Christmas always brings a conundrum. The kids want new toys, but they don’t play with the ones they’ve already got! Dutifully, you spend your hard earned cash adding to the pile of toys. Recognition is fleeting. By the time you read this blog, all new toys will have become a part of the amorphous mass of toys that sits in the corner of the bedroom. There they are doomed to remain, relatively untouched for the rest of the year, until of course the cycle begins again.
Nothing changes as we get older. Or indeed when we move to the world of work. New toys, that’s what we need. Or do we? Maybe, if we make just one resolution this year, it should be to play with the toys we’ve already got. It’s with that thinly stretched metaphor in mind that I give you this:
50 free sources of learning content for your curation.
I think it’s a bit of a travesty that we spend as much as we do trying to make the perfect piece of learning content, again and again. Of course the learning process takes us far beyond the realms of what content alone can do; we need learners to experience, practice, reflect and repeat real-world actions if they are to truly change behaviour. Content can be the start; it can be the trigger for a new experience, a new insight, a new conversation. But it is just that, the start of a learning journey. So I believe we should spend more time tapping into content that is freely available and putting this to use within our organisations. Our time, money and effort should be spent elsewhere – on the experiences and implementations that allow learners to put ideas in to practice.
With that in mind we’ve quickly curated some sources of information for you to tap. These websites host huge amounts of content on a wide-range of subjects, but in the interests of keeping the numbers down the following sites are of particular use to those looking to trigger learning experiences in the business world.
| Name | URL | Description | Good for |
| OER Commons | http://www.oercommons.org/browse/general_subject/business | Links to over 1000 business related learning content objects | Academic articles |
| Stanford Business School | http://www.youtube.com/user/stanfordbusiness | Stanford Business School videos | Videos |
| Management for the rest of us | http://www.mftrou.com/ | Introduction to management topics | Introductions |
| Jim Collins | http://www.jimcollins.com/media_topics/all.html | Video and Audio resources from leading business author, Jim Collins | Management, leadership |
| Team technology | http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/ | Introduction to issues around leadership and management | Psychometrics |
| Free Management Library | http://managementhelp.org/ | Huge range of management topics | Management, leadership |
| CIO | http://www.cio.com/ | White papers, webcasts everything for the Chief Information officer | CIO |
| Leaders Direct | http://www.leadersdirect.com/ | Over 150 pages of tips and checklists on leadership and self management | Leadership |
| PowerHomeBiz | http://www.powerhomebiz.com/ | Site for small businesses with good tips and glossary | Small Business |
| Fast Company | www.fastcompany.com | The website for Fast Company magazine contains an easily accessible searchable archive of all its articles, past and present. It contains a number of interesting articles concerning power and office politics. Good for leadership, strategy, teamwork | innovation, web |
| Harvard Working Knowledge | http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ | Great papers across the range of management topics from some of the key experts in the field | Management, leadership |
| Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute | http://www.hesselbeininstitute.org/ | Formerly Peter Drucker site, links to Leader to leader journal | Management, leadership |
| Wharton Leadership Centre | http://leadership.wharton.upenn.edu/welcome/index.shtml | Leadership research papers, access to older articles | leadership |
| The Business Publications Search Engine | http://www.bpubs.com/Management_Science/ | Good links to articles on BPR, Change, CRM, Leadership Project management and many others | Management papers |
| Customer Care Institution | http://www.customercare.com/ | Everything about looking after the customer | Customers |
| PM World Today | http://www.pmworldtoday.net/archives/2012/march.htm#papers | Featured papers on the subject of Project management | Project Management |
| Project Management Institute | http://www.pmi.org/Knowledge-Center.aspx | Knowledge centre – resources to inform and improve the practice of project management | Project management |
| Thinking Managers | http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/ | Edward de Bono and Robert Heller site giving clear and concise summaries of the best writing and ideas from the world’s best business media | Management |
| The Work911 series | http://work911.com/articles/index.htm | 200 articles covering a range of management topics | Management |
| 12 manage | http://www.12manage.com/ | Summaries of management methods and models | Models |
| Alliance Training and Consulting | http://www.alliancetac.com/index.html?PAGE_ID=34 | Good range of resources covering communication skills, customer service, employee development, leadership and many others | management topics |
| MagPortal.com | http://www.magportal.com/c/bus/strat/ | Portal site that gives links to latest magazine articles on business strategy,management and leadership | Magazine portal |
| Bloomberg Businessweek | http://www.businessweek.com/ | The latest uptodate thinking, articles, videos | Latest thinking |
| Inc.com | http://www.inc.com/ | Latest thinking on leadership and managing, sales and marketing, Finance, Technology and Innovation | Latest thinking |
| Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections | http://curiouscat.net/articles/ | Articles focused on operations management and improvement | Operations management |
| Article Planet.net | http://www.articleplanet.net/management/ | Shortish articles covering an eclectic range of management topics | Management |
| OER Commons | http://www.oercommons.org/browse/general_subject/business | Great source of open resources, mainly focused on schools but a good range of material on business for the post-secondary level | Open resources |
| MIT OpenCourseWare | http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm | Incredible resource of lecture notes and videos | MIT Courses |
| MIT YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT | Videos of lectures – not all areas covered but those that are are covered in great depth | MIT lectures |
| TED Talks YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector | Great range of videos from inspirational speakers | Videos |
| Harvard YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/user/harvardbusiness?ob=4&feature=results_main | Great range of videos from some of the world’s experts | Videos |
| The Ken Blanchard | http://www.youtube.com/user/KenBlanchardCos?ob=0&feature=results_main | Leadership videos | Management videos |
| Wikiversity | http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page | Growing site with some business and management courses | Wiki resource |
| Learn out loud | http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Business/Leadership-and-Management | Portal to a range of management podcasts | Podcasts |
| Emerald Research | http://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/podcasts/index.htm | Podcasts drawn from the latest research published by Emerald | Academic, podcasts |
| Under New Management | http://www.obweb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=42&Itemid=66 | Podcasts focusing on rigourous empirical research | Academic, podcasts |
| Bized | http://www.bized.co.uk/learn/index.htm | Whole range of different sorts of materials such as worksheets, case studies | Business studies materials |
| CBS Money Watch | http://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/management/?tag=hdr;cnav | Main focus on financial issues but other management issues covered | Finance |
| Business Balls | http://www.businessballs.com/ | Businessballs is a free ethical learning and development resource for people and organizations, run by Alan Chapman, in Leicester, England | Business studies materials |
| Khan Academy – Finance & Economics | http://www.khanacademy.org/#microeconomics | College level Economics done in Khan Academy house style – a voiceover with drawings | Finance |
| Business Link Start-up Directory | https://online.businesslink.gov.uk/hub/action/render?pageId=learningdirectory | Everything you need to know about getting started in business – but also useful for those working within organisations | Business Startup |
| Marshall Goldsmith Library | http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/marshall/resources.html | Personal site of Marshall Goldsmith, the influential leadership thinker | Leadership |
| 5min Business | http://www.5min.com/Category/Business | Video aggregation website, taking in content from a range of business websites | Videos |
| Tom Peters! | http://www.tompeters.com/freestuff/index.php | A selection of Tom Peter’s content available freely, as long as you do not charge for their use | Management, leadership |
| Business Insider Document Centre | http://www.businessinsider.com/document-center | A selection of simple (US) templates for business and legal documents | Business Startup |
| Business Model Generation | http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas | A great method for creating business models | Business Startup |
| The Times 100 – Business Studies Theory | http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/ | Topic overviews with pay-for case studies available | Business studies materials |
| FastCoExist | http://www.fastcoexist.com/ | From The Fast Company, a website focused on breakthrough innovation | innovation, web |
| Systems Thinking – John Seddon | http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/6.asp | A wide range of articles on Systems Thinking and Lean | Operations management |
| Clayton Christensen | http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/ | Summary and links to articles by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Professor | Management, leadership |
| Ted ED | http://ed.ted.com/lessons?category_id=41 | TED videos with a focus on business and economics and quiz questions. | Business and Economics |
If you’d like to learn more about the role curation can play in your learning strategy, why not come along to CurationCamp, on the Tuesday evening following London’s Learning Technology 2013 conference. It’s free and beer will be supplied (for a bit!) by yours truly and Curatr. If you can’t make it you can follow the event on twitter with the hashtag #ltuk13fringe
#1 by Kelly Meeker at January 21st, 2013
I have one more source to recommend! I work for OpenSesame, which is a marketplace for online training courses. With more than 21,000 courses from 250+ different sellers, we have a large selection of free courses customers can choose from. Here’s a blog post with some of the most popular:
https://www.opensesame.com/blog/top-10-free-elearning-courses-opensesame