 Welcome everyone and thanks for joining. I'm Eva Ponce. I'm the Executive Director of the MITx MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management and I'm co-hosting this event with Dr. Ima Borrella. She is the academic lead for our MicroMasters Program. Hi Ima. Hi Eva. I'm really excited to be here today sharing information about our massive open online program with this audience. This is awesome. Thank you Ima. But before we start we would like to know more about you. So let's try to kick off this event with a poll and please share with us in which area are you currently working? And while you are filling out the poll, the poll should be live now, let me introduce to you the goals and the agenda for today's event. So in this event we want to introduce our MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management and we want to do this for those of you interested in learning more about supply chain management. Whatever your background, wherever you are coming from, there is a place for you in supply chain management and this program is here right for you just to help you on that. The program is designed to provide you with the fundamental concepts you need to better understand supply chain complexity and also to deal with confidence with supply chain challenges. We will introduce to you tools and techniques that you can apply during the course and also on your daily job. The program has been designed to be very, very industry oriented and very applied. It's designed to learn and apply what you just learned. And through this asynchronous and flexible journey, the program will bring you many opportunities to grow academically and also professionally. This program will help you learn and also up a skill you in the field of supply chain management. And we also open the door to study a master's degree at MIT and also at many other universities. And you will learn from us and also from our alumni about their data experience through this program. So here is the plan. For the first 10 minutes, Iman Ngai, we will provide an overview of the MITx MicroMaster in Supply Chain Management Program. Then we will introduce our panel of MicroMaster's alumni and discuss with them about their experience, their experience with the program and also their experience about the impact of this program on their career. And the last 15 minutes are just for you. You can bring your questions to us. So please use the webinar question and answers feature to ask any questions you want to bring to this webinar. We really hope that this is aligned with your expectation. But just to be sure, please respond to the poll that is live now. So please go to the poll and let us know why are you here today, what you want to learn today. And while you are filling out the poll, Ima is going to give you an overview of the first courses, our great way to the MicroMaster Program in Supply Chain Management. So Ima, the floor is yours. Thank you, Eva. Let me share presentation that we have prepared. Here we go. So starting a MicroMaster's program might seem daunting. So we would like to start discussing something very specific, which are the entry courses to our program. SC0x, Supply Chain Analytics and SC1x Supply Chain Fundamentals. Most people start our program with one of these two courses. SC0x Supply Chain Analytics just introduces the most common analytical methods used by supply chain management practitioners, such as basic data management, probabilities, statistics, simulation, optimization, algorithms. It's a toolbox for you to apply to solve your supply chain challenges. While SC1x Supply Chain Fundamentals focuses on the three pillars of any supply chain, which are demand forecasting, inventory management, and transportation management. So we could say that SC0x is the toolbox and SC1x provides the foundation of your learning journey. I really would like to highlight that these courses are great for people new to the supply chain management field, but also useful for professionals with years of experience in operations. But maybe they do not have formal education in this space. Taking these courses really gives them with the tools and the confidence to take on new challenges. So for example, let's look at today's audience to see where are you coming from. Let me share the results from poll one. Here we go. So most of you come from the supply chain management area, which is logical because it's a supply chain management program. And we are happy about that, but that's 38% of the respondent, right? Then we have people from procurement, finance, marketing and sales, research and development, other areas. And some people who are not working at the moment, maybe taking a break, studying. So we love to see this because that's also what we are serving our program. We have like thousands of people taking our courses with many different backgrounds and supply chain management is of increasing interest to people from other areas in the company. So something else that I would like to share with you today is that we know that many of you are working professionals. We know how difficult it is to find time to study. So the good thing about our online programs is that our online courses are asynchronous and ubiquitous. So you can watch the videos during your commute, just complete the practice problems at night, or actually whenever you find a moment and you have an internet connected device at home. So that's pretty convenient just to try to balance work, life and studies. And some of you may be wondering, will these courses be too boring or too theoretical? So I don't know if you're familiar with MIT's motto, which is mens et manus is Latin and it means mind and hand. So learn and apply. And this is exactly the approach that we have with our courses. You learn a concept or a tool and you immediately apply it to a practice problem within the course or to solve a problem beyond the course at your job. Students always share with us how quickly they have applied learnings from these courses in their jobs. So now that you know a little bit more about our online courses, Eva will tell you more about the whole program. Thank you, Inma. So the program includes five supply chain courses. So in addition to the first courses that Inma just presented, supply chain analytics and supply chain fundamentals, you can also learn supply chain design, supply chain dynamics and supply chain technologies and systems. One thing I wanted to highlight here is that our content is equivalent to MIT grad level courses. And at the end of the five supply chain courses, you need also to pass a comprehensive and final exam. Why? Because we want to bring value to the credential and we are going to do that through our rigorous assessment. As I mentioned, this is a picture from President Brave and Professor Josie Sheffi in one of our classrooms when they were introducing this innovative program. This is an Inma mention and online and massive program that we really want to bring value to this credential. And one way to do that is through this rigorous assessment and through the graduate level content that we are providing here. This credential also opened the doors to study at MIT. You can apply for the MIT master's degree after completing the entire program. After completing the comprehensive and final exam, you can apply to this master's degree. The credential also opened the doors to about 30 different universities across the world. You can apply to Arizona State University or Harvard Extension, Purdue University in the USA. You can also apply to the MIT's Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain, to Queensland in Australia, and many other universities across the world. It's also globally recognized by the industry. So companies like Walmart, like CH Robinson, are using the MicroMaster content to upskill their employees. And companies like General Electric, or Toyota, or General Motor, Trumber J, are sending also the employees to the program. So finally, we also have companies that are hiring supply chain management professionals from this program. So as you can see, it's very, very connected with the industry. So, okay, so this is just a little bit an overview about our program. But now what we really want to do is to see if this webinar is aligned with your expectation. So let's have a look to the poll and let's discuss the results. Ima, do we have the results for the poll number two? Yes, we do have the results. And most of our audiences are here because they want to expand their supply chain knowledge. So as we saw that we have people from supply chain space, but also from other areas. So a lot of interesting supply chain and just wanted to deep dive into that. Some of you want to learn about the key concepts in the MicroMasters or are interested in adding the credential. But I love how like 14% just selected pure curiosity. So I guess many of you are just here just to see what this is about and just maybe see if this is something that may be interesting for you or not. So what we're going to do here is really, instead of just hearing about the program or about how different concepts can be applied to your jobs by Eva or myself, let's hear from our alumni. So Eva, would you like to introduce the panel? Definitely. I love to introduce the panel because as I mentioned, we think we believe that the best is to learn from our alumni, from those that already completed the entire program or already completed supply chain analytics or supply chain fundamentals and from their experience. So it's really my pleasure to introduce to you Jerry Nelson. Jerry is the Vice President of North America Surface Transportation at CH Robinson. Hey Jerry. Thank you for joining us today. Of course. Thank you for having me. Excellent. We also have with us Gaby. Gaby is a digital supply chain lead at Johnson and Johnson. Hi Gaby. Hello, hello everyone. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. Thank you. And we also have with us Pranav. Pranav is a project program manager at Google. So the three of them has been completed supply chain analytics, supply chain fundamentals, Pranav and Jerry also completed the MicroMaster program. So we are very excited to have you joining today. Yeah. Let's start. So my first question is for you Jerry. I'm going to start with you. Why did you decide to take your first supply chain course? You're really, really busy with your full-time job. I think we're all busy with our full-time jobs and lives, that's for sure. But when I think back about why I decided to take it, when I came up through my formal education, my education was in organizational biology. So it had nothing to do with business. It had nothing to do with statistics, analytics, probability. I mean a lot of the things that we use on an everyday basis in supply chain. I had taken some other programs, post-graduate programs that I took. But then MIT really interested me really because it focused on things that I believed my customer would be impacted by. So really my focus was on my customer's experience. How do I think more like them? How do I understand their perspective to give them a better customer experience from my perspective? And really it did that and then some as a part of this program. This is awesome, Jerry. Thank you for sharing your experience. And Pranav, I'm curious about your learning journey. Which one was your first course? Yeah. So Eva, first of all, thank you so much for having us here. I started my journey in the year 2015 when I was still in school at Northeastern in Boston. And I started my online education with the MicroMasters courses with supply chain fundamentals and I was taking supply chain dynamics simultaneously. And I took analytics as a third course because at the time it was not offered year round. I think I really benefited from one of the most structured, comprehensive, and application-based online curriculums that currently exist out there in the domain of supply chain. The online courses really provided me a framework to understand what the nuances of an actual supply chain problem is that we face in our day to day jobs. How do you break it into smaller pieces and identify the right working methodology to actually solve the problem? I also wanted to share that it will be an understatement that how much of an impact the MicroMasters credential has made for me and changed the course of my professional career. While I was pursuing the credential, the learnings sort of helped me get a job in inbound logistics at Amazon. I then ended up completing the MicroMasters credential and that led me to getting accepted into the MIT residential program in SCM on campus. And all of that then eventually I graduated from the program and ended up in my current role at Google. And one thing that I want to share with the audience today is that having completed the online version as well as the on-campus program, I was I'm really blown away about like how intense and at par with the on-campus education is the MicroMasters credential is. The lectures, case studies, assignment problems and everything that is delivered online is at par with what is being taught on campus. So that is yeah, so these are some of the things that I want to share with everyone. Thank you, Pranav. And thank you also for showing this connection in between the online content plus the on-campus content. And also you mentioned about the flexibility of the online program like the MicroMasters. And this is the question I have for you, Gaby. How did this flexibility of an asynchronous program, because MicroMasters is online and asynchronous, how does this help you to achieve your learning goals and combine these with your daily responsibilities? Great question. First I'll just say I think the MicroMasters was thinking way ahead of what we would need in the future based on what we saw during COVID, right? MicroMasters has been ahead of learning and moving things online. And so what I'll share is very similar to Jerry, my background is in biomedical engineering and that's what I got my bachelor's in. And I had already been starting to see a future in pursuing a further education in supply chain management, specifically looking for to get my master's, but not sure exactly how. And when I had been recommended this MicroMasters specifically the supply chain analytics course first, that's when it really all started. And I love that it was online because I was working. I worked for Johnson & Johnson and every day is a busy day. There's constant action that's happening. And while still being driven and wanting to continue and further my education, this online course gave me that opportunity. And it was through this course that I was able to pair while working that started to open up that next chapter, which led me very similar to Pranav to go to MIT and complete the 10 month program in person. And I also completed the residential as Pranav did. That's excellent. This is great. Thank you for sharing your experience with that. And Ima, I'm sure you are curious about the concepts they learn how to apply. So definitely, yes. I think that really going to the specifics helps a lot to our audience, right? Because the program, it's like a big thing, a long commitment, but zero and one are right there. They got completed in three months. So I would love to know like what's something that you learned in one of these two intro courses that helped you create value to your daily job. So Pranav, would you like to share something? Yeah, sure. Ima, that's a great question. So in my five to six year long supply chain career, I've primarily been focused on demand planning, inventory management, and network design. And these are all topics that are in one way or the other covered in SC0X and SC1X. A couple of topics that really particularly stood out to me and something that I still go back to the course material every now and then to refer to some things are linear and nonlinear optimization models that is covered in SC0X. I think that's a topic that can frustrate a lot of people even at like a master's or a PhD level. And I love how simplified, like how much simple Chris makes that whole concept in those videos in SC0X. And it's so digestible. And the practice problems that are paired with the optimization concepts are a perfect complement to what's being taught. It led me to sort of not only just not be afraid of optimization problems, but also set up like basic solutions or back of a napkin solutions when you are having conversations with your teams using Excel. And the SC0X course really gives you the tools to hit the ground running and get started with optimization problems, which obviously if you're interested in, you can further grow your knowledge on that. And speaking of SC1X, I think the inventory management module is so, like I love that whole module because it gave me the skills to actually create like a supply and demand planning model for one of the jobs that I had where I saw the product family, I saw the historical data, and I immediately started tying back concepts that I learned in SC1X as to, oh, hey, this is like this model will work perfectly for these set of skews. And then there's another model which will work perfectly for the next set of skews. So I think both these two courses are probably the most analytical ones in the whole series of the MicroMasters credential. And that is not to feel intimidated by it. Actually, by analytical, it means that it will give you the tangible skill sets that you will need and you may apply in your day-to-day job. Thanks for now. I think that's a great framing, right? Like many people are scared because there's a lot of mathematical models. There's a lot of math in general in these two first courses, but I do agree there are toolbox, right? So it really gives you the confidence on these little tools that you can apply to many challenges and conversations. And yeah, and I love the inventory module too. Yes, so fun and so insightful. So Jerry, how was your experience with that? Do you have like some like daring concepts that you to really apply to some specific situations? Yeah, for sure. I'll echo what Pernoff said. You know, the optimization section in SC0x and the modeling and stuff, inventory modeling stuff in SC1x were definitely probably the two most impactful when I think about it day-to-day use. I do have a funny story and I told you guys this funny story but I will tell the funny story. So part of this experience I reached out to mentors, which one of which is one of my clients that I work with. And in talking with him and really kind of trying to apply this to my day-to-day life, I started asking questions as I learned topics. And one of the things that came up really was around why and when you order a specific type of product. So we need this product. We're going to manufacture something. Here's when I order it. And so I started asking questions around, you know, if you order this today, how come you decide to order it this way? And I go every time you order it this way, it's costing you this amount of money. Why would you do it that way? He goes, I don't know why they're doing it that way. Let me go ask a question. And so it ended up being a really funny experience but not probably not funny for him. But as they looked into it, he went down to the person who ordered this product that they need for manufacturing. He said, hey, help me understand from your perspective why are you and when are you deciding to order a product? And she goes, well, every Monday I come in and I push this button. And he goes, okay, what makes you decide to push that button? She goes, I don't know. When I was hired, they said, what your job is, is every Monday you come in and you push this button. And every Monday that's going to order product and that product is going to come to us. No rhyme, no reason, no information. And so what we learned is obviously applying when you should order, why you should order the cost, etc. It was just kind of a funny experience that a lot of this gets missed potentially in day to day and very large clients throughout the world. But it's a cool task. It's a cool skill to learn. And when I think about this toolbox, for me especially, it's understanding this toolbox to ask better questions of my customers, better questions of my clients. And I'll end with lead time and mode selection and trade-offs probably is something that everybody thinks about as we couldn't get product and things can't get here and how do we make better selections as shelves get empty and inventories get lean. So there's a lot that comes in zero and one X. Don't be overwhelmed. Please take it. Work your way through it. You will be happy on the end because this is a great, great program. Thanks, Jerry. I love that you brought the topic of the trade-offs, right? Because I see one X is all about the trade-offs. There's not one perfect solution. There's always a trade-off between cost and service level between one transportation model or the other. There's no one better than other. It's just what is a better fit for your challenge or what you're trying to achieve. So yeah, I think that's awesome. And also how learning these concepts helps you to open discussions with many different people. It can be a client. It can also be like another department at your company. So that's, I think that that's super helpful for supply chain managers that need to deal with everyone to make this work. So Gaby, how the MicroMasters courses help you advance your career? So more in general or if you want to say something specific about a specific concept that was specifically, especially useful for you, that would also be great. Thank you. I mean, just to echo what Jerry and Pernoff have been sharing. The fun going back to the analytics, that fundamentals piece. I have been out of school for years when I was going back and I was great at math when I was graduating university. I didn't feel like I was as great at math when I was looking at the MicroMasters, but Pernoff mentioned it. The MicroMasters breaks down the concept so well and you can quickly get back up to speed. It's kind of like riding a bike in my mind. So if you're nervous about or hesitant about that, I definitely encourage you just to do it and leave it. And the reason why and to answer the question more directly now, I mentioned a little bit earlier, but I started with SCDRX and that's really what opened the door that led me to campus where I completed SC1X. And then that really kind of opened the doors to multiple other courses where I was able to get my master's in supply chain management. I had worked with Johnson & Johnson prior in multiple different roles across the end-to-end supply chain, but then going back, I went back, I graduated from the program in 2020. So write what some would consider, I guess, now the beginning of COVID. And the big, big buzz at that time was data. But that data was all based on how we use it and we had to go back to these fundamentals. So it was really kind of this perfect timing when I was coming out of school. And so what these courses ended up opening the door for me to step into was this digital supply chain leading space. And so I now say it on an end-to-end leadership team within one of our medical device supply chains in Johnson & Johnson where my job is to look and understand how we are using our data to solve the exact problems that we were learning about in these courses. And it really requires to understand those fundamentals because you can have a lot of data, but if you don't know how to use it correctly and what formulas you're going to be using or how to even look at it and how to slice it, that data, it's not going to get you anywhere. And once again, I think it's gotten brought up, those tradeoffs are critical in today's environment and understanding what data is feeding that. And really that's what I'm doing. And so this really propelled me into my current space today, which has been a blast having a ton of fun every day is fun. So supply chains always fun. You always get a new flavor, I think, every week. So yeah, that's, I think, in short where it's led me. And what I think the great thing is those courses are still there. I still have all my notes, so it's great to go back and take a look at what I jotted down and my Excel sheets that are hard to wire pulling those out, right? So once again, that's just another benefit of these programs. Thank you, Gabby. Thanks for sharing your experience. I think that's, it's amazing how like you think the learning thing at CCRX were so valuable for really like making sense of all the data, right? That a company generates and really create insights that are useful to better run operations. I think that's a challenge that many companies are facing now and that I'm really glad that CCRX helped. And of course, for more advanced course, AC4x also like talks about data and technology and systems and could be a great fit if anyone in the audience is interested in these kind of topics. Excellent. So I think it's very helpful for our audience and especially those that said, I'm curious about what is inside the MicroMaster program to learn about your own experience and how you have been applying this to your daily job. There is one more topic I want to be here because we know that also there are companies that are using the MicroMaster content in order to upskill their employees. Jerry, CH Robinson is one example. We have also Walmart. We have many different companies using this content for that purpose just to upskill their employees. How are companies like yours value this program for this purpose? For sure. No, it's been great. So our company has always been focused on how do we continue to advance our employees internally? How do we upskill them? And really what I would say is more about our company. How do you present better? How do you do better sales negotiation? A lot of skills that we owned ourselves, that we managed, we have a team that did it. After going through this program, myself and another colleague went to our boss and said, this is different. We need something like this to be able to understand from a different perspective what this customer-centric approach that we take in our organization, we need to have an outside approach. We need to have something more than just our own regular internal company upskilling, which is still good. But how do we have something better? How do we have an advanced or an upper level, graduate level type experience? And so we worked really closely with yourself and others to come up with a program that we took in and we have our first cohort completing right now. The skills are really focused on, I would say, a little lighter layer than what you would go through the main program, but it's company sponsored. It's time sponsored by the company. We have internal networking that's set up and established across these groups. We have office hours set up with somebody from MIT and then also for myself. So Gabby, when you talk about pulling out spreadsheets and everything, because I'm going through this again just a little bit lighter, it is great because I'm like, oh, I remember that and I pull it out. I remember going through this and it's helping others learn and see and the lights going off on, well, that's why they're doing that. That's why that customer did this. You really get focused on what you know and what you know from the learning of your own organization. This program allows you to think about it perhaps what the other person is thinking and how do I apply what is best about my org to them so that they can see the value of both. And so the upskilling is great. We love this program. I love it because I get to redo it every single time, but it's been great. And I would say any organization that wants to look to upskill some of their top employees and that aren't necessarily looking for that full investment, this is the way to go because there is a huge value from it. Thank you, Jerry. And also you wrote one important thing here that is the modularity. We have different modules and these come using a very flexible way. So our learners can take just one course, 12 weeks, or the child micromaster program that is almost about 12 to a team month on average to complete it, or just to custom courses for companies that are tailored specifically about this content. So this kind of modular online education brings also this flexibility. That's great. So with that, I really want to say thank you, Jerry, Gabby and Parnaf for bringing your experience and for sharing this with our audience. I think this is the best way to show how the program works and in your own words and your own experience. So thank you so much for joining us today. And now we are going to take the questions and answers from our learners and also another poll. I think Ima has another poll for them. I'll save that for a little bit later. But I would like to thank Gabby, Jerry and Parnaf too. I think it's really inspiring to hear about your journey and how you applied or what you learned so that that's what gets us going and improving the courses even farther. So thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. Have a great day. Have a great day. Okay, so now let's go to Q&A. Eva, do you want to start or do you want me to start? I'm here for you, Ima. Whatever works for you. Okay, so let me start with the first question. It's very specific. So it's about the exam. What is the passing rate of the exam? I assume that this question is from Rim Jim Singh. And I guess this person is asking about the passing rate of the whole course, not just one exam. All our courses have SC0X. Our other courses have two exams, a midterm and a final, plus grade D assignments every week. So the passing rate of the whole course really depends on the course, right? For the first courses, the passing rate is about 70-80%, let's say, of people who just completed the whole course. And in the other courses, so two, three, four, the passing rate is a little bit higher. Because as we mentioned earlier, zero and one are the entry points to the MicroMasters. So maybe people are not as engaged or they don't know what you expect. But then once people go through the first courses, they get the dynamic and just I guess save enough time every week to study. So yeah, around 70-80%, I would say. And the time invested, we estimate is around 10 hours per week. So that's if that's also like of interest for you to plan ahead if you want to enroll in one of our courses. Yeah. I just wanted to add that the pass bar per course is 60%. So you need to score above 60% in order to pass and receive the certificate in that course. Great. So, Eva, this one is for you. How many people complete the MicroMasters every year? Ooh, that's a great question. So in total, we have a we have about in total half a million of learners that have been enrolled in any of our SCX courses. We have been granted about 50,000 certificates per year. I would say we are offering 10 courses per year. We are granted about 8,000 certificates per year in our 10 courses. Great. So I have one comment from memory Mathema saying previously registered in SCX, but got very overwhelmed by the mathematics because it has never been their strength. But now there are confidence and they're going to sign up again for the course. So good luck with that. Go for it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yes, this is going to be helpful. And we have many learners that at the beginning they are struggling with. And at the end of the day, they review the videos, they go through the practice problem, and then they go through that. Sometimes there are a couple of weeks that are a little bit struggling, I would say, but once you buzz that, I think you are ready to to continue and go for the program. Right. So we have one question from Jim Dagan. And he's asking, are the tools that are used all open source, for example, optimization and statistic, etc. So we do use spreadsheets as a basic tool for the whole MicroMasters. You can use Excel if you have a license, otherwise you can use LibreOffice, you can Google spreadsheets. So it's really up to you. But just so you know, that's the key tool, the key basic tool that we have at the program. Then we use SAS too. We introduce Nelogy. We introduce other tools that you can use. There are free versions, free license for those, but not necessarily open source. We try to facilitate that the tools that we use are available for anyone who wants to use them for educational purposes. Eva, they are asking if MIT has a graduate program in supply chain management. Yes, it should be. Of course, we have a graduate program is the master's science of applied science in supply chain management. There are two options. You have a 10 month residential program and a five month residential program. So MicroMasters, once you complete the entire credential with us, this opens the door to you in order to apply to what we call the blended program. This master's degree at MIT that you only need to spend one full semester in order to receive the master's degree in supply chain management. The master's degree is 100% on campus in person and it's a great compliment to the 100% online MicroMaster program. The MicroMaster was designed for democratizing knowledge, one thing, and open this knowledge in supply chain management to anyone from anywhere in the world, but also to open the door to those that want to apply to a residential program at MIT in an accelerated way. So just spending one full semester, you can apply, you need to get admission for sure, and then after that semester, you will receive the master's degree in supply chain management at MIT. Right. So next question, Funda Bekar is asking, is it possible to take free courses? So the course is for free and then take the exam and certificates with the CCNL cost. Yes, that's something that we would like to make very clear too. All the contents for the courses are open and available for anyone who wants to enroll and just, you know, to watch the lessons and do the practice problems. The all that material is available for free, but if you want to have access to exam graded assignments and get a certificate upon passing the course, then you'll have to pay a small fee. The fees, either $200 or $300, depending on the course, $200 for a CC0X, $300 for the rest of the courses, and $200 for the comprehensive final exam. But all the information is in the MicroMasters webpage that will be shared in the chat by Lisa. So Lisa, please if you could share the link, that would be helpful for our audience. Yeah, and then Phil is asking if the course lectures are prerecorded. So maybe another one. Yes, in the MicroMasters program, as we mentioned, all of the content is asynchronous content. This means that you have video lectures that you can watch at any time. We provide most of our courses at instructor pace. This means that we deliver every Wednesday one week of content and you can go through the videos and watch the video whenever you have time, solve the practice problems and all of these things. So all of this is asynchronous. And we have our first course of writing analytics that is self-paced. This means that we release all of the content at the very beginning of the course and you can review the entire content whenever you have time to do that. And of course, we have a schedule, a final exams, a meeting and final exams in each of our courses that there are certain dates that we announced at the very beginning in the first week of the course. So you can look for that time in order to take the exam whenever the exam is scheduled. Great. So Stan is asking if it is better to take a C1X or a C0X first or if one leads to another. So that's a great question, Stan. Thanks for bringing that because of course, we're introducing both courses in this webinar as the entry points to the MicroMasters. So we designed the MicroMasters to be taken in order, so 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. That's on the CFX at the end. That's the ideal path in our opinion. But then many people are taking the courses in different orders. So I could start with the C0X if you can just follow that order because it just, as we mentioned, is a toolbox. So it will teach you the basic analytic techniques that you need to succeed in the other courses. So it will give you a refresher on probability that is very important for a C1X, a refresher on optimization or an introduction to optimization that is super important for a C2X, etc. But if you feel like you're not so appealed by starting with the toolbox and you just want to start with demand forecasting and inventory management and transportation, that's also a possibility. Those are more focused on these concepts. And you could actually enroll in the C0X at the same time and you know, just go to C0X as a reference and review some of the videos about the specific techniques that you need for a C1X. So this is really flexible. Eva, would you like to add something here? Yes, what you just mentioned, that this also depends on your math background and depending on that math background and your time availability. If you have that, probably you can take at the same time C0X and 1X. If you need to really go through the toolbox first, then I fully agree with you. I recommend you to take C0X and then C1X and take it in order. But the program is flexible. There is no mandatory prerequisite in order to take one course before the other. It's just that we highly recommend you to take in order. Or if you have the time and availability and the right math background, probably you can take two courses at the same time. We have a variety with thousands of learners. You can imagine that we have a variety of learners doing many different paths. But the most common one is to take in sequence one after the other. Yeah, but there is no prerequisite. So actually you could go and just complete a C3X. The topics in that course interest you more. You could also take it as a standalone course. That's also a possibility. Yeah, the only prerequisite is for the CFX, for the final comprehensive exam. For that one, you need to complete and pass the five supply chain courses in order to be able to take the final comprehensive exam. And this makes sense because as the name said, it's a comprehensive exam just to check that you know you have the fundamental knowledge for the entire program. So this is the only one that you need to complete in advance the five courses. So Javier Sanchez has a great question here. He's asking if a C3X opened on August 27, is it realistic to sign today and still be on time to complete the exam? Or would you recommend to wait until January opening? So for a C3X, actually, maybe we didn't emphasize it enough, but a C3X is a self-paced course, meaning that you can take it at your own pace. Once you enroll, all the contents are available, and you can just start taking the modules. And if you want to go faster, you can go faster, a little slower. You can organize yourself just knowing that the final exam date is set. So this being said, I think now it opened out on August that you still have more than enough time to cover all the contents and be ready for the final exam in December. So yeah, I encourage you to enroll today, take a look, make a good plan and complete the course in this run. I don't think you need to wait until January. This being said, all the other courses in the MicroMasters, one, two, three, and four are instructor-paced, just so you know. So those courses, we release content on a weekly basis. And there are deadlines every week, or grading assignments that need to be submitted, and that will be part of the final grade of the course. So yes, so you have that in mind. SCRX, self-paced, one, two, three, and four are instructor-paced. Okay, Eva, let's, I'm just looking for a good question here. So there's a question about the admission requirements to the MIT Masters program after completing the MicroMasters. Yes, for that, the best thing is to reach out directly to the SCM team. Lisa and Sham, probably you can share through the chat, the email account. So, and also in the website, you can go and look at all of the prerequisites or all of the things that they are asking for in order to apply. All of the information is in the website, and also there is an email account that you can reach out and don't hesitate. If you are interested in that option, don't hesitate to reach out to the SCM team, and they will provide all of the details you need for that. Great. There are some questions about like the runs, the course runs, right? Specifically about the CFX. They're asking if there's a CFX in November, if there will still be a CFX in May. So the answer is yes. We run each course of this program. It runs twice per year. So we have an instance of the CFX in November, one in May, and then we have one run of SC1X that comes in fall. So it starts actually today, and then another one in spring. So then you'll see that we have two courses. You can just check the schedule in the MicroMasters webpage that Lisa shared in the chat, and you'll see that you have like these like two runs per year, so you can organize yourself to complete the courses in sequence, if that's your wish. Eva, there's a question about content. So they're asking if this course, or courses of the program covers lectures related to procurement. Yes, there is one module about procurement. So yes, you will find that in SC2X supply chain design. You can learn about procurement managing in our courses. Yes, supply chain design will be your course if you are interested in that part. And the syllabus are available in our website. So you can also go through the website and have a look to the content, or you can just enroll in the courses when they are open and have a look to the content. Yeah. But yes, procurement is in supply chain design. Really through your questions, as many of them are just comments or thinking notes. Thank you, Nautz. How do you welcome? How recognized and respected is the MicroMasters as compared to procurement certifications like NCI, PS, or ISM, or CPSM? This is a great question. Of course, these professional certificates are great and they have been there for many years. I would say that the difference with the MicroMasters program is that our content is graduate level content. And this is the main difference. It's equivalent to the content we are teaching at MIT in our graduate master's degree in supply chain management. And that's why it's also a pathway to a master's degree at MIT and also at more than 30 universities across the world. So I would say that the main difference is this graduate level content that we are providing and also connects a bit with the rigorous assessment that we need to have in this program in order to provide this value of being a pathway to a master's degree at MIT and at different universities. So this is one of the main differences. And this is why this program and the slide I showed with the President Ray Pat and my team, it was really an innovative way to educate the world in supply chain management with this graduate level in a fully online asynchronous mode, 100% online, and then with the opportunity to count 100% on campus to earn a master's degree in supply chain management. So there's one very specific question. It's about language. So will this program be in Spanish as well? Well, actually we do have subtitles in Spanish for SCRX in Spanish and Chinese as well as English, but not for the rest of the courses, at least not yet. So Eva. Yes. And not only that, the only thing that we have in Spanish Spanish and Chinese are the transcripts of the videos. However, the practice problems, the exams and the quick questions, all of these things are in English. So in order to earn the certificate or in order to complete the MicroMasters program, you need to understand English and you need to solve practice problems in English and complete all of the exams in English. So let's say that the language for the MicroMasters program in supply chain management is English. However, in the first course in supply chain analytics, we did the effort to translate the videos transcripts are available now in Spanish and Chinese. Yeah, but this is kind of a supplemental thing that can help you through the videos for sure, but definitely the exams and the practice problems are in English. Okay, so we have a question from Nicholas Tottenhofer. How one is about, you know, the possible software tools that for the potential problem sets or exam parts of SCRX. So I guess which tools are used in SCRX. Python are similar. So so far in SCRX, we do use spreadsheets as I mentioned. So we really go for the very basic we want everyone to be able to solve the problems and we would don't want the tool to be an impediment. We also have SAS in SCRX as a tool that we use for optimization. We use it for statistics to for regression. So that's one of the tools that we have and we also have any logic for simulation. So those are the tools that we have in SCRX as of today. The only one that is mandatory for everyone to learn is Excel or spreadsheets, as I mentioned earlier. We are exploring the introduction of other tools such as Python, but they are not in place yet. And also there's a question that if we have teaching assistants just supervising the courses or just providing support through the courses, Eva, would you like to answer that one? Yes, we have amazing teaching assistants from MIT that they are helping us to moderate the forums. Also they help us to review the materials and through the platform and they are also answering your questions through the email account. So for exam questions or for this assessment questions, we provide an email account and our teaching assistants are helping us to reply all of your questions through that email account. So yes, we have, we are very proud of our TAs because they are doing an extraordinary job through this program and trying to answer in 24 hours that for a massive program like this one is really a good service level, I would say. Okay, so we still have many more questions. Let me launch a poll and then we'll continue to answer a few more. So okay, so I have one final poll, which is just a question about what will you do now? So please answer and let's see a couple more questions before we wrap up. So we have one question for Oscar Guacima and he's asking about the affiliated universities. So which universities are affiliated to you from Australia? Because he's looking for like expanding his supply chain academic career there. He's actually going to apply for a doctorate. So we have Queensland University and we have one more university from Australia. I don't remember the name right away but that you can go through our website and the team please help send the website link where you can find all of the pathways for our MicroMaster credential. But in Australia at least you have two good universities that you can apply if you want to continue your academic career in Australia. Queensland is one of those and there is at least one more in Australia. Yeah. Maybe let's answer one final question that is about how the credential connects with the master's degree at MIT. Once again maybe just to make it very clear, right? So ring him is asking if the credential gives a direct admission or if in the application at least it will be considered as something like special or seen as very positive to have completed the credential. So maybe we can explain like the two options to complete a master's at MIT. Yes. So in order to apply for the accelerated way to earn the master's degree, the blended master's degree, you need to complete the entire MicroMaster credential. You need to earn the credential. Once you have the credential, you can apply to the master's blended degree that is one full semester in person on campus. You apply to that but you need to get admitted in that program in order to be able to complete the master's degree at MIT. So there is a regular admission pro process. It is mandatory to have MicroMaster credential in order to apply to the blended. There is another option that is the supply chain management residential program. This is a 10 month master's degree program supply chain management at MIT. You are going to earn at the end of the day the same degree, the same degree of master's applied science in supply chain management. To apply to that you is mandatory that you complete supply chain analytics. This is the only course that is mandatory to apply to the SCM residential. If you have completed the entire program, if you have completed more courses, the committee will take this into consideration but this will be one piece out of many other prerequisites that you need to fill in order to complete your admission process. Of course, there is a committee that design about the admission process and unfortunately I need to tell you this is very competitive or fortunately for us but not for you it's very competitive. So there are many applications and the committee needs to select only 40 people are admitted to each program each year. So it's competitive and if you are interested in that please look at all of the things you need to prepare in order to apply for that and yes in order to come to on campus you need to get that meeting. Great thanks Eva. So just before we wrap up Alan is telling us that he came to the Zoom meeting late due to just just some timing problems that may have happened to more of you and he was wondering if there will be a recorded video that they could watch later in the day because it's 2 a.m. where he is right now. So thanks for joining Alan. I know you must be tired and for everyone who joined late yes there will be an available video recording for the event so you can just refer to it later. It will be definitely shared as a follow-up to this webinar so it will be included in all the information that goes in that email and I guess it will be also loaded to YouTube right Eva? Yes that's my understanding. Okay so let's see the results of the poll. So what will you do now? So 30% of you will enroll in SC0x that's great starting point. You can do it right now because it's enrollment is open 17% of you will enroll in SC1x and let me remind you that if you want to enroll in both you can do so you can enroll and just check the contents for free and then deciding which one you want to just become a verified student if you want to focus just on one of them or maybe verifying both if you want to get both certificates at once. Many of you 60% will review materials on our website to just learn a little more about the program and deep dive in some of the things that we discussed today. 20% will sign up for the next webinar so I guess it was an entertaining webinar. Thanks so much and thanks to our panelists and there's a variety of things that you're going to do in addition to that some of you will head to work some of you will have lunch and some of you will head to bed so that shows how global the program is and we we love to see that you're joining from many many different parts of the world and many different time zones but thanks for the effort. Excellent so with that we just want to wrap up the webinar we really hope that you have enjoyed the the event and are more familiar now with the MicroMasters in supply chain management and how this program can help you to better understand the foundations of the supply chain and also gain the confidence you need to face the supply chain challenges. The world needs more than ever supply chain management professionals and we are here for you so thank you so much for joining us today have a great day or night. Bye thanks for joining.