- Hello, everyone. And welcome. Welcome to the MicroMaster in Supply Chain Management completion celebration event. Today, it's my pleasure to convene the staff who made this program possible. And also my pleasure to congratulate you the 462 new credential holders, those of you that just completed, last November, the comprehensive final exam and the entire MicroMaster program. You are now part of a growing community of learners. We have 500... Almost 500,000 unique learners, about 1 million of class enrollments in 65 supply chain course runs and 3,435 credential holders. And you are now part of this elite group of credential holders. And we want to congratulate you and celebrate with you and your families your big achievement. So let me start the event. Thank you the staff. The staff who make this program possible. I want to say that this team is truly a passionate and committed team. These are the persons that are behind the scenes making this program possible. I'm referring to our passionate and committed course leads. I'm referring to Inma, to Dave, to Laura, to Kellen and to Paulo. I also want to say thank you to those who are answering your emails and are behind the screens like Bedriye and Arthur and Connor, and our amazing teaching assistants. The former teaching assistant and the current teaching assistant. We have here, Riley, Git, David Park, and also Cheng. And many others. Many others that are working in the world now. So thank you to all of them. And of course, I want also to thank our Alma mater and director of the program, Chris Caplice. So now you are going to hear directly from Chris to congratulate you and to learn a little bit more about this program. So Chris, the floor is yours.
- All right, thanks Eva. Thank you everyone. Congratulations you guys for finishing and completing the CFX. I'm really impressed with you guys. When I started filming the first videos SC1X, week five was the first videos I created, I guess it's week four now. In the summer of 2014, I was hoping to get 1000 or two people to take the course. It was mainly just because I'd been teaching it at that point for about 10, 15 years and I thought it'd be good to share with the world. And when we got 30,000 people to register for the first time, mostly as an audit, not too many verified the first time, we saw that we had something. And so then we started creating additional courses, but it wasn't until 2015, when President Rafael Rife started the MicroMasters and we were the very first one, we were the Guinea pigs and we volunteered to do that. And so then we created three more courses in under 18 months, which is pretty unprecedented and we're able to expand the team. So it moved from being just a one, two person thing, because the first course that was run was me and a half time TA. So the team has gotten much better, stronger and bigger since then, of course. And then when Eva came on board in 2016, things really picked up speed. And so the team you see now is what it takes to run these courses. And it's so impressive to see what happens, while I might be in all the videos, I'm just a small player in the effort that it takes to create these courses, to make sure that you're getting the engagement that you're wanting and you're learning. It takes more effort, I think, what you guys have done to achieve and finish the MicroMasters than the effort we put in to create them. And so, again, hats off to you guys. Congratulations. I also have to thank our team members at edX and who's the platform that we've been using and MITx, specifically Dana Doyle, who's been there since the very first lesson, Shear Friedman who started with our... Our first course she ran was SC1X at that time, David Shotton, who still is heavily involved in what we're doing, and Lana Scott, who's responsible for all the video preparation that we've done over the last seven years. So again, congratulations to you guys, congratulations for the team. Eva, your team's fantastic for getting this and making this ninth cohort of CFX MicroMasters credential holders out. And you're joining a large family. And once the COVID crisis starts settling down and we start traveling again, I'm looking forward to get across the world and meeting with everyone in person as we move across. So with that, I'm going to hand it back over to you, Eva, to talk about some of the statistics and put things into perspective. Congrats again guys.
- Thank you, Chris. You are an inspiration for the entire team. Thank you for that. Okay, so now let's have a look to the statistics, because as we said, first, these take a village, but you are now part of a big community of learners. So we have about 500,000 unique learners enrolled in at least one of our supply chain courses. From these learners that are enrolled about 40,000 are verified learners. From these 40,000 learners that are verified, about 17,000 learners earn a certificate. These are unique learners, and now let's have a look to this part. This is where you are now part of, you are part of an elite group of MicroMasters credential holders. 3,435 credential holders. Those who have completed with us, the five courses and the comprehensive and final exam at the end of the journey. So this is the group you are part of. Let's have a look now to how young these people are. So you are part of a really young group of people. Most of you are in between 20 and 30 years old. I'm also happy to see that the percentage of females is growing, and now we have about 20% of our credential holders are female. So I'm happy to see this percentage growing and growing. And I also encourage more females and women to join the program and complete the program. So let's have a look now to our professionals because most of our credential holders are professionals. More than 80% of the credential holders are working in many different companies. We have here professionals working at Amazon, at Unilever, Proctor and Gamble and DHL, Ernst and Young and many other different companies. And the role that our professionals and our credential holders have in those companies, mainly they are managers or directors or leading groups individual contributors. And when we ask our credential holders, why you decided to take this program and complete it, most of them, or most of you told us, because you want to have a promotion, because you want to apply to a job in this very amazing and exciting field that is supply chain management. That is a field that is more important now than ever. We are in the news almost every single day. So it's a great moment to join these field and also to contribute to this field with the knowledge you get through these program. So in terms of the... Let's go to the next slide. In terms of where are you from, is amazing for us to see that you are part of a truly global community of learners. We have here more than 190 countries represented with our credential holders from many different countries. We have of course, professionals and credential holders from the United States, we have many from India, from China, from Europe, but also from small countries across the world. So it's truly great to see that you are almost from any part of the world. I think that the only continent that is not represented here is Antarctica, but the rest definitely we have some credential holders from those different continents. So this is great to see. So with that, I also want to highlight the multicultural theme of this program, a multi language theme. Most of our credential holders speak English, of course you take the program in English. Most of them are also Spanish speakers, but we have credential holders that speak many different languages, Mandarin, French, Dutch, Hindu, and many other, Russian, and many other languages. And this is great. Definitely we did the effort to start translating some of our transcript in the first course to Chinese and to Spanish, and hopefully we are going to move into adding more languages to our program. It's truly amazing to see these multicultural and multi language community of credential holders. Okay, so with that, what I want to do now is to turn it over to the staff members. I want them to congratulate you and to share with you some of the fun things that happen when they are running the program. I'm going to start giving the floor to Dr. Inma Borrella. Inma is one of our most experienced course lead. She joined the program in September, 2017 and has been contributing in many ways. So Inma the floor is yours.
- Thank you, Eva. So first off, congratulations to all the credential holders who just finished. We are so proud of you. As a course lead I have seen an amazing commitment from learners to finish the program. We know that it takes a lot, particularly when it comes to the comprehensive final exam. So it's been great to teach you and support you throughout your MicroMasters journey. Today, I would like to recognize the amazing job that our community teaching assistants do in supporting the program, CTAs are MicroMasters learners from all around the world who volunteer to help us moderate the forums and answer all of your questions. Even the toughest ones. Sometimes as you know, the edX platform does not work properly, and our CTAs just go section by section in every course, just clicking on each forum box, looking for new questions or follow-up questions. And this shows how committed they are to helping you. CTAs are the backbone of our student support system, and the program would not be the same without their selflessness, their dedication and their unique contribution. So thanks to all of them. Dave, the floor is yours.
- Thank you very much Inma, I echo everything Inma said about our CTAs. We are also happy for you all, the learners and the CTAs, thank you for your help. But I want to take one second to be happy for another group too, we know how much time you spend to complete this program, to get this far in your journey. Something like 10 to 15 hours every week. You all have other obligations in life too, family members, parents, children, loved ones, pets. And for you to give us 10 to 15 hours per week means that they didn't get that time with you and you didn't get that time with them. So I want to make sure we take a pause to recognize that this is a project bigger than all of us and the achievement is yours, but it was not achieved solely by you. You had a lot of people making that space in your schedule so that you could do it with us. So thank you to your families that were part of this achievement that we're all celebrating today. I'd like to go on next to Laura.
- Thank you, Dave. And hi everyone. I'm so happy to see you all here today, and again, proud of you. We know most of you were not only MicroMasters students along this journey, but you were also full-time workers. And that's a combination that requires a huge level of effort and commitment. Thanks for trusting us with your lifelong learning goals. We often get contact by credential holders, sharing how they succeeded in their latest interview, using our new supply chain management toolbox, or how they got the promotion they were aiming to get. We are very proud of your achievements and we're so glad we get to be part of your stories of success. Please stay connected, apply to be CTA, to share your experience with current MicroMaster learners and enjoy being part of this growing community of credential holders. You are now MIT alumni, so don't be a stranger if you're around MIT. Once again, and we'll never get tired of saying this, congratulations. And Kellen, I'd like to hear from you.
- Well hello and congratulations credential holders. So as Dave and Laura said, we know many of you have families who supported you on your journey many of you have full-time jobs, and many of you have other goals and commitments outside of your MicroMasters coursework. So knowing that, I wanted to share a few numbers that reflect the determination and the effort you put into this program. Each course is 13 weeks long. Now on average, learners tell us they spend 10 to 15 hours per week on a course, that's over 100 to 150 hours for each course. We're up to 780 hours total invested in the full MicroMasters program, including the comprehensive exam. And along the way, countless videos, practice problems, graded assignments, exams, and so many other activities, that's an amazing accomplishment, showing determination and commitment. And now you're officially credential holders. Take a rest, and congratulations. And onto you Paulo.
- Thanks, Kellen. And congratulations credential holders. The credential you just achieved will surely open new opportunities for you. And one of them is the possibility to apply for MIT's blended supply chain management master's program in Cambridge. I am one of those who were able to graduate from MIT master's program through the MicroMasters pathway. And if you are considering that, I definitely encourage you to go for it. Congratulations once more, and all of the best. Bedriye, can you tell us about this ninth CFX?
- Thanks Paulo, a hearty congratulations to all of you. From the beginning to the end, we know you have overcome all the challenges that came your way in terms of school work, family and COVID-19 related issues. Being productive at the CFX was a huge challenge itself. Yet even that time we had spent altogether, for example, one of you didn't realize it and your exam was reviewed because your computer was mining Bitcoin in the background. We appreciate the apology and are glad we got it straightened out. Someone else flagged the practice range because they were talking to themselves in frustration doing one of the question, we are glad the CFX was a challenge, but yeah, this didn't flag you during the practicing software. And of course we don't have to say what we heard here. Thanks again for all the efforts that you put on this journey. And now you are a part of this big community. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors The CFX has so much information on data. Here is Connor to share more about the data.
- Hey, for those of you guys that don't know me my name is actually Connor Makowski, I often work behind the scenes on business stuff, and I just want to recognize some of the work that the team does behind the scenes with data. As a team we're actively using data to improve your course experience. We're analyzing email response times, we're looking at grade distribution, we explore problems that might be on there, even predict students likely to drop out. So you can see here, there are actually these weekly dashboard. That's what you're looking at here. We use these every week and we're always working as a team to really improve your course experience. The whole team pitches in, we give presentations every week. We're always working for you guys. So I want to take a hat off for a second, say, hey, the team is amazing. They're always working for you guys and I just love to work with them. Anyway, we do have a lot of data. Every course run that comes in, we collect massive amounts of data. As an example in SCIX in 2020, everyday we're collecting about half a gigabyte of data from you guys. We try to mine that for different things in order to help you guys. But even if we just find one thing that we can help one learner, I tend to find that to be worth it. Anyway, I've been around this program for a long time and actually before it was even a MicroMasters. To be honest, I really don't think it should be called the MicroMasters, there's really nothing micro about it. It's comprehensive and challenging. Chris brings the heat every week. The course leads are always having good, challenging problems. The exams are difficult and you guys work your... You just work really hard to get it done. And I just want to congratulate you guys. You guys are fantastic and you guys deserve this. Welcome to the MicroMasters credential fully. Welcome to being MicroMasters credential holders. I want to pass it off to the CTAs so they can actually talk about what they do in the background.
- Great, our first CTA sent us a recording. Felicitas Pfann sent us a recording and thanks to Felicitas for being a CTA. So I will play that now.
- Hi everyone. I am Felicitas and I am one of the community teaching assistants. So congratulations to all of you for completing this MicroMasters. It really takes a lot of discipline, dedication, motivation. So you can really be proud of yourself and your accomplishment. I love to see this diverse group of new credential holders and this is actually one of the coolest parts of being a CTA for me, reading all the welcome posts during week zero, and getting to know you from where you are, what your background is and what your motivation is for this MicroMasters. It's always inspiring that there are moms getting back on track professionally, business owners looking to improve their operations or professionals redirecting their career. This diversity really shows that supply chain management is affecting a lot of our daily lives, personally and professionally. So it's really great to have a new batch of credential holders out there that are equipped to help with better and more resilient supply chains for the future. So again, be proud of yourself and enjoy the day. The celebration is yours.
- Hi everyone. I am Matthias and you may already know me, also from the discussion forums as one of the other CTAs. Congratulations, you made it. It is amazing to finally see you having accomplished your MicroMaster credentials. And I was asked to tell a fun story about being a CTA. And I was thinking about it for a long time. And I came to the conclusion, it is not about single fun stories. It is one overall fun story, starting from you and the forum asking questions, challenging ones. Those have always been a highlight, not only for me, they are the reason there was no course run after many I was a CTA in that I did not learn something new. And twice a year, the story culminates in you earning your credential. Congratulations again. Thank you. And Arthur, stage is yours.
- So it's time for me. So welcome everyone. Congratulations, as everyone has said, I just wanted to welcome you to a growing and diverse community as has been said before, almost half a million people have enrolled in courses and more than 36,000 certificates have been earned by 17,000 people. And you can get an idea of that distribution here. I did this distribution yesterday. We have people in Pitcairn and people who are claiming to be from Greenland and the Arctic circle. So I don't know if those are just the way people are VPN-ing in or if there are actually people in those locations who are taking the courses, but pretty much every island and every location that I had ever heard of, had somebody taking one of our courses. So quite fascinating there. I just wanted to mention, also, as I have said in emails before, we have a LinkedIn community, we have a Facebook community and MITx has created MIT Open, which is a community specifically for credential holders and people within the courses. So MIT Open is the only place where we know who you are and you know who we are. The other two communities are pretty much open to the public, but I'd like to invite you all to join the conversation there, keep in touch. It's one way for you to keep in touch with the course team and with each other. And with that, well, one last piece, I would encourage anyone whenever you can, if you want to, to create your own meetup groups. So using the Facebook group, we have people create meetup groups and I can help press buttons and support those groups. But we get people meeting up together in various locations around the world. Back to you Eva.
- Thank you, Arthur. And thank you Felicitas and Matthias, the entire community of teaching assistants that we have helping our learners. I can't be more proud also of the MicroMaster team for all of your efforts. Thank you for that and for helping our learners. And now let's go back to the celebration. We are going to focus on the 462 of you that just completed the entire program and become a new credential holder. This is our largest CFX cohort since we started in 2017. And now what we are going to do is to go through the reel of strolling names and congratulate by name each of you. So let's go to see that before we wrap up this event.
- [Arthur] Absolutely. And it goes really fast. So everybody needs to make sure your bandwidth is high and pay attention.
- Okay. So congratulations once more to everyone, keep up the good work. Be always curious, be always open to learn new things. Best of luck on your new endeavors. Thank you everyone. An congratulations once more. Thank you.
- Congratulations everyone. Stop by MIT when you get a chance. Bring a mask.