More professionals than ever are looking into online courses, including ones previously relegated to traditional classroom settings. Conventional wisdom once said that human skills like leadership and negotiation could not be learned online. However, this may no longer be the case. The Curve interviewed two online education experts at MIT about how educators and learners can improve the quality and efficacy of their next online course.

Erica LeBlanc is the Global Sales Enablement Manager for Logi Analytics, a software company that offers integrated development environments for programmers to embed dashboards, visualizations, and analytics into software applications. Although LeBlanc has over a decade of sales enablement experience, and plenty of on-the ground negotiations practice, she was looking for a quick yet comprehensive way to brush up on the latest negotiation techniques from renowned experts in the field.

New technologies are giving rise to new jobs and redefining the tasks of many more. Companies around the world and across all industry sectors are trying to capture the potential for growth and adopt new technologies in their business models to remain competitive in today’s dynamic markets.

Resources you should bookmark for the next time you're ready to throw the iPad out of the window. As more employers institute remote work policies and more schools dismiss classes due to COVID-19 concerns, working parents may find themselves at home with their kids during the day. If your kids are usually glued to YouTube or a Nintendo Switch during downtime, finding engaging ways for them to learn at home can be especially challenging. Luckily, MIT offers tons of free online educational resources for parents who are looking for enriching (and fun!) at-home activities.

Former NFL Linebacker Ryan Nece is no stranger to negotiation. Whether it's with his 3-year old son ("He beats me every time," says Nece) or negotiating on behalf of his venture capital firm, Next Play Capital. Despite all of this day-to-day negotiation practice, Nece felt that he was missing formal training. So, he decided to participate in MIT xPRO's online negotiations course, Negotiating to Create Value: The Mutual Gains Approach. We sat down with Mr. Nece to discuss his online learning experience, and how athletes and executives alike can benefit from the Mutual Gains Approach (MGA).

Eric Bradford, a Teaching Assistant for MIT xPRO’s online data science course, Data Science and Big Data Analytics: Making Data-Driven Decisions, tells learners what to expect from this seven-week online course.

IBM Watson AI Lab and MIT xPRO Collaborate to Support Lifelong Learners IBM Watson AI Lab has collaborated with MIT xPRO to develop an online quantum computing curriculum intended for professionals and leaders in business, government, and technology interested in the theoretical and practical aspects of quantum computing (QC).