Supply Chain Frontiers #61 :: Second MOOC Course Advances Ground-Breaking MicroMasters

“SC2x explores how you set up and design the entire supply chain system,” says Chris Caplice, Executive Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. The program covers information flows and physical flows of products, procurement, distribution, sales and operations. These elements are interconnected says Caplice, yet other educational programs tend to silo them into different classes.

 

This second course is a key part of MIT CTL’s pilot MicroMasters credential in SCM, which was launched in October, 2015. The pilot program’s first course, CTL.SC1x (Supply Chain Fundamentals), ran earlier this year with over 27,000 students enrolled — with more than 3,500 of those pursuing a certificate option to qualify for the MicroMasters credential.

 

Students who complete the required MOOC courses and score well on a comprehensive proctored exam earn the MITx MicroMasters credential — and significantly enhance their chances of being accepted to the on-campus MIT master’s program in SCM.

 

Companies are recognizing the value of the program as well. “SC1x is a very useful foundational program on supply chain and how to plan for it,” says Jes Bengtsson, supply planning manager at SABMiller, a multinational brewing and beverage company. “If you only know a little, you will learn quite a bit. If you already know the topic well, you will advance your knowledge. Given this broad utility, it has the added advantage of advancing common foundational knowledge across the supply chain, if we roll it out widely.”

 

Interested individuals can enroll in CTL.SC2x (Supply Chain Design) even if they didn’t take the first course; CTL.SC1x (Supply Chain Fundamentals) will be offered again early next year.

 

This article is based on the article New MicroMaster’s MOOC teaches supply chain design, published in MIT News.