The Personal Branding MOOC course provided by Coursera, served me as a well-structured guide for defining my personal brand by summing up my aspirations and goals. Starting with the Myers-Briggs personality test followed by understanding of the importance of authenticity while creating my mission statement, I have been able to organize the goals for my personal brand. A summary of pros and cons of selected social media validated the vision I have had while working on the PLE assignment during previous classes. This course also included a chapter about digital privacy directly linked to the DIP activity, and only highlighted the importance of taking control over my digital footprint. Finally, I was able to establish my personal brand and I am now following the step-by-step procedure of implying this personal brand in my social media and overall digital presence. I will also consider adding Coursera to my PLE by researching courses that might interest me in my personal, academic and professional future.
During the course of Training for Professional Digital Competences, I have learnt to develop my digital image through different techniques and MOOC courses detailed below:
Course 1 – Introduction to Personal Branding
This first course on Coursera platform was the most interesting for me. Learning different tools to develop my brand and control my digital identity is very useful both for the present and the future. The most important lessons that I take from Personal branding are:
Be aware of how our image is reflected online and how others see us. Sometimes it feels wrong to self-promoting our professional selves on LinkedIN, but through the lecture ‘Does the whole idea of self-promotion feel wrong?’ and different discussions on class I have realized that we need to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that are online.
One of the assignments in the second week was doing a Myers Briggs Personality Test and my result was the ‘loyal friend’. As the test proposed had few questions I tried others online in order to know me better.
The importance on search engines to keep an update on ourselves or any other topic that we are interested in.
Digital privacy was the most compelling lesson in this course due to the day to day impact that can have a missmanage of our general privacy.
The Circular Economy course, in edx platform, can be very helpful for every person that only thinks on recycling when they hear the term ‘circular economy’. As I am currently doing a Master in Circular Economy I am very familiar with most of the topics of the course. Eventhough only some examples were new to me I think it was helpful to remember the main objectives and actions of circular economy.
The most interesting topic for me was the chapter called ‘Thinking in systems’, related to the metals scarcity in Europe and all the comments made by Dr Ester van der Voet about the metals in Europe, the urban mining…
My outcome of both MOOCs is the incredible development that digitalisation has supposed in the professional world to be able to grow your knowledges in different topics that can be useful. After finalizing them I have made some changes on my Personal Learning Environment. Check it below!
It was my first experience with personal branding.
What I retained and learned during this MOOC:
I need to keep my message and content consistent to one niche topic to become memorable within a targeted community.
Always keep in my mind the impact I leave on others and remember all we have is our own reputation and that’s our brand
I need to be clear on who I am and what value you bring to a company, project, …
80% of what I put out on social media should be content that is of interest to my followers. 20% should be self-promotion.
My mission statement is what drives me, what do I want to do with my life.
« I want to become the leader and the trigger of the innovative, economy and industrial revolution on the circular economy model. In order to face the environmental crisis. »
I asked the people around me what they would say about me when I am not in the room, what words characterize me. It came out:
Creative
Determined & Ambitious
Curious
When I choose my board of directors, I will surround myself with people who :
Admiration & mutual respect
People caring and investing in me
Hontest with me
This MOOC inspire me to :
Investigate & select content, follow the news and conferences
Optimize my profiles on social media
Post good content regularly
Intervene on current issues
To popularize information and create a strong community
Highlight my skills and values and my entourage
This MOOC is very complete, and I have enjoyed it a lot since it reviews all the general ideas that we have been studying in the Master.
Delft University of Technology on the edx platform.
Before this course, as this topic interst me a lot, I had already learned a lot about the circular economy (books, podcast, social media, report)
What I learned and retained and learned during this MOOC:
The basic principles that drive these natural systems and serve as the foundation for the circular economy are:
Waste can be considered as Food
Build resilience through diversity
Use energy from renewable sources
Think as a system
For businesses in order to close the loops, these business processes are useful: acquisition, reprocessing and remarketing.
In the circular economy businesses we classify three different categories of product-service business models : Product-oriented, Use-oriented and Result-oriented.
It is also important to define the “Business Values” that we get from the circular economy, such as :
Sourcing value
Environmental value
Customer value
Information value
-Although I know the basics of the circular economy relatively well, I really enjoyed learning about how circular economy deal with business.
This MOOC inspire me and reinforced my belief that I want to be recognized as an expert in the circular economy, and in the innovation of the ecological transition. And promote circular economy projects and innovative start-ups.
During the T4PDC, I completed the following two courses.
MOOC – 1 – Introduction to Personal Branding
This course was provided by the University of Virginia on the Coursera platform.
Following are the key points that I learnt from the course –
It helped me understand what personal branding means.
Encouraged me to use at least 2 and at maximum 3 social media.
Create a mission statement for their personal brand.
Become familiar with the basics of digital security and reputation management
The course has encouraged me to start using Twitter in a more efficient way and the following are some point which makes Twitter stand along from other platforms –
Hashtags – With hashtags, it is easy to find particular tweets and also show what is trending
Brand Identity – Being on Twitter can help communicate your brand ethos and personality.
Easy to raise your voice
The 80/20 rule: 80% of what you put out on social media should be content that is of interest to the people who follow you. 20% should be self-promotion.
And one of the most important segments of this MOOC was to find your three cornerstone words and state them in your mission statement. So, my three cornerstone words are Peace, happiness and help and my mission statement is “I want to bring peace and happiness into people’s life by helping them with my Academic and personal knowledge”
MOOC – 2 Circular economy: An introduction
This course was provided by the Delft University of Technology on the edx platform.
Following are the key point I learnt from the course –
Develop a general overview of the principles and ideas behind a Circular Economy.
Analyse the barriers and opportunities for transitioning to these circular business models.
Investigate what it takes to create products that are easy to repair, remanufacture or recycle.
Discover how natural systems can provide inspiring solutions to human problems.
The course emphasises shifts to a system where we can regenerate natural systems, design out waste and pollution and keep products and materials in use.
The following are business Values that we get from the circular economy –
Source Value – This helps in cost reduction
Environmental Value – that ultimately reduces the footprints
Customer Value – which increases the customer loyalty
Information Value – help in providing valuable data about the product
I also loved the example of FAIRPHONE who are working very greatly in the extension of product lifespan by –
Making it more durable
keeping it easy to maintain and upgrade
making it repairable
And, the main takeaway for me was the ” inertia Principle” which states that ” Do not repair what is not broken, do not remanufacture something that can be repaired, do not recycle a product that can be remanufactured and replace or treat only the smallest possible part in order to maintain the existing economic”
Completion of MOOC course
These two MOOC Courses have also helped to improve my Personal Learning Environment as now I have started using edx also.
In this post, I explain my takeaways on the two MOOC courses that I finished during the T4PDC class.
Introduction to personal branding: In this course I learned the importance of self-promotion, authenticity and reputation management. I was also introduced to twitter, search engine alerts and digital privacy. My most important takeaways were the mission statement and board of directors. These are tools I will use in order to make myself accountable to the steps I have chosen in order to reach my personal and professional goals year to year. Getting to identify my personality type also helped me to personalize my path.
Circular Economy: This second MOOC course reinforced and complemented my knowledge about circular economy. Some new concepts that I learned are: the darker side of access, value creation, repair criteria, business value and good disruption. This course was very interesting and interactive and I would recommend it to people with any level of knowledge about this topic.
After both of this MOOCs, I decided to add twitter and EDX to my PLE. Attached, you can see the fonal version of my PLE.
Though the concept of personal branding isn’t new, the questions remain about how to create one and, more importantly, what it means to maintain and inhabit that brand. In the quest to improve my Professional/career brand, I took a course – “Introduction to Personal Branding“ on Coursera.
The main lessons for me that I would like to share are summarized below:
Branding is holistic, it covers not just Professional but also Personal. The brand should be compatible with your beliefs and values (Your Three Cornerstone Words); those two You’s must be able to exist harmoniously.
Setting up a search alert (e.g., Google search alert) for your name/key words, so that anytime it is mentioned you will be notified.
The 80/20 rule: 80% of what you put out on social media should be content that is of interest to the people who follow you. 20% should be self-promotion.
Course: Circular Economy: An Introduction
A Circular Economy cycles valuable materials and products, produces and transports them using renewable energy. In the living world, one species’ waste is another’s food, and energy is provided by the sun. This is considered the inspiration for the Circular Economy.
The ‘rules’ or ‘principles’ that govern these natural systems and used to inform a Circular Economy; Waste = Food, Build resilience through diversity, Work with energy from renewable sources, and Think as a system.
I also learnt about the different views of the roots of the circular economy, and How can the circular economy provide solutions to the challenges our current linear economy.
I learnt about the three main business processes required to close loops: Acquisition, Reprocessing, and Remarketing. If any of these key processes fails, we do not have a closed loop.
Also, the different business value in a circular economy; sourcing value, environmental value, customer value, and informational value.
The three general barriers for refurbishment: Perception, International trade barriers and other regulatory barriers, and commitment from top management. Closing the loop through refurbishment needs to be a strategic business decision.
The three different categories of product-service business models: Product-oriented, Use-oriented, and Result-oriented. However, the transition from a product-oriented model to a result-oriented model is difficult. Typical barriers are the need to pre-finance the products that are offered as part of the service contract, the need to organize maintenance, repair and acquisition, and the need to change the “sell more, sell faster” culture of the organization.
The smaller the loop, the greater the profitability of the system. The two ways to extend the life of a product are either keeping the product in use for longer period, or by giving a product a second, third, etc., life. A product’s life can be extended by making it durable, easy to maintain and upgrade, and by making it repairable. Refurbishment and remanufacture also extend a product’s life.
The “Inertia Principle“ – Do not repair what is not broken, do not remanufacture something that can be repaired, do not recycle a product that can be remanufactured.
Thinking about remanufacturing upfront, during product design, can make the remanufacturing process more efficient and thus save a great deal of time and money. There is not much scientific knowledge available on the engineering and business aspects of remanufacturing. Remanufacturing is considered more ‘art’ than ‘science’, which is a missed opportunity.
This was a really interesting course and I would recommend it for any circular economy enthusiat.
With the shift to the digital world, it is becoming a necessity to promote ourselves digitally and often termed as “Personal Branding”. In short, it is a way to promote ourself which includes our experiences, the combinations of skills, personality, and vision. It is all about telling our story that reflects our actions, attitude, and so on. Personal branding gives us an opportunity to control how people see us and it is very beneficial professionally. Preferably Social media sites or professional networking sites should be a few platforms to promote yourselves where the audience can see you. Consistency and Authenticity should be important while building your personal brand. It is important to keep in mind that your personal branding matches what people say about you. For e.g. if you believe it is important to lift others to get lifted, it should reflect in your branding. I would like to share a few tips which I learned to make a better personal brand:
Introspection and self-reflection: ensure that you know your audience.
Find yourself, directors, or mentors. Good guidance never hurts.
Personality Test: to help you with a better understanding of yourself.
Align your personal values and skills.
Lastly, it is always a good idea to learn and apply. There are many courses on personal branding and can be accessed through various learning platforms. I did a course on “Coursera” called “Introduction to Personal Branding“. Keep upgrading and keep an open mind to adapt to the changing world.
Our current economy called Linear Economy is all about “Take-Make-Use-Dispose”, which is not a sustainable model. The reason behind not being sustainable is that resources like fossil fuels, food, and water are increasingly hard to get. Biodiversity is declining worldwide and the linear economy depends on cheap energy, cheap materials, and cheap credit. On the other hand, the Circular Economy aims to radically limit the extraction of raw materials and the production of waste. The basic idea of circular economy is to recover and reuse as many of the products and materials as possible, Inna systematic way, over and over again. The circular economy is based on four basic principles:
Waste = Food
Build resilience through diversity
Use energy from renewable resources
Think in systems.
The circular economy can be easily understood by a diagram called Butterfly Diagram. The butterfly diagram represents the flows of products and materials in the circular economy. It has two sides called Biological materials, that is materials that can be safely returned to the biosphere and value to the environment once they have gone through one or more use cycles. And Technical materials, materials that cannot be returned to the biosphere, should continuously cycle through the system so that their value can be (re)captured. For businesses to close the loop, three main business processes are useful: acquisition, reprocessing and remarketing. Along with these processes, it is very important to have a value, often termed as “Business value in the circular economy”. The list of these values includes Sourcing value, environmental value, customer value, and information value. Though it is important to have these values and processes integrated into a business, it is a good idea to revise the business model as well. We can distinguish three different categories of product-service business models:
Product-oriented
Use-oriented
Result-oriented.
Offering services in combination with products is a way to add value without using more materials. Other than the concepts or discussions above, there are many other areas like remanufacturing, how product life extension helps reach circularity and how repairing plays an important role in the field of the circular economy. I did my course in Circular Economy called “Circular Economy: An Introduction“. It is very well structured to give a brief understanding of the concepts. Since it is an online course, it should be helpful to integrate it into your personal learning environment. Keep learning and do share your point of view on the circular economy.
The first MOOC was short and sweet. I took away 6 main learnings:
1. Get to now yourself, then you can sell yourself. In terms of branding, built it on a niche within a niche.
2. Be established on at least 2 platforms.
3. Know what you stand for and what your mission is. I found the 3 cornerstone words interesting, it helped me reflect on what is important for me to live by.
4. When building a board of directors, have a small team who will respect you, care about your success, and will be open to be honest with you.
5. Always check your social media setting! Do this monthly.
6. Create a routine for your own brand management. 80% of what you post should interest your “followers”, 20% should be about self-promotion, otherwise, you will lose them quick!
Perhaps surprisingly, I decided to sign-up to Twitter after this course. I had only LinkedIn prior, but I thought to broaden my horizon a little after this MOOC. Afterall, I can always remove my data after, right…? This course allowed me to add Twitter and Coursera to my final PLE.
Circular Economy: An Introduction by TU Delft
The circular economy course was very well established and took significantly longer to complete.
My main takeaways from each of the 6 main episodes:
Episode 1: The 4 kex principles of circular economy are: food = waste, build resilience through diversity, use renewable systems, and think in systems.
Episode 2: There are 4 key types of business values in the circular economy: 1) sourcing, 2) environmental, 3) customer, and 4) informational. The latter is one I have never considered before, but it really is a powerful tool that can help companies optimise their product.
Episode 3: Follow the inertia principle to preserve the integrity of the products for as long as possible.
Episode 4: There are 3 general barriers to remanufacturing: 1) remanufactured products are perceived to be inferior to new products, but of course, this is not the case, they are as good as, if not better, than new. This requires a change in mind set from society.
Episode 5: The section was on recycling and nothing ground-breaking was introduced, sorry TU Delft! A rather interesting topic introduced here, however, was biomimicry. I enjoyed learning about how engineers, designers, and scientists study nature to implement solutions to functional problems we experience! E.g., the aerodynamics of Japan’s bullet train was inspired by a bird’s beak!
Episode 6: Systems thinking and its feedback loop to achieve equilibrium. Basically, inflow = outflow = system in equilibrium = circular economy. But of course, this takes time. We can estimate time for circular economy (which is different for different systems) by 3 metrics: 1) population stabilisation time, 2) urban mine stock build-up until demand/person stabilises and 3) product lifespan assumption. The combination of the three gives you the estimated time to reach a circular economy.
This second MOOC really added to my knowledge on circular economy, introducing some new concepts. To my PLE, it added the edX platform, which has many other interesting courses, such as “Water and Climate”, also by TU Delft.
The course “Introduction to Personal Branding” by the University of Virginia offers a brief summary of what “personal branding” means, why it is important and how we can take advantage of it.
This course has encouraged me to reflect on myself and my professional future. It is no longer just about what I am trying to say or transmit, is more about how I say it, and where (e.g. to whom or on what social media platform). Getting to know me better, being aware of my goals, and becoming familiar with the basics of digital security are a few of the things that I have learned from the course; which are highly useful to everyone, especially to people entering the job market.
Personal branding and Introduction to Circular Economy
In the subject of Training for Professional Digital Competence, I did two MOOC courses that are presented by the University of Virginia and by TU Delft. First is about Personal Branding and second is about Introduction Circular Economy. Here is represented summary from these courses.
MOOC I – Personal Branding
MOOC 2 – Introduction to Circular Ecomony
By simple and real examples we had chance to understand main principles of the Circular Economy. Using Butterfly diagram as a main idea, both circles are explained: Technical and Biological. Also there are examples for every scenario described with interesting stories by people from industry and academy too. Overview is presented on photo below.
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