching (355 courses)
Computer Science (349 courses)
Humanities (349 courses)
Health & Medicine (305 courses)
Programming (285 courses)
Art & Design (232 courses)
Engineering (206 courses)
Mathematics (146 courses)
Languages
Courses are offered in sixteen different languages.
The majority of courses are in English (2841 courses).
In second place is Spanish (268 courses), third French
(140 courses) and fourth Chinese (137 courses). There
are only 41 courses in German. 92 courses are in
Arabic. Courses in other languages are: Japanese (34
courses), Russian (23 courses), Portuguese (23
courses), Turkish (19 courses), Italian
(11courses),Hebrew (3 courses),Dutch (3
courses),Korean (3 courses),Estonian (2
courses),Basque (1 courses).
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Human Resources:
A search on class-central will show 56 courses on
Human Resources.
Additionally there are courses in Education & Teaching
and Social Sciences that could be relevant.
Education & Teaching
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Teacher Development
Course Development
Online Education
Social Sciences
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Psychology
Business Relevant Courses:
Business & Management (604 courses)
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Management & Leadership
Finance
Entrepreneurship
Business Development
Professional Development
Marketing
Social Sciences
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Economics
DEGREED
Degreed https://degreed.com/
Degreed lets you search through 250 000 elearning
courses from 1,200 providers, millions of books,
articles, videos and events. It also allows to track
learning. Further details on degreed under the topic
tracking later in this document.
Topics can range from web development to playing
banjo.
Costs:
75% of degreed content is free. 25% of content is pay
for usage.
ACADEMIC EARTH
Academic Earth http://academicearth.org/
Academic Earth was founded in 2008 by Richard Ludlow,
Chris Bruner, and Liam Pisano. They curated over 750
online courses and 8500 individual lectures from world
class universities. Courses come from 25 Universities,
which include California Institute of Technology, Cornell
University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT,
Princeton University, Stanford University, University of
Oxford, and Yale University. Since 2012 Academic Earth
belongs to CMN.com.
Subjects:
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Art & Design
Business
Engineering
Humanities
Medicine and Healthcare
Science & Math
Social Science
Test Preparation for ACT, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, SAT
In Business you have the following categories:
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Accounting
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Management
Marketing
Negotiations
Academic Earth offers playlists to show the most
interesting courses per topics. Playlists are for topics
such as First Day of Freshman Year, Understanding the
Financial Crisis, Money Makes the World Go Round or
Living a Good Life. In total there are 10 Playlists
ranging from 1hr 48 minutes to 9hrs 11 minutes in
length.
Costs
All courses are free
MOOCTIVITY
Mooctivity
https://www.mooctivity.com/catalog/courses/
Mooctivity searches through Coursera, EdX,
FutureLearn, Iversity, France Université Numérique,
Udacity, Open2Study, NovoEd, OpenSAP, OpenHPI, and
other
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MOOC LIST
Mooc List https://www.mooc-list.com
In Mooc List only courses with open access (free) are
listed.
Registered users of MOOC List can evaluate courses and
leave reviews.
Similar to Spotify users can share their list of selected
MOOCs with other users.
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Search:
You can search by keyword or brows MOOCs by
provider, categories, university, instructor, country,
language, type of certificate, and tag.
Costs:
Access to courses are free. For certificates or an exam
the MOOC provider may charge a fee.
MOOCs in German: https://www.mooclist.com/language/german?static=tru
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OER = OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES
MIT
In 2002 MIT was the first one to share their lectures
and documents with the public for free.
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
You can search by topic such as Humanities, Social
Science, Teaching and Education, Business and of
course of the Engineering categories.
The other way is to search by departments such as
Sloan School of Management, School of Humanities,
Arts, and Social Sciences, School of Engineering, School
of Science, School of Architecture and Planning and
Other Programs.
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Overall there are around 2100 classes.
Human Resources Courses:
You will find Human Resources Courses if you search
under the topic Business in the Subtopic Industrial
Relations and Human Resources Management.
In the results 15 courses are listed. One course for
example is on Strategic HR Management and another is
on Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial
Organization.
Also there is a subtopic on Organizational Behavior
which has 51 courses.
In the Topic on Teaching and Education you will find the
following Sub-Topics Curriculum and Teaching,
Education Policy, Education Technology and Higher
Education.
Business relevant courses:
There are 27 courses relevant for Entrepreneurship.
The topic Business comprises in total of 16 subtopics.
These range from Accounting, Finance, Leadership,
Management, Marketing to Supply Chain Management.
System Requirements:
It depends on the subject. You will get an overview of
what browsers and what file types are supported here:
http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-technical-requirements/
Video lectures are hosted on Youtube.
Costs:
The course materials are all free. Costs can be occurred
for books recommended in the courses.
Certification:
At M.I.T.x:
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“The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T.
degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a
mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will
receive an official certificate of completion.”
Students using the program will be able to communicate
with their peers through student-to-student discussions,
allowing them an opportunity to ask questions or simply
brainstorm with others, while also being able to access
online laboratories and self-assessments.
KHAN ACADEMY
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Khan Academy is focused on K12 School education.
However it offers courses in Economics and Finance in
subjects of Microeconomics, Finance and Capital
Markets, Entrepreneurship, and Macroeconomics.
Additionally it offers courses together with partners such
as Dartmouth College on Computer Sciences
Algorithms.
System Requirements:
Browsers
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Google Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer 9 or above
Safari.
Costs:
Free
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MOOCS & ONLINE COURSES PROVIDER
Class-Central lists 39 Providers. The top 12 providers
offer 3143 courses which represents 86 % of all MOOCs.
Coursera
edX
Canvas.net
FutureLearn
Independent
Miríada X
Udacity
CourseSites
iversity
Rwaq (‫)رواق‬
NovoED
Open2Study
1274 courses
660 courses
279 courses
193 courses
162 courses
144 courses
104 courses
81 courses
67 courses
67 courses
63 courses
49 courses
Only a few universities offer credit for MOOCs. Example
Penn State for the criminal justice MOOC and University
of Oklahoma for the intro computer science MOOC. In
Europe the provider iversity is planning to work with
European universities to offer credit.
The big 3 MOOC providers, Coursera, Udacity, and edX,
have their own paid credentials for their free courses.
NovoEd is helping Stanford’s Graduate School of
Business to bring their executive program online.
Open edX allows organizations and groups to host their
own MOOCs.
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COURSERA
https://www.coursera.org
Coursera is by far the largest education platform for
universities and organizations worldwide. Currently
Coursera has over 15 Million learners, and by now over
1335 courses and 126 partners.
Universities who partnered with Coursera come from the
following countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India,
Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia,
Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
All courses are based on the mastery learning approach.
Mastery learning was developed by the educational
psychologist Benjamin Bloom. Emphasis is on
understanding a topic well before the learner moves on.
Learners watch short video lectures, take interactive
quizzes, and connect with fellow learners and
instructors.
For many courses, Coursera provides randomized
versions of the assignment so a learner can re-study
and re-attempt until mastery.
Against pay Coursera offers a Verified Certificate of the
accomplishment. This is done by peer graded
assessments. In many studies it was shown to result in
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accurate feedback for the learner and a valuable
experience for the grader.
Human Resources:
To search for human resources or human resources
management on Coursera you won’t get meaningful
results. It will list hundreds of courses who touch on
human topics but are not directly related to the human
resources profession. Therefore use an aggregator such
as class-central to find HR courses offered by Coursera.
Business relevant courses:
https://www.coursera.org/browse/business
You find courses in the following categories:
Leadership and Management, Finance, Marketing,
Entrepreneurship, Business Essentials, Business
Strategy
And soon learners will be able to take an entire MBA
program online for free. The University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign’s College of Business will roll out a
new MBA program with the name iMBA on Coursera.
The MBA program will include courses on digital
marketing, accounting, and business operations.
While the MBA courses are free, it will cost $20 000 USD
to get the official degree. The costs for the MBA are
around 1/4th to 1/5th compared to other online offered
MBAs. Visit the Coursera website for updates. The
program will be launched in the spring of 2016 and by
the end of 2015 the application process will start.
Costs
Courses are open to anyone, and financial aid is
available. To get the Coursera specific certification you
need to pay.
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EDX
https://www.edx.org/
edX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is
governed by MIT and Harvard. edX offers 660 courses
and has a faculty and staff of over 1200 teaching
courses and discussing topics online. More than 400 000
students have earned a certificate so far.
edX Charter Members
Founders are MIT and Harvard and contributors are
Berkeley, Sorbonne, TUDelft, Caltech, EPFL and ETH as
an example. In total 39 universities from different
continents contribute to edX.
Certification
edX offers honor code certificates, verified certificates,
and XSeries certificates.
Honor Code certificates are currently free. It certifies
that you have successfully completed a course. Your
identity is not verified.
Verified certificates are available for a fee that varies by
course. It certifies that you have completed your edX
and that you have identified yourself by a photo and ID.
The XSeries Certificate is offered by some schools. It
states that you have passed a series of courses in a
specific subject.
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For example, you can earn an Aerodynamics XSeries
Certificate from MITx once you successfully complete
16.101x Introduction to Aerodynamics and 16.110x
Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics.
If you plan to use your course for job applications,
promotions, or school applications, you may prefer to
have a Certificate of Achievement that is verifiable.
System requirements:
Browser
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Chrome
Firefox
Safari
Internet Explorer version 10 and above
Costs:
You can attend all edX courses and participate in any or
all activities and exams for free. Also honor code
certificates are free.
Many of edX’s past courses are available as archives.
These courses can only be audited and some features,
such as the discussion forums, may not be available. No
certificates are available for archived courses.
Up until two weeks after a course starts you have the
option to opt in and pay for a verified certificate or opt
out again to not pay for the course.
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CANVAS.NET
https://www.canvas.net/
Canvas has 18 million users worldwide. Institutions,
Universities, Colleges, Schools or for profit corporations
with together with an institution can create their own
MOOCs on the Canvas platform. Canvas acts more like a
LMS provider than as a producer of MOOCs for content
providers. Canvas Network is developed and supported
by Instructure, a technology company that partners
with educators.
You will find a long list of partners on the Canvas
Website. I just want to highlight the Center for Creative
Leadership as one of their partners who has built a
MOOC on Canvas.net.
Human Resources:
There is one on CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility
by VIA University College
Employees will also find a course on “Create an Expert
Linkedin Profile for Job Search”
Business Related Courses:
I found the following examples:
New Venture Discovery: From Idea to Minimal Viable
Product by Columbia Business School
Project Management for Business Professionals
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Essential Quantitive Skills for Business
Certification:
Individual instructors or sponsoring institutions may
offer a certificate of participation or completion. The
instructor or sponsoring institution is responsible for
issuing certificates. Canvas Network does not issue
certificates.
System requirements:
Browsers
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Internet Explorer 10 and 11 (Edge support begins
September 28; IE 10 will be discontinued on
November 21)
Chrome 44 and 45
Safari 7 and 8
Firefox 39 and 40 (Extended Releases are not
supported)
Flash 17 and 18 (for recording or viewing
audio/video and uploading files)
Respondus Lockdown Browser (supporting the
latest system requirements)
http://guides.instructure.com/m/4214/l/41056-whichbrowsers-does-canvas-support
Costs:
Free or fee. This is decided by the course creators.
Most courses seem to be free.
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UDACITY
https://www.udacity.com/
Udacity was one of the first MOOC provider. Founded in
2012 by Stanford University computer scientist
Sebastian Thrun, Udacity has moved away from free
online education only and is now pushing ahead with
short, low-cost computer and data science courses that
are designed to rapidly find jobs for their students. With
the increasing digitalization of our industries and
companies, Banks, insurance, telco companies are tech
companies. They are all needing front-end web
developers, mobile developers, and data scientists.
Udacity courses are highly interactive with activities,
such as quizzes and exercises, interspersed between
short videos and interviews with instructors and
industry experts. Additionally after a lesson will be a set
of exercises that can be repeated without limit. Further
courses included projects that can be later shown to
prospect employers.
Business Relevant Programs:
How to build a startup by Steve Blank (Udacity course
EP245)
Certification:
With industry giants—Google, AT&T, Facebook,
Salesforce, Cloudera, etc.—Udacity offers nanodegree
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programs and credentials. Students have found jobs as
web developers, software engineers, data analysts,
instructors, QA Engineers and more.
Udacity’s nanodegrees are each a set of courses. Five
are available: four are job-focused and one is an
introduction to programming.
Further Udacity partnered with Georgia Tech to offer an
accredited, fully online Master's Degree in Computer
Science. While the courses are hosted on Udacity, the
degree is conferred by Georgia Tech.
System requirements:
Browser
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An up-to-date version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari
is strongly recommended.
We also support Internet Explorer 9 and above.
At this time, mobile browsers are not supported,
but you can download our iOS or Android Apps to
view courses on the go.
Internet Connectivity
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Download: 2+ Mbps recommended; minimum 1
Mbps.
Upload: 0.5 Mbps.
Operating System
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PC: Windows XP or higher with latest updates
installed (note: Internet Explorer 8 is not
supported).
Mac: OS X 10.6 or higher with latest updates
installed.
Linux: Any recent distribution that has the
supported browsers installed.
Mobile Apps
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iOS: Requires iOS 8.1 or later
Android: Requires Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or later
YouTube
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Ability to watch YouTube videos is required. If
YouTube is blocked on your network, please
contact your IT support or internet provider.
If you do not use the HTML5 player, or are using
Internet Explorer, you will need Adobe Flash
Player v11 or above.
Webcam & Microphone
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Required for Office Hours and exit interviews (Full
Course).
Webcam: 640×480 or higher resolution.
Microphone: built in to most webcams and
laptops, or freestanding. Not a headset for
proctored exams.
Google Account
Costs:
The materials for individual courses—and the associated
projects that make up the nanodegree curricula—are
accessible for free.
Costs for the Nanodegree
So far 7000 people have signed up since the
nanodegrees were launched late last year, paying
$US200 ($257) a month to enrol in the series of
courses, which take from six to nine months.
The online Master’s Degree in Computer Science from
Georgia Tech costs 7000 USD.
Udacity offers special enterprise tools and pricing for
company executives, university professors and high
school teachers who want to use Udacity for their
employees or students.
The following organizations will award scholarships,
provided by AT&T Aspire and Udacity:
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Genesys Works
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YearUp
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Communities In Schools
Girls Who Code
Jobs for America's Graduates
IVERSITY
https://iversity.org/
Iversity is the European provider of MOOCs. It partners
with universities in Europe. 63 courses are offered by 41
partner universities. Courses are in English or in
German. Iversity was founded in Q4 2013. The platform
has more than 600 000 users.
As an example L’Oréal used iversity MOOC “Public
Speaking” to train employees
Certification:
You can get a free statement of participation with your
name on it.
For courses that give ECTS (European Credit Transfer
and Accumulation System) credits there is a fee. The
final exam will take place on-site at the university.
Before you enroll in any of the available ECTS tracks
you need to check with your current home university if
they honor those ECTS credits first.
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System requirements:
Browser
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
Chrome
Firefox
Safari
Costs:
You can participate, watch the videos and follow the
course for free. Get a free statement of participation
with your name on it.
L’Oréal paid for each employee 99 Euro for the
certificates of the MOOC Public Speaking.
OPEN UNIVERSITY
The Open University Learning space (600 free courses
also with credits): http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
See Credit Accumulation and Transfer scheme
(CATS):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_Accumulatio
n_and_Transfer_Scheme. (Remark: Can be transferred
into ECTS)
OPEN EDX
https://open.edx.org/
EdX is a nonprofit online initiative created by founding
partners Harvard and MIT and composed of dozens of
leading global institutions, the xConsortium - See more
at: https://open.edx.org/about-openedx#sthash.zrJNtJ2z.dpuf
Open edX is the open source platform that powers edX
courses. - See more at: https://open.edx.org/aboutopen-edx#sthash.zrJNtJ2z.dpuf
Through their commitment to the open source vision,
edX code is freely available to the
community. Institutions can host their own instances of
Open edX and offer their own classes. Educators can
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extend the platform to build learning tools that precisely
meet their needs. And developers can contribute new
features to the Open edX platform. - See more at:
https://open.edx.org/about-openedx#sthash.zrJNtJ2z.dpuf
ALISON
Alison: https://alison.com/
Alison was founded in 2007 by Mike Feerick in Ireland
and has now more than 4 million registered users in 200
countries.
Alison has over 750 free online classes at certificate or
diploma Level.
The courses are in the following categories:
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Financial & Economic Literacy
Business & Enterprise Skills
Digital Literacy & IT Skills
Health Literacy
Personal Development & Soft Skills
Schools Curriculum
Languages
Health & Safety & Compliance
Certification:
Anytime you can take or re-take an assessment on
Alison. You are required a score of 80% or over to pass.
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You are officially a certified ALISON graduate, once you
have passed all the assessments on your course.
Human Resources Courses:
You will find several courses for Human Resources like
Human Resources Management, Fundamentals of
Human Resources and Diploma in Human Resources.
Business relevant courses:
Alison offers Diploma in Business Management &
Entrepreneurship, Diploma in various Marketing Courses
from Social Media Marketing to discovering and meeting
markets needs and course on Fundamentals of
Operations Management.
System Requirements:
Adobe® Flash Player;
internet access (works on all speeds, although the faster
the better, as always!);
web browser (pre-installed on most Windows/Mac/Linux
operating systems); recommended browsers include
Google Chrome® and Mozilla Firefox®
email address (if you don't have one, sign up
with Google™ Mail, Yahoo!® Mail or any other free
email provider).
Costs:
Certification and courses are free. Alison uses google
AdWords and online advertising to finance its offerings.
YOUTUBE EDU
http://www.youtube.com/education
Video Lectures online from renowned universities and
other sources such as BBC.
TED- IDEAS WORTH SPREADING
www.ted.com
The latest in key research projects, findings and
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insights in less than 20 Minutes introduced in a
compelling speech supported by presentations and
media. Great resource to learn new things in any
academic field.
There are more providers. I am collecting these in my
long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
MOOCS RELEVANT FOR HR & CORPORATE L&D
Using MOOC in training: https://www.mooclist.com/course/teaching-flipped-canvasnet?static=true
Dynamic Educator in the digital world:
https://www.mooc-list.com/course/becoming-dynamiceducator-canvasnet?static=true
Leaders of Learning: https://www.mooclist.com/course/gse2x-leaders-learning-edx?static=true
Human Resources:
https://www.open2study.com/courses/humanresources-090215
Learning How to Learn University of California, San
Diego Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to
help you master tough subjects by Dr. Barbara Oakley,
Dr. Terrence Sejnowski. Free MOOC on the latest
research in adult learning and plenty of practical tips. It
is the top 3 most used MOOC worldwide. Recommended
for all employees who take up a formal program or
study like an MBA or other certificate programs and who
need some guidance on optimizing their learning
effectiveness.
I also offer a 1 or 2 day workshop. More details at the
end of this whitepaper.
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CURRICULA
DATA SCIENTIST
Data Scientist for Free https://www.tucanaglobal.com/tucana_blog/how-to-become-a-datascientist-for-free
There are more curricula. I am collecting these in my
long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
TRACKING
Degreed.com https://degreed.com/ to track all
learning’s. SuccessFactors is also now cooperating with
MOOC providers to track learning.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITON
There are many theories and tons of research on
language acquisition. I have a more pragmatic approach
to language learning. One way is to look through the
eyes of people who successfully learned a new
language. There is one group of people who stands out.
These are the polyglots who acquired several languages
during their life time.
A number of these polyglots have shared their
methodology and insights on websites and books. If you
ever want to dig deeper into their experience I would
recommend you to read Dr. Kato Lomb “How I learn
languages”(free pdf), Benny Lewis “Fluent in three
months” (Bestseller, Amazon associate link) and Gabriel
Wyner “Fluent Forever”. 37 Polyglots share their
language learning wisdom online.
When I looked across these polyglots there is one thing
in common. They usually pick a method that works best
for them. There is not one common method at all.
Benny Lewis goes into a conversation with people in a
foreign language very early, while Dr. Kato Lomb would
start to read subjects of her preference in a foreign
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language as soon as possible. Gabriel Wyner instead
would focus immediately on the correct pronunciation
and then use a spaced repetition tool intensively.
The underlying principle these polyglots follow can be
summarized as: Frequency over Duration. Instead of
doing a longer learning session once per week they do
short ones frequently every day. The best example is
the polyglot Professor Alexander Arguelles, who speaks
50 languages by now.
15 minutes a day, but every day, can be enough to
achieve amazing results in a very short time.
These 15 minutes can also be spread out during the
day. The same fundamental principle is applied by top
athletes or top performers in music and art as well. It is
this frequent application that will continuously improve
their strength and their skills.
Therefore my advice is to find the method learners will
stick to every day instead of directing them to any
currently recommended method. I think the best way is
to offer a workshop where they get to know the
different learning approaches and resources available
and to give them time to reflect on what their own
preferred path looks like.
As I like to read and can flexible integrate it into my
daily schedule I prefer the approach of Dr. Kato Lomb
and as well use the space repetition tools like Gabriel
Wyner.
There are 5 areas in language learning: speaking,
listening, reading, writing, and understanding/meaning.
SPEAKING
There are many opportunities to speak a foreign
language online.
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LANGUAGE EXCHANGE/COMMUNITY PLATFORMS
Language Exchange Platform:
ITALKI
http://www.italki.com/partners
Italki connects learners with native-speaking language
partners. The learner is able to find a partner for any
type of language. Learning partners will give equal time
to teach each other the desired language. It is an
exchange of time.
System requirements:
Skype, Google Hangout or Face Time. Whatever your
language exchange partner is using.
Costs:
This service is free.
WESPEKE
http://en-us.wespeke.com/index.html
You can find a language partner from 170 countries
speaking 130 languages. Connect and practice by using
text, audio, or video.
Systems requirements:
Operating System
Mac v10.4 or above, Windows XP service pack 3 or
above. No support for iPads, iPhones or Android.
Browsers
Chrome, Firefox for text, audio and video chat. Internet
Explorer 10+ only for text chat.
Screen Resolution
Minimum 1024 x 768 (browser resolution)
Hardware
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Webcam, speaker with microphone, headphone for
video and audio chats is recommended
Costs:
Free
LIVEMOCHA
http://livemocha.com/
Rosetta Stone acquired Livemocha in 2013.
It is now structured around lessons where you learn a
new concept. It includes all the element of a language
reading, writing, listening, speaking and understanding.
You find courses for 35 languages.
Livemocha has a large community where you can find
easily a learning exchange partner. It is mostly directed
to chat (writing) first, but you can also arrange to speak
live to your exchange partner. However according to
Benny Lewis Livemoacha is crossing out the word skype
in any text chat.
Benny Lewis reviewed Livemocha and Busuu:
http://www.fluentin3months.com/busuu-livemochareview/
System requirements:
The most updated version of Flash. Download or update
your Flash
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Windows: XP SP3, Vista SP2, Windows 7, or
Windows 8Mac (Intel based only): Snow Leopard,
Lion, Mountain Lion (OS X 10.6 or higher)
Firefox 16, Chrome 20, Safari 6 or greater
Adobe Flash Player, most recent version.
Download or update your Flash
On Windows: 2.33GHz or faster x86-compatible
processor OR Intel® Atom™ 1.6GHz or faster
processor for netbooks
On Mac: Intel Core™ Duo 1.33GHz or faster
processor
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1GB RAM or higher
1024 x 768 display resolution or greater
High-Speed Internet connection (at least
768Kbps)
Speakers and microphone
Costs:
Free to join. You will be given points for free when you
join. You can then spent points on the learning activities
you want to do. Of course you can earn points by
helping others. If you do not have enough points you
can buy beans.
BUSUU
https://www.busuu.com/enc/
Busuu is similar to Livemocha. It offers the following
languages. English, Spanish, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic,
Japanese and Chinese.
Busuu has a community of 50 Million learners.
Costs:
Freemium.
With the free account you have access to more than 150
learning units and busuu-talk (chatting with native
speakers).
A premium membership starts at 14.99 Euro per month.
There are many more language exchange platforms or
other opportunities to find a language exchange partner
or group. I have collected a number of these in my long
list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
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LANGUAGE TEACHER PLATFORMS
Online Language Teacher Platform:
http://www.italki.com
Besides a language exchange partner you can also find
professional teachers on italki.
Benny Lewis has written an excellent review on italki
with lots of advice on finding the right teacher:
http://www.fluentin3months.com/italki-review/
System requirements:
Skype, Google Hangout or Facetime. It depends what
your teacher will use.
Costs:
Trials are from 1-10 USD and last 30 minutes. This way
you can try out your teacher first.
Most teachers will charge around 20-30 USD per hour.
15% of their income will go as a fee to italki.
You can even find teachers that will give a lesson for 610 USD per hour.
There are more language teacher platforms. I have
collected a number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
LISTENING
There are many opportunities to listen to a language on
the internet. They range from podcasts, Youtube videos
to online radio and television station to music and
pronunciation databases. And of course if you are
meeting with a language learning exchange partner you
are also listening at the same time.
Here are some of the many resources.
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PODCASTS
InnovativeLanguage.com
http://www.innovativelanguage.com/online-languagecourses/
Courses in 31 languages are available as podcasts for
free. They are branded under the LanguagePod101.com
name.
Itunes
On apple itunes there are plenty of language learning
courses as podcasts available.
They are in the section Podcasts > Education >
Language Courses
https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts-educationlanguage/id1469?mt=2
Open Culture
http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons
Open Culture lists free obtainable audio files as well as
other useful learning resources for 48 languages.
RADIO ONLINE
Tunein
http://tunein.com/radio/Browse-Locations-r0/
Search for a country and a radio station worldwide and
listen to the stream.
FILM / VIDEO / TELEVISION
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/
You find many television series in any language on
Youtube.
Streema
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http://streema.com/tv/
Streema lets you find free television station streams.
There are many more tools and resources for listening. I
have collected a number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
PRONUNCIATION
FORVO.COM
http://forvo.com/
Forvo was founded in 2008 by Forvo Media SL, who are
based in San Sebastian, Spain. In Forvo you will find 3
million words pronounced by native speakers in 325
languages. These pronunciations will even include newly
artificial created languages such as Toki Pona.
System Requirements:
Web browser and speakers
Costs:
Free
RHINOSPIKE
http://rhinospike.com/
Rhinospike was founded in 2010 and has recordings of
entire sentences by native speakers in 71 languages. So
far 37 549 recordings were made.
System requirements:
Web browser and speaker
Costs:
Free
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READING
I am the advocate of reading a lot in foreign languages.
Quite a number of well-known polyglots used this
approach to continuously improve their learning of a
new language. The internet is full of opportunities to
read.
There are some helpful resources for reading and tools
to assist you in collecting new unfamiliar words.
LINGUA.LY
https://lingua.ly/
Lingua.ly was founded by academics from Cambridge
and Stanford in 2011. They want to help people to learn
languages via immersion in authentic newspaper
articles.
Language learners can study English, French, Spanish,
Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, German, Dutch and
Portuguese from start to finish.
A user can start learning with Lingua.ly by visiting their
favourite website, blog, celebrity Twitter account,
anywhere they are likely to find small bits of text in the
language they are learning. They can then collect some
unknown words. The users can have these words
translated and add them to their flash cards repository
to practice later. Additionally lingua.ly offers some fun
memory game challenges.
Further the learners can visit the read tab to find short,
easy text selections that will help them review the
words they’ve learned and acquire new ones, a little at
a time.
Over time, these click patterns tell the platform a lot
about a user’s personal vocabulary. But Lingua.ly goes
beyond simply mapping their knowledge base and
harnesses search engine technology to understand user
preferences. With all of this information, Lingua.ly can
then rank existing documents on the web by their
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suitability for the learner at any given point in time. In
other words, this content recommendation engine
constantly adjusts itself to the learner’s level and
recommends real world reading material that optimally
supports his or her learning efforts.
System requirements:
Web browser, speaker
Supports ios and Android
Costs:
Free
READLANG
http://readlang.com/
Readlang was founded in 2013 and has a similar
approach to reading and learning than lingua.ly. It
supports 56 languages: http://readlang.com/languages
System requirements:
Web browser, speaker
Supports ios and Android
Costs:
Two plans: Free with a limit of 10 phrase translations
per day or Premium (5 USD / month) with unlimited
translations.
LINGQ
https://www.lingq.com
Company founded in 2007 by the polyglot Steve
Kaufmann and his son Mark. Steve was the first to
introduce the digital immersion of learners into reading
authentic content online. Lingua.ly follows a similar
approach.
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You can learn the following languages: English, Spanish,
French, Italian, German, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese,
Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
Costs:
Three plans: Free, Premium (10 USD / month), and
Premium Plus (39 USD / month)
There are many more tools and resources for reading. I
have collected a number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
WRITING
INTERPALS
http://www.interpals.net/language_exchange.php
Interpals lets you connect to pen pals worldwide. You
will find a pen pal in any language. The site was created
in 1998.
System requirements:
Web browser
Costs:
Free
LANG-8
http://lang-8.com/
The platform was developed by Yangyang and Kazuki
Matsumoto in 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. Lang 8 is a
language learning platform where native speakers
correct what you write.
The site has 750,000 users from over 190 countries and
supports 90 languages. However the interface of the
lang 8 is available only in Japanese, English, Mandarin,
Taiwanese, Korean, Spanish, Cantonese, Russian,
German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Tagalog,
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Indonesian, Arabic, Dutch, Swedish, Vietnamese, Thai,
Finnish, Polish, Norwegian, Turkish, Malaysian
System requirements:
Web browser
Costs:
Free
LYRICS TRANSLATE
http://lyricstranslate.com/
People translate their favourite song lyrics into other
languages or help each other with the translation. Lyrics
are translated in up to 312 languages including dialects.
All languages are listed here:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/languages.html
System requirements:
Web browser
Costs:
Free
There are many more tools for writing. I have collected
a number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
SPACED REPETITION TOOLS
Spaced Repetition Tools (Flash cards or Karteikärtchen
(in German)) make it very easy to learn and review
words on the go. All the spaced repetition tools can be
accessed via internet or offline via mobile apps. This
makes it very easy to integrate language learning into a
busy schedule. Think about the many 2-5 minutes slots
during a day where you were commuting, waiting or
sitting somewhere. This way it is easy to achieve the 15
minutes per day of language learning.
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MEMRISE
http://www.memrise.com/home/
Memrise was developed in 2009 by a memory world
champion and a neuroscientist based on the latest
research in gamification, social learning and
neurosciences. It uses flashcards for learning languages
or other subjects. The site is very user-friendly.
Memrise informs you when you have to review your
vocabulary again. You get points and you can compare
yourself to others. Memrise uses engaging type of tests
to help you learn vocabulary and other items. You can
create your own courses and of course you can use all
the other courses people have created on the site.
Besides learning languages Memrise offers courses in
Arts & Literature, Maths & Science, The Natural World,
History & Geography, Professional & Careers,
Entertainment, and Trivia
In Professional & Careers you will find courses in
Business & Finance, Computers & Engineering, Law,
Medicine & Healthcare, and other.
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System Requirements:
Browser, speaker
supports also android and ios
Costs:
Free
ANKI
https://ankiweb.net/
Anki is the Japanese word for memorization. It was
developed by Damien Elmes in 2006.
While you can create and do everything online in
Memrise (cloud based) for Anki you need to install the
program on your computer to create your own
flashcards.
Anki has more features and flexibility than Memrise
when it comes to creating your flashcards. To review
your flashcards you can do this online via the Ankiweb.
Anki is not only used for languages but for all areas
where you need to memorize content. As an example
according to Wikipedia in 2010, Roger Craig obtained
the all-time record for single-day winnings on the quiz
show Jeopardy![12] after using Anki to memorize a vast
number of facts.
System Requirements:
Anki supports Windows, Mac, Linux/BSD, iPhone and
Android.
You need speakers and for the Ankiweb a web browser.
Costs:
Free
There are other spaced repetition tools. I have collected
a number of these in my long list here:
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https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
UNDERSTANDING / MEANING
WIKTIONARY
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page
Wiktionary is a collaborative project to produce a freecontent multilingual dictionary. So far 4,181,288 entries
with English definitions from over 1550 languages have
been made.
Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and
now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books,
language statistics and extensive appendices. It aims to
include not only the definition of a word, but also
enough information to really understand it. Thus
etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations,
synonyms, antonyms and translations are included.
WORDREFERENCE.COM
http://wordreference.com/
Free online database to search for the meaning of words
in Español, Français, Italiano, Português, Català,
Deutsch, Svenska, Русский, Polski, Română, Čeština,
Ελληνικά, Türkçe, 英汉词典 英和辞書, 영-한, 사전, ‫ق اموس‬
‫ إن ج ل يزي‬- ‫عرب ي‬. Additonally they have a well-used
discussion forum where you can find words that are not
yet in the dictionaries.
BAB.LA
Bab.la has also free dictionaries for 28 languages. What
I recommend is their blog post which lists the best blogs
to visit for a specific language.
http://en.bab.la/news/top-25-language-learning-blogs2014
There are more great sources to get a better
understanding of the language. I have collected a
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number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
TRANSLATION TOOLS
GOOGLE TRANSLATE
http://translate.google.com/
Google Translate is the best known free translation tool
available. However it is not perfect.
BABELFISH
http://www.babelfish.com/
Babelfish is owned by Yahoo. It will not only translate
words but it has a forum called “How do you say? “
where you can ask for support for more complex
translations or validate the result of the automatic
translation tool.
There are more translation tools available. I have
collected a number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
OTHER TOOLS
The following tools will use almost all of the different
areas of language acquisition from listening to writing.
INTERACTIVE COURSES
DUOLINGO (FREE)
https://www.duolingo.com/
Duolingo is using gamification. In bite-sized lessons
learners earn points, race against the clock, and level
up. It was created in 2011 by crowdsourcing pioneer
Luis von Ahn, PhD, and Severin Hacker, PhD. Duolingo
has over 100 Million users. The creation of courses is
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crowdsourced through native speakers and language
enthusiasts of any language in the world by working
together.
Currently there are courses for the following languages:
Latin American Spanish, French, German, Italian,
Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Swedish, Danish,
Turkish, Norwegian Bokmål, Ukrainian, Esperanto
Costs:
Free to learn, for certification you have to pay
FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE
http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/
The Foreign Service Institute developed these courses
funded by the United States government. All courses
are public domain. This site is not affiliated in any way
with any government entity; it is an independent, nonprofit effort to foster the learning of worldwide
languages.
On the Foreign Service Institute Site are free courses
for 45 languages.
There are more tools available. I have collected a
number of these in my long list here:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/educationhacking-the-list/
EDUCATION HACKERS & HACKS
Scott H. Young – MIT Computer Science Degree in
1year:
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mitchallenge-2/
Scott H Young succeeded to learn MIT’s 4-year
curriculum for computer science in 12 months, without
taking any classes located at MIT and spending less
than 2000 USD. His speech at the Ted Conference:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe
dded&v=piSLobJfZ3c#t=0
Jay Cross - College Degree in 1 year:
http://www.doityourselfdegree.com/
Scott H. Young was influenced by the first Education
Hacker Jay Cross. Jay got a college degree in 1 year at
1/20th of the cost compared to the traditional way by
using online available resources only.
Benny Lewis – Fluent in a language in 3 months:
http://www.fluentin3months.com/
Benny has demonstrated on how to become fluent in a
language in just 3 months without having to visit the
country where it is spoken. Not only is Benny with the
help of the internet more effective than using the
traditional class room programs, he also does it at a
fraction of the costs.
Dale Stephenson – Education without College
(uncollege): http://www.uncollege.org/
Dale Stephenson founded UnCollege.org after he
dropped out from college. Uncollege provides Gap Year
programs for young adults who want to drive their own
education. Dale shows new ways to drive your own
education without having to attend college which costs
as you know a lot of money in the US. He is the Author
of Hacking Your Education and has a background in
home schooling. His book also inspired McKenzie’s new
onboarding program where they follow a very similar
approach.
Peter Palme – Reading Chinese Newspaper in 1 year:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/mission-2015-able-toread-a-chinese-newspaper-in-chinese-by-31-12-2015/
Peter set himself the Mission of Reading a Chinese
Newspaper by the end of 2015
In just 2 months and a net learning time of 32 hours he
read his first Chinese book. 7 months later he knew
more than 2000 unique characters and read his first
article in a Chinese newspaper.
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As a comparison Chinese children will learn just over
1000 characters in their first four years in school and
then it would take them to grade 6/7 before they can
read a newspaper.
Peter Palme – SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central
Certified Application Associate – Cloud HCM
Peter used open.sap.com and the SAP Learning Hub to
get his certification in ¼ of the time compared to
attending a SAP classroom training and at a 1/5th of the
costs. As he has a subscription to SAP Learning Hub for
one year and can attend other courses the costs for his
employee central certification will even further decrease
compared to the traditional way.
Do you have your own education hacking story to share
please contact petepalme@gmail.com.
WORKSHOP “EDUCATION HACKING”
Engage yourself and your employees with the amazing
variety of learning available on the internet.
Help yourself and others to become a passionate and
highly effective learner.
In this pilot workshop you will learn how to be a more
effective learner and how to best use OER (Open
Education Resources) and other tools in a corporate
environment for your development. Bring back the
knowledge from this workshop to implement in you
organization or just for yourself.
Foundation:
Reflection on your own learning experiences and habits
Get to know the latest research and principles in
effective learning
Your learning:
Define a mission statement for your next development
project/goal
Overview of resources and tools available
Identify the right approach, methodology and tools for
your learning path
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Sustainability:
Introduce your learning project to the group and get
helpful feedback
Develop a contingency plan for your learning journey.
Follow through:
Track your learning progress
More details:
https://ppalme.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/theeducation-hacking-workshop/
ABOUT ME
My vision is to build a truly integrated HR in the cloud. A
truly integrated HR is the key enabler for organizations
to maximize their business outcomes. And I want to
leverage the cloud for learning. I want to help
companies to become engaging and innovative learning
organizations.
THANK YOU
At this point I'd like to thank Leopold Kause from
DidacDesign http://didacdesign.com for his expertise
provided on OER and his valuable advice.
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