Abigael Bamgboye knows a thing or two about how to succeed in an online course. Between completing a MicroMasters® Program in Data, Economics and Development Policy (DEDP), an MIT Professional Education Leading Digital Transformation program, as well as other virtual courses including the Part-Time YouTuber Academy and “Seeds for the Future” online program, she has completed over 800 hours of online learning!

Although many organizations have professional development budget set aside, asking an employer to pay for your continuing education can be a bit intimidating. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025 as the “double-disruption” of a pandemic and increasing automation takes a toll on the global economy. Online courses and programs offer the flexibility that busy learners need, while giving employers a more scalable workforce education solution for increasingly distributed teams.

Two-thirds of Survey Respondents Saw Career impact Within SIX Months. A recent survey of professionals who earned Architecture and Systems Engineering certificates from MIT xPRO illustrates how learning online can result in major career advancement.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by all of the free educational webinars and online learning resources available today. The good news is that it only takes an hour to gain new insights from MIT faculty on the latest topics in emerging technology and workforce learning.

“Asynchronous options open up learning to a much larger audience. Imagine having exposure to thousands of other learners, rather than fewer than 30. Or getting to learn from experts all around the globe. This brings greater diversity of experience and perspective.” -- Egor Matveyev, Sr. Lecturer and Research Scientist in Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management

"We see that the most successful Bootcampers, during the Bootcamp and afterwards, are individuals who participate with the intention to learn from others and elevate the team's success over their individual priorities. This allows them to expand the learning and perspective they take from the Bootcamp to that of the whole team and broader cohort." -- Vimala Palaniswamy, Director, MIT Bootcamps

What can we take away from 2020, a year of unprecedented challenges? With more time online than ever before, many professionals found new virtual opportunities to deepen their knowledge and strengthen their skill sets. As an online learning blog for professionals, The Curve did its best to keep up by providing insights from MIT faculty, instructors, and industry experts on topics from the investment boom in recommendation engine systems to digital readiness tips for distributed organizations. Here are the five posts that The Curve's readers cared most about in 2020:

As the COVID-19 pandemic intensified across the globe in April 2020, and many cities and states shut down, Professor J. Christopher Love and his team returned to the MIT Love Lab to critical path work--developing a vaccine candidate for COVID-19.

How can you learn quantum computing when you have never used a quantum computer? That’s the big question that MIT xPRO’s support team gets from professionals who are interested in earning a Quantum Computing Fundamentals certificate, but don’t feel prepared for a two-course online program.

Can you take an online machine learning course without a background in data science or engineering? That’s the big question that MIT xPRO’s support team gets from professionals who are interested in earning an online certificate in Machine Learning, Modeling, and Simulation, but don’t feel prepared for the two-course online program.