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:

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.

There’s a story that John Wass likes to tell to illustrate the value of systems thinking. A CEO is holding the end of quarter meeting with their executive team. They go around the table, and everyone proudly reports that they’ve hit their KPIs. There’s just one problem. The CEO hasn’t achieved the company’s overall profitability goals. “Why,” the CEO asks, “Am I not doing great when all of you are?”

There are more online learning resources to choose from than ever before. If you’re looking to learn emerging technologies or prepare your workforce for digital transformation an informational webinar can help you explore the content, structure, and learning outcomes of a prospective online course. Explore online courses and programs in topics like additive manufacturing, leadership, machine learning, negotiation, systems engineering, and quantum computing. Register to view any of the MIT-faculty led on-demand webinars below.

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.

Finance is core to all business operations, but it isn’t the sole domain of MBA graduates and Wall Street analysts. All professionals benefit from strong finance understanding and capability as they make decisions, manage budgets, and work to advance new ideas and initiatives across their organizations.

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.

Remote work tips and tricks for managers and employees from MIT Open Learning and beyond. Between 2005 to 2017, the United States' workforce saw a 159% increase in remote work. Despite this general trend, many organizations and their employees were not prepared to make their workplaces completely remote. As working from home became a mandatory step for companies across the United States to reduce the spread of COVID-19, you may have found yourself scrambling to align with scattered colleagues, or attempting to balance your newly-entangled work and home life.

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.