“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.

The market for recommendation engines is predicted to grow by USD $3.57B in the next four years, according to a recent report from Technavio. What’s the story behind these growth numbers? We talked with MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and co-founder of machine learning startup Celect, Devavrat Shah, about the findings from this recent report and to discuss his predictions for recommendation systems technology.

It’s more important than ever for professionals to build the skills and capabilities they need to drive innovation. In a recent McKinsey study, more than 75% of executives surveyed predicted that the COVID-19 crisis would create significant new opportunities for growth. Instead of simply adapting to it, innovators from all industries must embrace and leverage disruption to thrive.

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?”

Although machine learning offers important new capabilities for solving today’s complex problems, more organizations may be tempted to apply machine learning techniques as a one-size-fits all solution.