 Hello and welcome to the third and final live event for SC4x supply chain technology and systems My name is Dave Carell. I'm your course lead and I'm very excited to have with me. Dr. Eva Ponce executive director of the MicroMasters program Hi Dave. Hi everyone and welcome to the third life event for SC4x. I'm happy to be here Thank you Eva and thank you to all the learners who we know are already tuning in and answering questions. Thank you so much I'm going to jump right into the agenda so you know what we're planning to talk about today So we're going to wrap up the course and we're also going to wrap up the fresh connection Which is the game we played During our course and then we're going to wrap up the whole MicroMasters because as many of you know This is the last course before the CFX exam to that end We're also going to talk about the upcoming CFX exam because that's the next stop for many of you Please interact with us. So you probably have this code But if you don't please follow along you can go to the website there slido and you can use the event code SC4x-3 and when you're there you can vote on the polls that we've made and you can also input your own questions This is a great time to ask Eva questions about the future what will happen to you next in the MicroMasters There's a lot of great opportunities for our MicroMasters learners and this is a good chance to talk with Eva about them Okay, I want to go to our slides now or to our first poll and see what you think. So we asked which topic interested you most In SC4x So votes are coming in if you haven't voted yet. Why don't you please take a vote? We have database management machine learning ERP systems Transportation management and warehouse management systems supply chain visibility and new trends in technologies So it looks like the votes are coming in But if you haven't voted, please take a chance to do that and I'm going to go over one more slide quick And then we'll come back and look at those results So the course as you know if you made it this far is really broken into two blocks On the first part we talked about data large sets of data and how we manage that kind of data We started with data modeling. That's where you built your entity relationship diagrams We used the visual paradigm software to see how different tables related to one another and then we did what I think for many learners is sort of frustrating, but it's important work the Normalization work understanding what are best practices for setting up those tables Then we went into machine learning. We learned how to work with that data and then after that after the midterm we look at all the different software systems that are actually used in practice to Manage supply chains and to execute the type of things that we've been talking about over all these courses together So let me take a look here and see what you all thought was the most interesting And Eva it looks like 50% said machine learning. Yeah, this is a hot topic Definitely today. So yeah machine learning is one of the most relevant topic for you guys. Yeah, what else? What about new trends and technologies is the less vote. Yeah It's ERP system. So machine learning the ERP system and transportation management and warehouse is now new trends 17% yeah Yeah, the interesting thing with the new trends is like let's say every single six months one year are changing That's the question. But yeah, I agree. That is something relevant Especially at the end of a supply chain management program like the micro master is good to at least be familiar with these new trends I'm more specifically than the new trends the impact of these new trends in the supply chain That is our main focus and regarding machine learning. I need to tell you guys that we have recently last week Brain storming work a session with the team the whole team plus the whole Researchers at CTL we we met once every single six months Yes, to try to improve the micro master to reimagine the micro master to see how we can do it better One of the things we were discussing is to expand a machine learning Topics. So this is something that definitely we we have in mind. Yeah, great. I Have to say guys no one voted for database management But it's something necessary, you know, there are these things but this is always a good We we need things that we need to learn Things that are we are very in fun are very fun And we are happy to do and other things that we need and once we learn and we are applying or job We are very happy that we learned, you know, so there are things that maybe you need to apply and More in order to say hey, that's what's useful And then just to follow up on what Ava said, you know We're thinking about the course all the time and we really value your input So, you know, we have some time together left Send me an email send se4x help an email or share something with us in the discussion forum What you think is good about our class and where you think there's some improvements Yeah, we're always trying to make it better and better and better Yeah, those topics that you want to learn more than you you had the opportunity for our course or those topics that you consider Might not be relevant for for us to deliver We are always reviewing and revisiting this kind of feedback. Yes, please feel free to reach to us Share with us this feedback Great So let's move So one of my favorite topics, although it didn't get a lot of votes was the data management topic and what we really did there just by way of a review we started Really where I think a lot of our learners Were at the moment they started the course Which is with spreadsheets or with unstructured storage of data And then we started to talk about how many companies Are coming into sets of data that are just bigger than spreadsheets can handle effectively And they started to have questions that they wanted answered from their data that weren't readily answered by things like pivot tables or just searches And you know what's been fun to work on With this course is so many companies are facing that when when we talk with companies here on campus and we're out and about People say yeah, we're trying to get our staff to move Into sequel and into understanding big data and we have a course to do it And another thing that I think is kind of fun That I see here with within our own team is You know, you have the team doing a lot of sequel queries to answer questions about the learners too You know some things we can do in excel but some of the important questions that Ava needs answered We need to go to a to a larger database Definitely definitely and this is one of the things and the skills that we are developing in the team because it's a Yeah, it's the way to and we are also making decisions based on this data So I think we are now a lot of or more data driven decision makers than before. Yeah So then we came into what uh was clearly the most popular topic amongst the learners Uh into the machine learning and we talked about some algorithms And I just want to review at a high level here. So you're thinking about your final exam, of course We talked about principal components analysis K means clustering we talked about both in lecture and in application in the field trip and in the field trip follow-up exercise We talked a little bit about k nearest neighbors basically just how it works And random forest algorithms again, basically how they work Then we went into measures to say, okay, we can apply these algorithms, but how do we know If they're any good or how do we compare one versus another? So we talked, you know his brief. So just to understand it at a conceptual level, but the roc curve we talked about sensitivity and specificity We talked a lot about something I think we can really grasp at our level just meaning things for the first time the notion of underfit and overfit in our models when we Train them on data sets. How might they perform in the real world? So a basic understanding of these concepts, I think would serve you well for the final Then we talked a lot about the how and the why when are we looking to do an unsupervised approach? When are we looking to do something supervised? When do we need to predict and when do we need to find correlations? And so really as you're reviewing think about these topics and make sure that you understand What the tool is for and and why we might use it And I want to add here that these are algorithms and techniques that we are using for our research projects. For instance, I did a Urban logistic project and we use a PCA a principal component analysis to reduce the number of variables that we have This was a project that we want we wanted to identify critical logistics areas in big cities mega cities big cities these cities with High density population So what we did is we identified all the relevant logistic variables We use pca in order to reduce the number of relevant variables And then we apply a key mains clustering analysis with these key main key means sorry key means clustering analysis What we obtained or what we got is the different clusters in These high density population cities we identify the downtown cluster We identify the business a cluster the residential area So we identified different clustering clusters In in big cities and this helped us in a second step to define Specific policies for each of these clusters in terms of freight deliveries. So it was very helpful in order to for and I think for policy makers is something that definitely helps in order to Know the difference in between these different Clustered in terms of how relevant the logistic is and more specifically in our project was for the last mile delivery project So it was very useful to do that and helpful also for policy makers. Wow. That's really interesting You know thinking about when we talk about the pca videos, you'll probably be reviewing those before the final Think about the project that ava just told you about think about how What dr. Casa told you about how pca worked was applied in that experience That sounds like a field for waiting to happen. We need to yeah, this can be our next one. Yeah, let's go excellent Good So then we went into software and systems. So we talked a lot about data analysis, but we also needed to talk about Where does that data come from? And so one of the places the relevant supply chain data can come from is from the systems That companies use to manage their supply chains. So we talked about enterprise resource planning systems We had some sort of basic level lectures. Why would a company even bother doing it? You all had some great discussion forums about can small companies use ERP systems and win and y So congratulations on that. That was a very thoughtful discussion We talked about sort of the core functions of ERP systems How data is shared between ERP systems in the effect of that on the bullwhip effect Which you've heard about in your other courses We also talked about how those systems can be implemented and you know coming after some of the technical data sciencey stuff I could see how Maybe you wouldn't give a lot of attention to this But I would encourage you to think about it because it is really quite interesting to think about The architecture of the software systems that we talk about other platforms as a service Is it software as a service? Because I think that world is really changing As we speak and it's great to take this educational opportunity to to learn about it And then we talked about tracking tracing and technology We had that great case study where we learned about tracking and tracing And then what avid talked about at the beginning the new technologies We got to spend some time with a lot of experts from all over And hear what they think about some of the latest tech So I'd like you to take a second now and answer in one word. What surprised you most in sc4x I see a few votes coming in Please take a second now To just put in one word what you think and we'll be very interested to see what comes up So thinking about preparing for the exams. I know that's on everyone's mind Revisiting practice problems gas looking at what kind of questions do we ask there? That'll be very similar to your final. What is the expectation of understanding there very similar to your final You can review your key concepts document. That's a great way to get a sense of what's really important one of the Things that the the team thinks are main points of this course and I would really Emphasize understanding over execution Sometimes I know it's very fun to get into the software. I see some Comments here about orange Orange is really fun. It's very fun to get in there and play with those tools But don't forget to take a little time to put your feet up to and think about well, what am I doing? Why am I doing it? What is the purpose of this tool? I think that level of understanding will really help you And then I put here pack your toolbox You can now do sequel queries. That's a valuable thing to any employer that you might look to work with or business You might want to start You can now do data analysis for anyone using the software that you learned in this class so there's a lot of things that you can do now that perhaps you couldn't do before and Congratulations on that and be aware of that. You have a new skill But before we go to the survey, I just wanted to highlight this quote from the field trip. You might remember our friend kress from abnbev And he said here just analyze 16 million rows of data then to process it. I want to analyze it It's a whole new skill set and I think what's exciting for the people taking this course is that it's a skill set in need So I think you all are learning something that is really valuable in today's world Congratulations to you for getting it done. Yeah I'm following what Dave said When you are preparing your exam Not only you you need to learn the technique by itself, but also think about when When when does make sense to apply this technique for which kind of problem? So, you know that we have a very applied oriented approach. So all of the pros and cons The pros and cons of doing this technique when this that makes sense to apply this kind of thinking is the Thing we want you to develop through these courses to learn the technique and to learn when Does it make sense to apply this technique and the pros and cons of using one or the other? So in this sense, we are providing you this toolbox that Dave is mentioning and then for different Problems that you need to to deal with you will be prepared to Choose one or other tool or technique Absolutely, and that's such a fun skill to see, you know, I haven't mentioned the research that we do here in CTL to You know when those meetings are happening and you hear people Executing research oftentimes the conversation is about exactly what I've described. What is the right tool for this question? It's not so much about What is the most efficient way to code this? You know, that might come later Yeah, but a lot is about what is the tool that gets us to this answer best and Keep that in mind when you're thinking about your tools. It's not just Execution it's it's understanding. Yes Yeah, totally agree and then execution and with you which is the most efficient way to implement that Which is the most efficient way to have a code to automatize that definitely So, uh, let's just look at what surprised you I Think this all makes sense. So a few people were surprised by orange software You know, it's a great freely available software tool that even people here on campus don't all know about So we're glad to be able to share it with you And it's an open source software as all of the software we are providing through the platform, which is good Uh the inclusion of sequel You know, I it can be hard it really can but I I'm proud of the fact that we get to help you learn it, you know, because it is such a skill these days Uh, look like you like the machine learning field visit I was so glad that you did the trends in the interviews some of those interviews Like the one you had I think with g e It's just so neat to get to spend an hour You know watching that interview or with adidas with these people who are doing great things and just See what they think about topics and then Definitely and the idea of this bringing this expert was just to bring this reality From the industry to this course so you can see that the things we are teaching in this course The the leaders in the industry they are applying and how they are dealing with these challenges because they they are facing these challenges currently Is for us I think a privilege to have these experts sharing the experience with us in these certain topics I remember the g interview about the Yeah, the implementation of the technology and how they were dealing with that all of the challenges Which is really really insightful for for us. Yeah, and there's a learner You know the course leads we it's fun for me to learn with you guys You know watching those interviews because you think about from a learner's perspective You read your books and you do your homework And so few of us would ever have access to an hour with a high level data science executive to talk about those things And that that those get to be part of the course is really fun for anyone who who loves these topics Yeah, this general during january There is a period here that we invite a lot of experts from industry to come on campus because we have around 200 students From all over the world for all of our different programs that we are teaching here at ctl Every single time that an expert come here. We always have a plan to interview this expert for the sex courses so Be tuned because stay tuned because more more Industry experts will be coming for for all of the sex courses Great. What else? Interviews trends. Yeah. Yeah. I think we are almost on the field visit Yeah, the field visit is another thing that we are always thinking about how we can add a new field trip Like the one that they've run With the same purpose just to bring this reality and this experience from the industry to our sex courses. Yeah Great, I think maybe we'll hand it over to to avid to talk about the fresh connection Excellent. So let's go to the first connection. This is one of the things we are offering in se4x I need to mention here that in 2017 we have one of the teams that went through the Global final competition and the one they they was this was amazing because it was the very first time that this four people met For the very first time in lisbon They were playing together as a team Before that they were individually playing through the se4x course Then they they met they play as a team and they did a great job and they won So this was something that carlos iban andrea and erron They did in 2017 And last year we have also another team from 2018 a mean at the left At the Latif coffer and lance that also went to the final competition So that's always for us. We're very proud of that always So this run of the fresh connection. So a total of 335 participants 207 Has been active players. This means that you have you made At least one decision through the game some some decision that changed the The profit of the company 65 of these students are verified a student and 35 percent audit students The average score was minus 3.17 percent Close to the starting point a bit better Which is good, but the median score was minus 0.74 percent Let's have a look a deeper look into the results. So Most of the participant more than 50 percent of the participant really improved the game They you you at this point Those who has been playing the the fresh connection you played at least In between one and four rounds most of you four rounds That means that you were making different decisions And this decision as you know now has an impact in the profit of the company So you made decisions related to purchasing The decisions relating to the customer relationship decisions more related to the Safety stock that you have in the warehouse or decisions more related to the operations of the supply chain So with each of these decisions what's happening is that this has an impact on the profit of the company So you all of you started with the minus 3.96 percent of profit And as you can see in this histogram, you can see that most of our students are Both this starting point this means that with the decisions you make you improve Which are the specific numbers? So almost 70 143 participants score more than the starting point 106 51 percent score Above minus 1 percent, which is a good improvement because it's not easy to To make the right decisions in order to improve the profit And almost 40 of the participants 75 people score Above 1 percent, which is a really good result I will also to announce the winners and the winners are these people that I I did two buckets of winners those that the top three scores for round number four so with Just caravade got at 8.7 of the profit of the company, which is a very good result I can tell you that we have been playing the game here on campus for at least six seven years It's really hard to see this high profit in the company playing this game Congratulations. Yes. Congratulations. Just congratulations also to Igor. He got a 7.7 of the profit of the company And congratulations also to your hand 7% all of them very good results um, yeah, it seems that you you spend a Quite amount of of time playing the game and and see Understanding the impact of your decisions on the on the profit of the company I also look into the top three scores Cross the four rounds. So we have these are the learners that play the four rounds and on average score The best scores on these four rounds um Gamal he he got the 5.4 percent on average in the four rounds Igor the second place So you are very consistent Igor and many five percent in the four rounds And I really want to bring these two because at the end the main purpose of this game This is a learning tool. That means that what we want You to do is just to Make decisions in the supply chain and see the interactions in between the different decisions You are making and the impact of these decisions in the profit of the company So this and we want you to take risk And we want you to test and to try different actions and see the effect So I also want to bring the average on the four rounds and I also want to bring here that It's great when you your score is very high and you and you you have Your the impact of your decisions in the profit of the company is really hard But more than that, I am very happy to see that more than 200 learners play this game Take risk Try different strategies because at the end as I mentioned, this is this is a Simulation game, but it's a learning tool It's just a way for you to apply the concept that you have been learned across the micro master and apply to a kind of real company with that simulate Some of the complexity of the real companies. So this is for me the best learning thing For you guys. So congratulations to Everyone that played the game and especially for those who who score So in one word, I want to ask you because we want to to plot this as a cloud What was your main takeaway after playing the fresh connection? Let's see your main takeaway You have most of you have been playing the first connection the four rounds. So let us know Which is your main takeaway? And we are going to plot the results as a cloud. Perfect. So While you are voting Let me share with you different strategies from the top players So we have play um this I I like to bring this to you guys Because one of the takeaways of this of this Game is that there is not a unique strategy That you need to have to follow in order to improve your results You can different you can follow different strategies. For instance, here is the example of one Player player number one. He focused on efficiency What does this mean this mean that he has a strong focus on reduced cost across the supply chain So we can have a look that the The level of stock components the level of stock products and the availability of components that this Player has across the course We have a player number two He focused or she focused more on service level That means that Try to provide a high service level to the customer in order to ensure that they are satisfying their expectations So we have that the level of product the level of Stock products final product is above the the average We also can see here the availability of components. They have almost 100. It's a 99.7 percent So they are really their strategy is much more focused on providing the best service level to their customer And we can also find players that their score are really high around six percent seven percent That follow a balance strategy That means that they have kind of this trade-off in between try to reduce cost But also provide a high level service level So these are three different approaches completely different more focused on reduced cost more focused on service level or more focused on this balance strategy All of these strategies works and with all of these strategies They got very good results. So let's have a look now To your main takeaway coordination. Yes, I fully agree with that one of the main takeaways of this Game is is coordination Definitely, we need to coordinate the four roles that we have in the game We have the role of the purchase the purchase role the sales role the supply chain management role and the operations role um One thing that typically happens is we we when we review the purchase role We try to do our best in the purchase role when we go through the sales We're trying to do our best in the sales role But at the end we need to coordinate the four roles and we need to align our strategy through the four roles So coordination in between the four roles is one of the main takeaway of this game You have the privilege that is a pro and come you have the privilege that you have playing the game by yourself So it's just a way to coordinate with yourself Which in in certain ways is typically easier than to coordinate with your mates So in this sense the the the cons to play the game by yourself Is that you need to go through the four roles and review all of the reports and all of the information So let's say that it's more time consuming However, you better understand each role and once you realize that your decisions are having impact in the results But also has impact in other areas of the supply chain Then you realize that you need to coordinate the four roles in the play So coordination definitely a strategy. Yes The second lesson learned here is that the strategy need to be aligned So as I mentioned you can follow different strategies You can more focus on reduced costs and efficiency You can focus more on the customer service level or on a valid strategy But the most important thing is once you decide the strategy you want to follow You should be consistent across the four roles applying the same strategy. So Strategy should be aligned. I think it's one of the main takeaways that you have pointed there And as I mentioned different strategies work But you should be aligned with the supply chain strategy and your company's strategy This is also very important Alignment between departments something that happened in all of the companies Something that happened in all of the organizations here at ctl We have different groups different teams and we need also to coordinate and we have our Ctl goals and all of us need to Look into these goals in order to align our own goals with the center for instance just Follow up on Ava's point there We had a learner in the last run of sc4x not in this one who was a pretty high level person in a pretty famous company At least I think worldwide famous really north america and he said exactly what ava just said Even though, you know, he works sort of in the real world all the time He felt the fresh connection was a great way to experience The interconnections between different functional areas and where sometimes they want different things and you have to figure out How to reconcile those different Goals to make the whole supply chain work He saw what he was doing every day in practice and night when he went home and played the game The example Yes, definitely So the game is all about translating a strategy into action Across all functions as we mentioned Another takeaway is each decision Represents a trade-off trade-off in between cost and service level. So this trade-off that in sc1x Mainly we are discussing about the trade-off trade-off between cost and service level trade-off in transportation trade-off with inventory management So these trade-offs are In the game in every single decision you need to make you need to have this trade-off at the end So this is a I think for I would learn of how to manage these trade-offs between for decision making in supply chains Also, I would wait to illustrate how the different elements of the supply chain impact the performance of the company So at some point I agree and I receive sometimes these comments kind of a Black box because you are making decisions in the different areas and at the end you only have the impact on the profit of the company and sometimes the decision you make Has not the impact that you were expecting So you need to go through and that's why I always encourage you to take risk and to try different Strategies and to also make different kind of decisions and try to see the impact that these have As I mentioned, it's just a learning tool. It's a way to learn and apply the different concept that you have learned through the micro master So, yeah, um them great results in sc4x. I always Are I'm always very positive surprise about your your results as I mentioned You need to do extra amount of work because you are working Individually and you need to review the four roles and review all of the reports and there is a lot of information Provide through the game. However, this Helps you to better understand each role and once you start to playing and make decisions in each of that You realize immediately that you need this coordination and this alignment and you realize also that you need to have this Strategy align each of the decision in each function with this strategy. So I think There are a lot of Takeaways here. You already also Highlight the trade-offs. Yes Um, what else impact and variables variables. Yes, there are many different variables And a lot of information provided through the the game But this is the the reality when you are going to be working in one department. You are going to For some companies you are going to have access to a lot of KPIs to a lot of information And you need to make decisions based on this information that You have in your in your company So, yeah, I think these are the main takeaways for the first connection Congratulations again to everyone who played the game. I know it's an extra work for you guys It's time consuming and you need to review a lot of reports But I also think that you can learn through this experience. So congratulations again I'm happy to see your your results was great. Great job. Yes So regarding the micro master wrap up So we are closing almost about to close tomorrow You you need to be ready for the final exam one more week and then you are going to be all set with the sc4x course You are now part of a big community a huge community of scx learners Yeah, more than a quarter of a million of learners already Took at least one scx courses These learners as you know now are from all over the world and the the thing that they want to highlight here Is that today? We have 1277 credentials holders People that completed the five courses plus the cfx and earned the micro master credential So I want to show you a bit of the profile of these micro master holders So still we have more male than female only 16 percent of our micro master holders are female So go go ladies go and take the micro master. We need more of you here in terms of education Most of our learners most of them has a master degree or a bachelor degree We have also high schoolers. We have also people with associated certificates and degrees, but mainly Almost more than 80 percent of our learners Already have a master or a bachelor degree by age. Most of our learners are very young. I could say They are between 20 and 35 years old and in terms of countries the most represented countries are usa united states with 26 20 in between 25 and 30 percent of our total of our learners 6 percent from india three percent from spain Another three percent from mexico, brazil, canada germany, and china So as you know more than 180 countries represented Yeah In terms of the micro master flow and where we are and where I expect you to be I know that most of you this is your last course That means that you already complete all of our conceptual models s e zero x s e one s e two x s e three and s e four now almost almost about to complete that And then ready for the final comprehensive exam And this is what I want to focus now to give you some tips and recommendations And some evades about the upcoming comprehensive final exam Those that have already completed the five courses. I really encourage you to make the effort Prepare and take the cfx. This is a way for you guys to earn the micro master credential And you have spent a lot of hours in the program. I know how how much effort You need to put in order to complete and pass each of these s e x courses I did the statistics of our micro master holders and I can tell you that on average of Micro master holders spend in between 15 to 18 months with us in order to complete and pass the five s e x courses Plus the cfx. So for most of you you are almost there This is just the last stretch the last push that you need to do And it's your final at the start tomorrow You have one week in order to complete the final of the c4x and then the cfx So let's me let's go through the cfx and give you some details about the upcoming comprehensive final exam The first thing I want to share with you Why we are doing a comprehensive final exam in the micro master program As you know, this is the final requirement after completing the five courses We asked you to take a comprehensive Proctor and final exam We are doing that in order to ensure the value of the credential We really want to provide the value to this credential in both ways We want the industry recognizing the the credential by itself and for us the best way To do that is when a company Hire a micro master holders when a company Post a position and set this position is for micro master holders We start we are starting to see more and more companies that are Asking and looking for micro master holders in supply chain management to hire them So for us this industry recognition is something that definitely Has a lot of value and we want to bring this value to the credential We want to be sure that the people that hold this credential has this knowledge in order to apply for a job in supply chain management Another thing is this is a pathway for credit To a master degree here at MIT and also Now there are more than 20 universities recognizing the micro mastering supply chain management as a pathway for credit This means that once you have the micro master Certificate you can apply to a master degree in different universities. Um, this is another Thing very important for for us to ensure the value of the credential This is why we are doing this final and proctor exam This is why you need to verify again your identity before taking the proctor exam And also you need to demonstrate that you have the basic knowledge in all of the main topics We review through the program When is the next comprehensive final exam is going to happen in February from February 22nd to February 25th 2019 Again and as the previous cfx is going to be open the exam will be open during 72 hours Once we open the exam is going to be a time exam That means that the cfx includes two different exam exam one two hours Then you can take a break and then take exam two another two hours And we split in two two hours exam because it's a proctor exam That means that during the session during While you are taking the proctor exam You cannot leave the room You cannot you just need to be in front of your computer in front of the camera during the two hours Or at least during the time you are taking the exam That's why we split in two different exams two hours per exam So you can take a break in between one and the other to go to drink Or to go to the bathroom or whichever you need as a break in order to come back and take the second exam Who can take the cfx the cfx is only for those learners who have completed And passed as a verified learner the five scx courses These are the only learners who qualify to take the cfx Once you enroll You are part of the cfx Let's say that once you are eligible to take the cfx because you already passed the five courses Then you need to be a verified learner in the cfx course in order to take the final exam I'll just jump add on to this As you all know, we had our week eight graded assignment was proctored For some people that was no problem, but for some people I know was a real headache We went back and forth over email But the reason we did that is so that you have all of those headaches figured out before you take the cfx So any trouble that happened with proctoring during our course Really won't affect your grade much, but hopefully it allowed us to diagnose whatever technical problems That exist for you when trying to do proctoring because when you take the cfx it will be fully proctored Yeah, definitely. Um, yes, and we are doing this in s4x just to be sure that everyone Is prepared for the comprehensive final exam. Yeah Which is mandatory Should I need to download the software? Yes, you need to download the software And you will find all the details in the cfx once we open the cfx instance You will have access and you can download a practice proctor test That they really encourage you to download and to take it. There are two main Objective behind offering you a practice practice proctor test Is to you have again the opportunity to test the software by itself and go through the whole process That means the ID verification scan the room Amid all of the rules and requirements one theme and second theme in this practice proctor test. We are providing you some actual exam problems So we we are providing some of the problems that we already use for our previous cfx So you will have it's not going to be exactly as a cfx in terms of content But at least you have some representative problems that you can go through in a time manner with the time limitation and with the proctor software running that will help you to Use exactly the environment you are going to have during the actual cfx So we did for these two purposes For you to be ready again to go through the whole proctoring software process And second to be familiar with some of the problems that we use for previous cfx runs You also have some tutorials videos in the this upcoming run of the cfx and we also after You take the proctor test you can have access to a video problem solving So the team here we prepare And we solve some problems reproducing also the proctoring environment So what we did is just went through the problem as a learner and try to help you Give you some tips about how we will deal solving this Proctoring exam problems So you will have access to all of this material through the next run of the comprehensive final exam I have a question for you guys. Are you planning to take the next cfx in february 2019? The answer can be yes for sure No, I'm not planning to do this run. I'm planning to do later or maybe I'm sure So yes, please go through that in the meantime And since you are almost almost there and almost are at the end of this long journey I want to really encourage you to join our micro master portal This is the micro masters at mit.edu Slash scm. This is the the the space we have created to build this community of sex learners So we know that While you are taking a course you have the discussion forum to interact with your peers and with the staff Once you finish a finish a course, you don't have this space So the micro master portal is intending to be this space This space of the for the community that you can go and you can read scm articles You can post any news or or a theme that is related to supply chain management that you consider relevant You can start a discussion. You can be part of a thread. You can answer. You can add your comments We are also using the micro master portal as a space to post any job opening in supply chain management related to micro masters Credential holders. So definitely we are also trying to Create cohorts and groups Classified by country or by company or by different criteria So really encourage you to join the micro master portal We also use the micro master portal a lot to communicate with you guys related to the cfx so In terms of the cfx enrollment That as I mentioned since the cfx is only for those learners who already pass and complete The five scx courses we the scx team will manually enroll all eligible learners Once we issue the sc4 x certificates You will receive your certificates. You will know your final scoring sc4x And then around early to mid january We will proceed the scx team to manually enroll all of our eligible So once you are enrolled there, it is your decision To decide if you want to take the cfx this february if this is the case You need to take an action by yourself. That is to become a verified learner in this run of the cfx if you For any reason are not Prepared or do not have time or decide not to take the cfx in february Then you do not need to take any action We are just going to enroll all people that are eligible to be sure that you have the opportunity to take this run of the cfx It is your decision to take it or not And if the decision is yes, I want to take you need to become a verified learner As in any other scx course you need to pay the 200 Dollars and one very important thing you need to be id verified and your id verification Need to be up to date Anyone that the id verification expire during the time that the cfx is open Is not allowed to take the cfx. So there are two steps Pay the 200 dollars and become a verified learner Second thing be sure that your id verification is up to date because if not and this happened Unfortunately in the last two runs of the cfx I always have one two or three learners that they are id verification expired And they they couldn't take the cfx. So please be aware about that Please remember it takes a while to id verify sometimes it can take a few days for that process to complete So you need to be sure that before we open the cfx every one is id verified Because what happened in the last and you made a great point the last run The student point asked this during the saturday or sunday And edex was not able because they need at least two to three business days to go through the id verification process So once the the exam open there is no no possibility to To be id verified. So you need to be sure that before February 22nd you have your id verification up to date One one thing to add too if you become part of the the group that's going to do the cfx with us in February We'll be communicating with you about all these things again So don't feel like you have to memorize everything we just said but you know, it's all important We'll talk about it now and we'll continue to talk about it. Yes The important thing is just to pay attention Every time we do and we'll we'll all get through it. Yeah and verification closes February 7th So this is the very last day to become a verified learner in The next cfx and as they've mentioned we will communicate with you directly once we issue the certificates in s4x We will reach to all of our learners that are eligible for the cfx To communicate and to share with you guys all of the details about the upcoming cfx I will be also happy to to do a specific life event talking Just about the cfx once we have all of the eligible people for all of the people the learners who Are eligible for this Rang of the cfx we will have a specific life event sharing with you all of the details and open to to answer your questions as always Okay, and what's next so after completing the the program after if hopefully Hopefully you you are going to take the cfx and complete and pass that What's next? Individual professional career development. This is one of the things as you know this micromaster credential in supply chain management Is and stand alone certificates, and I'm super happy I'm proud of my learners when I receive an email and say eba I just got the job of my dreams because of the micromaster and say yes, that's great So yeah career development And as I mentioned and please feel free to reach to us even when you complete your Your micromaster program and share with us your experience We are always happy to to share with others this experience because I think this is the best way the best way And the best thing of this program are you guys are the learners that we have we are learning every single day from you We are also very happy to receive your feedback. These are making us better I'm very happy to receive these Yeah quotes when you Have a new job or when you you are applying the concept you learn in your current job or whatever It is also a pathway to a mit Supply chain management master degree. So the applications are currently open here at mit if you are Thinking or considering to apply to the blended master degree in supply chain management application that line is march 28 2019. Oh my goodness. I make a mistake there. So the application that line is march 28 2019 that means that after closing the cfx we will run the certificates Typically this take in between two to three weeks And once you have your results if you complete the five courses plus the cfx and you earn the micromaster credential You can apply to the master degree at mit So for those that are considering that Keep in mind that end of march is the the last day to submit your application for the master degree here at mit And as I mentioned before in addition to mit the malatia institute for supply chain innovation the misi center And Zaragoza logistic center. These are both centers as far of our mit network scale They are also offering a blended master degree program or an accelerate master degree program That means that once you have your credential in supply chain management, you can apply to this Accelerate way to earn a master degree in malatia or a blended master degree in Zaragoza In addition to that there are now Around 19 exactly there are 19 and one more coming almost 20 universities Recognizing the micromaster credential as a pathway for credit That means that you can use your credential to apply to karting university in australia quincellain university also in australia Galileo university in Guatemala Duane university in the usa karting university rit rochester institute of technology A purdo university harbor extension school There are more and more universities that are recognized in the micromaster holders If you are interested in applying to any of this pathway for credit Go to a website Through a website You will find the link to all of these universities and you can learn more about the application process and these things Um, keep in touch with us. We really love to receive your feedback your comments As I mentioned all feedback is very welcome. We are learning a lot about your feedback Constructive feedback. So please feel free to share this with with us. We really appreciate that There are different ways to to keep in touch with us The micromaster portal is one of these ways and I really encourage you to join the micromaster portal You can be you are also welcome to be a community teaching assistant with us We have a great um an amazing group of community teaching assistant We also have a strong relationship with the weekly meetings with the course leads the course leads are doing also a great job Keeping the cts engaged motivated and we know that this community teaching assistant are the bridge in between us and our learners so If you are interested let them send us a note to us and we are happy to consider your application You can also be an ambassador those that already completed the credential And we have more than 100 ambassadors. Uh, Arthur Grau is leading this project So if you are interested in being uh an ambassador Do not hesitate to send a note to Arthur through the micromaster scm email account or through the or through the The micromaster portal and boot camps. We are also always continuously thinking about new products new ways to engage new ways also to provide A blended education new ways to combine online education with on-campus education So boot camp is one of our offer. We are offering the next boot camp In 2019 july at the very end of july The boot camp will start on sunday july 28 and will go through august Second is a friday. So it's going to be six very intense days at mit The idea of that is just to provide this blended education in supply chain management It's just to provide an in-campus experience A lot of interaction with your peers with the staff we through team projects through games Through case discussion of cases studies. So it's designed to have a very intense and interactive experience In supply chain management on campus for six days And this is designed specifically for micromaster learners. So there is a prerequisite So at least you you need to complete and pass as a verified learner s1x Um, but if you have already completed more than one course, this is totally fine And if you are interested in having this experience, you can apply to this a boot camp We will reach to you soon and provide the details and probably By the next week you will receive some information about the boot camp And if you are interested Say if not saying a note directly to me or to dave and we will deal with with that. Yeah things to add there The big thanks to our cta's And I'd encourage you all to if you have a chance in the forum Thank them yourself because I know I see in the forums how helpful they are To all our learners. So thank you cta's You guys are great and learners watching, you know, maybe thank them too if you have time I know they would love it and please come to the boot camp as a course lead. It's very fun Uh to spend some time with the learners who otherwise we only interact with online So we're all up here on the third floor of the e40 building here in cambridge, massachusetts And we just have a great week together talking about supply chain All day And the best thing as I always are you guys are our learners and the community of learners We that is spontaneously being creating I need to say kudos to Arthur because Arthur grower community manager He's doing a great job trying to to allowing and facilitating these groups But this is all about you guys So feel free to reach to your peers in singapore, hong kong, chicago, lima in any of these countries Go through the micro master portal Start a study group or a meetup group or just to be in touch with this great community of learners Any question we have some questions and just a quick update 91 percent are planning to take the upcoming cfx Excellent excellent great good. I really encourage you to do that So we'll start there's quite a few questions. Thank you all so much for all your questions And we'll look at some of the top-voted ones first to make sure we get to them. Yes So here's a specific question about proctored exams. Yeah, I'll leave that Ava, I don't know if you know one way I think to Answer that is to say that We really want to share with you as one set of instructions for everyone to draw from so As you go into the cfx you will have very specific instructions and you'll have a help email line there But the rules are essentially the same as the forex proctored exam Anything you think to add to that? Yeah, so the the specific question is if in the proctored exam You can use notes or the key concept document playing paper for calculations. So Yes, as Dave mentioned, we are going to provide all of the details for the specific cfx run in general Yes, you can use the key concept document But only the key concept document that we are providing through the exam So you don't need to bring or open any other document any other war or pdf or nothing just the Key concept document that we are providing through the exam specifically no more than that and typically we allow you to have one blank sheet of paper only one and you need to scam through the Camera but We will provide all of the details and I will Conduct a specific life. I'm just about the cfx So you can ask any any any question about the rules and you will have specific instructions FAQs so every single thing is very detailed. This is going to be our fourth round of the cfx So I think that now we have a good material or starting point to ask or to ask not to answer Most of your questions What else let's go. Oops. Are there any universities? So the next most popular one is is there a minimum grade For the exam to apply for the blended program Okay, so this is a great question one of the criteria to be admitted in the blended program And one of the things that the committee is looking into is your performance across the whole micro master So grades are taking into consideration Highest the highest the best so It's difficult to provide just a range. I can tell you that it's very competitive. We have very good candidates Good candidate or excellent candidates are those above 90 percent But it's not the only thing we are also looking into we are looking into a whole profile So we look into the grades Through the the performance through the micro master program, but we also look into the video the capstone proposal they say the Letter of recommendation. So there are More than that. So we look to the whole profile of the learner So I don't want to discourage any of you to apply if you want to apply I Apply apply and provide all of the all of the information that is required and the committee as I mentioned have a look into all of the things Highest grade helps. Yes, definitely helps, but it's not the only criteria. We are taking into consideration regarding the blended You are going to receive a specific life events and specific So if you are interested in applying to the blended do not hesitate to contact us And you will be in the loop and definitely We we are going to provide life events and all of the details about the application So if this is your priority or you are considering, let us know Yes, you will receive a specific information about the blended. What else next most popular Will we have a chance to participate in future fresh connection games? Even if not a part of future sc4x courses This is a great question. No, we are only providing the first connection through the currently through the sc4x course So it's part of that and it's attached to the run a specific run currently of sc4x so A part of the scx courses. No on campus. We are running that For the for for on campus experience. We we are also running that but A Available at any time for anyone and they might be playing if they come to bootcamp Yes for the bootcamp. Yes, we are planning to do that because another important learning experience playing the fresh connection is to play the game In teams. So this is the part we want to provide on campus and we are considering for the bootcamp to provide this Team interaction through the fresh connection. Yeah, think about that. That's a whole neat way to another neat way to play it where The person across from the table. You're across the table from you represents one of those functions Whereas you covered them all before you're working with real people with Representing each of the different functions. Yeah I think we are running out of time. We are Let me jump to the last question and then we will try to to answer through the slido chat. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah Ah will yes, how how can we apply to be a cta? I'm going to pick that one because I love cta. Yes, perfect. This is a great one different ways In the last newsletter typically we send a link with a form you can apply through the form You can just send an email to the course lead to myself and say a I want to be a cta I will forward this to the corresponding is a course lead Yeah, can reach directly through email or through the form that typically in the last new newsletter of the course we always include if you are interested in applying so yeah One more just to you. I know we're running out. Some of us got an email from the fresh connection about another competition. Is that true? Yes, another competition is is coming. Yes every single year. They are organizing this competition. So yeah, yeah This is coming. Um, you might be selected for that. So stay tuned. That's great. That could be a That's great. That's great. And congratulations if you already received this email. Yeah How many people do you think will enroll in the blended in the upcoming? Ah, uh, there is um the maximum number of candidates that we cannot meet for the blended are 40 students So yeah Okay, gosh, some of these we won't get to all of them. So please stay in touch uh There's one I thought was interesting here Well, MIT offer online master's degrees in supply chain management anytime soon Yeah, we we are offering a blended master's degree. So the The program we design is the Micro master 100 percent And this is a pathway to a blended master's degree on campus. So so far what we are doing is providing this blended Education that combines the 100 percent online experience through the micro master Plus a five intense month on campus to earn a master's degree. This is our current offer Um in the short term, we are not considering to offer a 100 percent online master's degree in the short term Um, yeah in the medium long term. We are always revisiting and reviewing our portfolio of um Education portfolio here at CTL, but what I can tell you that in the short term, we are not planning to offer this 100 master's online degree Uh, the product we we are now offering And I need to tell you that the experience with the first blended cohort was excellent The level of motivation the level of education that the results was really really good And we are looking forward to receive the new cohort this january um, we are now with the the process of Application process is open now to admit the new cohort for 2000 for 2020. So yeah Ava, thank you so much for your time learners. Thank you so much for your time and for going on this journey with us Your final opens up tomorrow Have fun. Try not to be too stressed And we'll see you in the cfx. Yeah best of luck best of luck tomorrow Last push to complete the program. Thank you so much. Bye