MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics | October 10, 2018

The MITx MicroMasters program recently added more pathway institutions, offering learners from around the globe enhanced access to “blended” master’s programs. Learners who pass an integrated set of MITx graduate-level courses on edX.org, and one or more proctored exams, will earn a MicroMasters credential from MITx, and can then apply to enter an accelerated, on campus, master’s degree program at MIT or other top universities that participate in the growing pathways program.

“We are proud to be driving increased access to higher education and career advancement through micromasters credentials and blended master’s programs for learners around the globe,” says MIT Dean for Digital Learning Krishna Rajagopal, “allowing them to more effectively balance their professional and personal lives with learning. The growing number of pathway institutions offer great on-campus experiences and enable accelerated, convenient, and more affordable access to a master’s degree.”

The recently-added pathway institutions are:

• Harvard Extension School (Cambridge, Massachusetts) for the programs in supply chain management (SCM) and data, economics and development policy (DEDP);
• Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong) for SCM;
• Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) for SCM, DEDP, and the programs in manufacturing principles and statistics and data science; and
• Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (Germany) for SCM.

To date, 19 pathway institutions in 11 countries offer 58 different pathways to a master’s degree.

Benefits of the pathways for global learners

The pathway network enables MicroMasters credential holders, who are typically working professionals, to obtain a master’s degree from MIT or a growing number of pathway institutions whose campuses may be geographically accessible to them wherever they are.

Learners from around the globe, especially those who are well into their professional lives, may find it impossible to commit to a full-time one-year or two-year on-campus master’s program. It’s not merely a problem of time and money, but also of making sacrifices in their professional and family lives as they invest in higher education.

With its growing network of pathway institutions, the MicroMasters program changes the calculus for global learners. They can begin by taking flexible, cost-effective online MicroMasters courses that enable them to keep working, earning a MicroMasters certificate, a valuable professional and academic credential in and of itself. Many MicroMasters recipients benefit professionally immediately, advancing their careers. MITx credential recipients can also decide to seek a master’s degree by way of entering an on-campus degree program and receiving credit for their MicroMasters courses, shortening the residential requirement.

In order to learn more about the benefits of this pathway to a master’s program, three learners who’ve just completed their master’s degrees in supply chain management recently provided their insights on the program.

Dan Covert was already working as a supply chain professional for global retailer Ahold Delhaize (the Dutch owner of Stop and Shop supermarket) when he realized he “didn’t understand the core fundamentals of running a supply chain for a global company.” Covert had another problem: “I didn’t see a path forward for a master’s degree. I just wasn’t willing to leave my job, commit two years to a master’s program, and take on those financial burdens.” He signed up for cost-effective online MicroMasters courses in SCM, learning at night and on weekends: “It was the perfect way for me to keep working full-time while dipping my toe into higher education,” he says.

Like Dan Covert, Ramon Paulino took online SCM courses and eventually earned his master’s in June, coming onto the MIT campus for one semester. While taking his final online course, Paulino decided to pursue the on-campus portion. “I really liked what I was learning, and had this appetite to keep the momentum going after I’d tested the waters.” Paulino also mentions the low financial investment and accelerated, accessible nature of the blended master’s: “I don’t think I could have committed to even a full-year, on-campus program,” he says, “because of the amount of money and the burdens of fitting education into my professional and private life.” For example, Paulino remembers “taking an online test at the airport while traveling for my consulting company.”

Paulino says his wife was crucial in helping him balance work, life, and learning: “she kept working while I spent the few months on-campus at MIT. It made things so much easier because I only had to spend a short time on campus, versus an expensive one-year commitment while not working. Being able to compress that time made it all possible,” he says.

Rafaela Nunes, now working in Sao Paulo, Brazil, emphasizes three points when asked to explain the benefits of the online courses: “Accessibility, meaning I could study from anywhere; flexibility, meaning I could learn around my work schedule, and affordability of cost.” All three SCM learners interviewed said the online courses prepared them well for the accelerated on-campus learning experience. And all three maintain that the collaborative, face-to-face nature of the on-campus experience was critical for their learning. Nunes describes her overall experience in the SCM blended master’s program as “intense, unforgettable and of immeasurable value to my future.”

Benefit of the pathways for MIT, institutions, and companies

Pathways don’t just benefit global learners by offering a crucial on-campus learning experience, but also benefit the pathway institutions, and companies looking for cutting-edge talent. For instance, some pathway institutions are already integrating some of the MITx MicroMasters curriculum into what they’re doing, using it as a model. Moreover, being part of the growing MITx MicroMasters pathway network gives these institutions access to talented, well-prepared students who have already shown a proven commitment to learning, mastering graduate-level MITx coursework through obtaining the MITx MicroMasters credential, and who may not otherwise have considered completing master’s degree.

Tracy Tan, director of the MicroMasters Program, adds that the pathways program “helps advance MIT’s educational mission of promoting access to world-class learning, and allows MIT to make a greater global impact with its world-renowned educational content.” By making learning more accessible for working professionals around the globe, geographically accessible pathways even help global companies access more talent in an array of professional areas.

The lives of refugees aren’t just disrupted by the loss of a homeland, but also by massive challenges in accessing educational and professional opportunities. A collaboration between the MITx MicroMasters program in data, economics, and development policy (DEDP), the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and the MIT Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) seeks to address these challenges. MIT’s Department of Economics and J-PAL co-developed and launched the MITx MicroMasters Program in DEDP in 2017. The new collaboration will allow refugee learners to receive scholarships for DEDP courses, participate in skills-building workshops, and connect with top organizations and companies in the field of development economics and data analysis.

As Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT, and the co-director and co-founder of J-PAL observes, “From the beginning, our objective for the MicroMasters and blended master’s in DEDP was to create an offering that gives people the skills and tools to solve some of the world's most difficult challenges — whoever they are, and wherever they are. The collaboration with ReACT means we will move one step closer to this goal.”

Admir Masic, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, founded ReACT in 2017 to provide blended learning opportunities in computer and data science and entrepreneurship to refugees around the world. “I’m so excited about the new track within the  DEDP/ReACT MicroMasters certificate program,” says Masic, “because on top of all the other benefits associated with the ReACT blended learning approaches, we open the way for our refugee students to gain a master’s degree from MIT or any other university in this MicroMasters network.”

Blending good intentions with data-driven approaches

The DEDP/ReACT collaboration offers refugees a bespoke combination of attaining scholarships for online learning, gaining connections to paid internships, and coming together as a community at in-person immersive workshops. A group of ReACT-supported refugees will take MicroMasters courses online starting in the summer semester of 2018 with the DEDP online courses, “The Challenges of Global Poverty” and “Data Analysis for Social Scientists.” Refugees will come together in Amman, Jordan in January 2019 for a series of workshops taught by MIT faculty, staff, and students on entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. The goal is for these learners to begin their online DEDP coursework this June and complete the five courses in the DEDP program by the end of the spring semester next year.

Robert Fadel, the executive director of ReACT, notes, "The new ReACT initiative with the MicroMasters program in DEDP offers refugees a way to gain access to educational and professional opportunities, and helps empower them with the tools to resolve some of the most pressing problems within their own communities."

Refugees taking the DEDP courses will study the root causes of poverty, while also developing skills in economics and data analysis that will enable them to build data-driven approaches to help drive positive change.

As Anna Schrimpf, associate director of education at J-PAL and DEDP program director explains, “People have strong intuitions about what they think might work to drive change, but we also have a responsibility to inquire whether what we’re doing is impactful — whether we’re spending scarce resources in a way that is actually improving the lives of the poor. Good intentions aren’t enough. You also need to develop data-driven approaches to deliver results and sustainable change.”

Empowering refugees to change lives (including their own)

The new program is personal for Masic, who overcame challenges as a refugee himself. He founded ReACT based on his own experiences in accessing higher education and leveraging its power. When Masic was a child, his family fled from war-ravaged Bosnia and Herzegovina to a refugee camp in Croatia. Thanks to receiving opportunities to pursue a higher education, Masic lived and conducted research in Germany and Italy before coming to MIT. “I am realizing a dream that I had when I first came to MIT. I get very emotional about this new DEDP/ReACT initiative, because we’re building something that could impact so many lives around the world, and will give refugees a very unique, extremely powerful opportunity. With this new collaboration, we’re providing concrete pathways for those who believe in education as a key for a better life.”

Masic offers another story to illustrate how refugees can be profoundly impacted by educational opportunity. While eating breakfast with the first cohort of ReACT students in Amman, Jordan a few months ago, Masic noted, “A refugee student whom I didn’t know came to the table, ate quickly, and went away without saying a word to anyone,” said Masic.” The student seemed so embarrassed and so full of insecurity, which connected with my own refugee experience.” After the breakfast, said Masic, “I saw him sitting outside by himself. Well, fast forward just ten days later and the two of us were huddled together and talking about starting a new company. This refugee had become so enthusiastic about everything that was happening around him that he turned from a psychologically-closed person into this incredibly creative and open individual who was excitedly exploring new opportunities.”

J-PAL’s Anna Schrimpf agrees that the goal of this initiative is to empower refugees to mitigate some of the most pressing social problems facing them as individuals and as a community. With over 65 million refugees worldwide and counting, “The mission of the initiative is to bring refugees together to create a global community around online learning,” says Schrimpf. “We have the means to empower refugees to be socially responsible leaders in their own communities — to be the future leaders who show the way.”

Building pathways to opportunity

Blended learning offers important educational and professional pathways for refugees who’ve had their lives and support structures disrupted by displacement. The new MicroMasters DEDP/ReACT initiative provides a foundation and a technical expertise upon which refugees can to rebuild their lives and communities worldwide.  

MIT Dean for Digital Learning Krishna Rajagopal notes, “With this joint initiative, we are providing a new pathway to opportunity to people whose educational and career paths have been utterly disrupted. Refugees themselves are deeply aware of the challenges they and their communities face, and we are proud to be working alongside ReACT to offer refugees the tools to improve their lives and address these challenges together.”

For those interested in learning more about this program or sharing this program with refugee learners that they might know, please visit the ReACT website for a more in-depth description of the program.

General Electric has committed to interviewing any Massachusetts resident who completes the MITx MicroMasters program in supply chain management. The announcement was made by GE Global Learning Leader Paul Fama as part of Governor Charlie Baker’s “Convening for Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning,” which was held at MIT last month.

“These courses have been so well developed that it’s time we recognized them in a real way,” Fama said at the conference. Fama added that employers benefit by incorporating MicroMasters programs into their worker training strategies and said companies should embrace digital learning.

MITx MicroMasters is a professional and academic credential available digitally to online learners worldwide. It provides a flexible and affordable alternative to the traditional higher education model, which has trouble meeting the needs of many busy people. One of the primary advantages of digital learning is that it provides students with the ability to work at their own pace and on their own schedules. By giving learners control over where and when they study, MicroMasters and other edX-based programs enable people who are tied down by family, work, and other obligations to create room for educational opportunities without sacrificing other important aspects of their lives.

Employers recognize that digital learning can make high-quality education available to workers in instances where traditional education cannot. By encouraging employees and prospects to utilize online learning resources, corporations hope to see an increase in applications from people who have the training employers need to continue growing and innovating in Massachusetts.

Mia Radic, a supply chain project manager at Akamai, represents the type of ambitious, self-driven learner drawn to the edX platform. She completed the MITx MicroMasters credential in supply chain management this year.

“The courses immediately answered a lot of the questions I had at work and gave me the background and tools that I could use immediately, the next day,” she said. “If I learned something in the evening that I could connect to what I was working on, the next day I could find a way to apply it. Each new course I took ended up being more useful and applicable than the last.”

As a direct result of completing the MicroMasters program, Radic was recruited to a new position at Akamai, which she described as her “dream job.” 

MIT President L. Rafael Reif said there is a gap between tech jobs and people to fill them.

“Many CEOs across many different sectors tell me, ‘I'm laying off hundreds of people because their jobs have disappeared, and I don't need their skills. And I have hundreds of job openings that I'm unable to fill because I can't find people with the right training and skills,’” he said.

The Baker administration reports that there are 200,000 open jobs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “At the same time, there are so many people out there struggling to find an opportunity for meaningful work that pays. It’s a very tough spot to be in, and it’s one we ought to be able to solve,” Baker said.

MIT introduced its MicroMasters in supply chain management in October 2015, and learners have embraced the education model. In just two years, edX was hosting 40 MicroMasters programs created by 25 leading universities. Both Reif and Baker said closing the skills gap is a prerequisite to solving the problem of unfilled jobs and that digital learning initiatives, such as the MicroMasters programs, are the key to building successful competency-based pathways.

Other initiatives announced at the convening include Microsoft committing to providing 500 Massachusetts residents with a certificate in any Microsoft online course offered on edX.org. On the state policy level, a new commission on digital innovation and lifelong learning will be established. The is likely to be organized through the Commonwealth Corporation, which works with industry, education, and workforce organizations, to provide skills training and education programs that correspond to unmet job opportunities.

Baker said the goal of the commission is to identify strategic initiatives that “support and encourage and invest in programming ... so that we can be, in fact, the leader we should be in digital innovation and lifelong learning.”

Charalampos (Haris) Sampalis was well established in his career as a product manager at a telecommunications company in Greece. Yet, as someone who enjoys learning, he was on a mission to acquire more knowledge and develop new skills. That’s how he discovered MIT Open Learning resources.

With a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Crete and a master’s in innovation management and entrepreneurship from Hellenic Open University — the only online/distance learning university in Greece — Sampalis had developed expertise in product management and digital strategy. In 2016, he turned to MITx within MIT Open Learning and found a wealth of knowledge and a community of learners who broadened his horizons.

“I’m a person who likes to be constantly absorbing educational information,” Sampalis says. “I strongly believe that education shouldn’t be under boundaries, or strictly belong to specific periods in our lives. I started with computer science, and it grew from there, following programs on a regular basis that may help me expand my horizons and strengthen my skills.”

Sampalis built his life and career in Athens, which makes MIT Open Learning’s digital resources more valuable. He completed courses in computer science, including 6.00.1x (Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python), 11.155x (Design Thinking for Leading and Learning) and Becoming an Entrepreneur back in 2016 and 2017 through MITx, which offers hundreds of high-quality massive open online courses adapted from the MIT classroom for learners worldwide. Sampalis has also enrolled in Management in Engineering: Strategy and Leadership and Management in Engineering: Accounting and Planning, which are part of the MITx MicroMasters Program in Principles of Manufacturing.

“I really appreciate the fact that an established institution like MIT was offering programs online,” he says. “I work full time and it’s not easy at this period of my life to leave everything behind and move to another continent for education — something I might have done at another time in my life. So, this is a model that allows me to access MIT resources and grow myself as part of a community that shares similar interests and seeks further collaborations, even locally where I live, something that makes the overall experience really unique.” 

In 2022, Sampalis applied for and completed the MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamp. Part of MIT Open Learning, MIT Bootcamps are intensive and immersive educational programs for the global community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. The Innovation Leadership Bootcamp was offered online, and Sampalis jumped at the opportunity. 

“I was in collaborative mode, having daily interactions with a diverse group of individuals scattered around the world, and that took place during an intensive 10-week period of my life that really taught me a lot,” says Sampalis. “Working with a global team was extremely engaging. It was a highly motivating, even transformative experience.”

MITx and MIT Bootcamps are both hands-on and interactive experiences offered by MIT Open Learning, which is exactly what appealed to Sampalis. One of the best parts, he says, is that community and collaborations with those he met through MIT continued even after the boot camp concluded. Participants remain in touch not only with their cohort, but with a broader community of over 1,800 other participants from around the world, and have access to continued coaching and mentorship.

Overall, the community of learners has been a highlight of Sampalis’ MIT Open Learning experience.

“What is so beneficial is not just that I get a certificate from MIT and access to a highly valuable repository of knowledge resources, but the fact that I have been exposed to the full umbrella of what Open Learning has to offer — and I share that with other learners,” he says. “I’m part of MIT now. I continue to learn for myself, and I also try to give back, by supporting Open Learning and sharing my story and resources.”

A trip to Ghana changed Sofia Martinez Galvez’s life. In 2021, she volunteered at a nonprofit that provides technology and digital literacy training to people in the West African country. As she was setting up computers and connecting cables, Martinez SM ʼ23 witnessed extreme poverty. The experience was transformative. That same year, she left her job in quantum cryptography in Spain and enrolled in the MITx MicroMasters online program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), which teaches learners how to use data-driven tools to help end global poverty.

By 2023, Martinez completed the MIT DEDP master’s program. Today, she is the co-founder of Learning Alliance, a new nonprofit that will counter sub-Saharan Africa’s learning crisis by introducing evidence-based teaching practices to teachers. She plans to move to Africa this summer.

“If someone told me a few years ago, when I was doing research in quantum physics, that I would be starting my own organization at the intersection of education and poverty, I would have said they were crazy,” Martinez says. “From my first MicroMasters course, I knew I made the right choice. The instructors used mathematics, models, and data to understand society.”

Since 2017, the MicroMasters in DEDP program — jointly led by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and MIT Open Learning — has been bringing together former nurses, lawyers, software developers, and others who are ready to make a career change and an impact on the world.

A new way to combat poverty

The MicroMasters in DEDP curricula is based on the Nobel Prize-winning work of MIT faculty members Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, and Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics.

The pair used a key feature of laboratory science — randomized control trials — and applied it to development economics. For example, to test the efficacy of a new education initiative, researchers could randomly assign individuals to either participate in the program, known as the treatment group, or not, known as the control group. The difference in outcomes can be attributed to the new program.

This approach has fundamentally changed how antipoverty programs are designed and evaluated around the world. It has already boosted immunization rates in India, reduced child marriages in Bangladesh, and increased school attendance in Kenya. 

Duflo and Banerjee’s research created a new way forward for poverty alleviation, but there are too few people skilled in evidence-based development economics to bring about meaningful change, says Sara Fisher Ellison, faculty director of the MicroMasters and master’s programs in DEDP and a senior lecturer in the MIT Department of Economics.

“It is vitally important that we have people all over the world who have the skills to run randomized control trials, to read the literature from these trials, and interpret the results to policymakers,” Ellison says.

Andrea Salem was an economics undergraduate student in Switzerland who was unsure about his career when Duflo and Banerjee received their Nobel Prize. Their recognition introduced Salem to a field he barely knew existed, and set him on a path toward using economics to make an impact in the world.

He completed the MicroMasters in DEDP credential and included it in his application for the Paris School of Economics (PSE). Currently taking a gap year from PSE, Salem has an internship with J-PAL’s Morocco Employment Lab. In this role, he works with government officials to evaluate education reforms.

“To get to know the world in all its diversity is a gift,” Salem says. “To live and do research in the same country is a reminder of the important work I’m doing and how much more needs to be done.”

How the DEDP program works

The MicroMasters in DEDP program is open to anyone with a reliable internet connection. Students choose either a track in public policy, which focuses on key issues in high-income countries, or international development, which examines problems prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. They take a rigorous course load in economics, probability and statistics, and data analysis. The program balances flexibility with structure. Students go at their preferred pace in earning the credential, but each course is instructor-led, providing participants with a community of global learners who can regularly participate in webinars and discussion forums.

Students who complete and pass proctored exams in five courses earn a credential. The MicroMasters in DEDP program has awarded more than 10,000 certificates for passed courses and 1,000 DEDP MicroMasters credentials. Credential holders may continue their education by applying to a master’s program at MIT or at one of 19 pathway universities worldwide that either recognize the MicroMasters in DEDP credential in admissions or offer academic credit for the credential as part of an accelerated graduate program. The credential itself is also valuable for professionals as they advance their careers.

The courses are free to audit; there is a fee for each proctored exam. Exam fees are on a sliding scale, ranging from $250 to $1,000, based on a learner’s income and location. DEDP also offers a lottery, available to people who earn less than $10,000 a year, that discounts the price of one course to $100. Martinez was a beneficiary of the lottery in 2021. Without it, she says it would have taken her longer to earn her credential and apply to the master’s program.

Choosing passion and pedigree

Yann Bourgeois SM ʼ22 had a rewarding nursing career working in operating rooms and intensive care units in Belgium. This job gave Bourgeois a firsthand understanding of what happens when human health and needs are neglected. Driven to make a global impact, Bourgeois discovered the master’s in DEDP program while studying public health.

Having overcome personal challenges and socioeconomic adversity, Bourgeois was not sure MIT would consider him for graduate school. When he learned that the MicroMasters credential played an important role in admissions, Bourgeois became hopeful. He enrolled in five MicroMasters in DEDP classes at the same time. It was a bold move for someone who had not taken a math class beyond statistics, but he was eager to submit his graduate school application. By 2022, Bourgeois was an MIT graduate.

“My background doesn't matter,” Bourgeois says. “The fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life at 14 or 15 doesn’t matter. All that matters is the skills and passion.”

Bourgeois now works as a labor economist at the World Bank in Washington. His job focuses on improving labor conditions and promoting equitable economic opportunities. His MIT education equipped Bourgeois with rigorous analytical tools to address complex economic problems on an international scale.

Like Bourgeois, Martinez did not believe she had the qualifications to apply for the master’s in DEDP program. Then, she read students’ profiles online and learned about their wide-ranging experiences. After learning more about the program’s inverted admissions process, which prioritizes performance in relevant courses over traditional credentials, she realized that the opportunity might not be out of reach.

“Evidence-based development needs people from very diverse backgrounds,” Martinez says. “And I’m proof that you don’t need the ‘right’ background to work in development economics. The fight against global poverty needs everyone.”

Even before joining a financial technology startup, Michael Pilgreen believed in taking risks and investing long-term — especially when it came to his education and career. 

For six years, Pilgreen worked in creative production management, specializing in painting, metalworking, and installations. He’d established himself in the art world with large collaborative projects like a mosaic made entirely of sequins for the Chili’s Care Center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, and never imagined himself working in a STEM field. But in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic brought his creative projects to a halt, Pilgreen found himself “unemployed, distraught, and confused, searching for a sense of purpose and direction.” 

That search led Pilgreen, a self-described “math nerd,” to financial technology — and to MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW). 

“I knew a lot of top universities in the world had started posting their courses and materials online to encourage global collaboration and learning,” Pilgreen recalls. “So, once I knew I wanted to learn finance and computers, I focused on the birthplace of financial engineering — MIT — and tried every way possible to consume information from MIT.”

After watching Professor Andrew Lo’s introduction to finance lecture, Pilgreen was hooked. He completed Lo’s finance theory classes and dived into Professor Gary Gensler’s courses, including “Fintech: Shaping the Financial World” and “Blockchain and Money.” The more time he invested in familiarizing himself with the field, the more certain he felt of his decision — and his ability — to break into the financial technology industry.

Pilgreen jokes that the career switch would’ve required him to use a side of his brain he hadn’t tapped into since high school. But as he absorbed Gensler’s lectures and course materials, the graduate of Rhodes College realized that his liberal arts background could be an asset. “I knew I had the ability to grapple with big ideas and concepts, and saw the opportunity for innovation in the international capital markets,” he says, crediting the OCW courses with teaching him the “language and rhythm of the financial world.” 

The next step was to build his technical skills. Again, Pilgreen turned to OCW, this time exploring its catalog of computer science courses, including “Introduction to Computer Science and Programming,” “Mathematics for Computer Science,” and “Introduction to Algorithms.” 

“All these courses laid the foundation for my technical knowledge and ability to understand complex engineering problems very quickly,” Pilgreen says. “I felt like I knew enough to be dangerous — and started applying to various local wealth management firms.” 

While cold-calling prospective employers might seem risky to some, for Pilgreen, it was another form of investing in himself and his future. He would call up three to five firms a day to ask about their use of technology and to get a sense of how he could apply his evolving knowledge and skills. “The more I learned, the more time I invested, and the more conversations I participated in — the more I felt like what I was doing was purposeful,” he says.

With the finance and computer science courses on OCW giving him a solid foundation, Pilgreen continued investing in his learning by enrolling in the MITx MicroMasters program in finance. He also began studying for several financial certification exams, including the CFA, SIE, Series 7, and Series 66. Through MIT, Pilgreen learned of DataCamp, a platform offering courses in data science and machine learning. He signed up for that, too, and became so absorbed in developing his data skills that for several weeks, he was one of DataCamp’s top learners. “It was really as if I was in school full-time with all my studying but without the debt,” Pilgreen says, explaining that he was dollar-cost averaging, or regularly investing a fixed amount in Bitcoin, at the time to fund his enrollment in MicroMasters and the supplemental data science courses.  

For Pilgreen, the biggest risks result in the biggest rewards. While completing the finance MicroMasters program, he received two job offers — one from an established wealth management firm and another from BondCliQ, a financial technology startup that was just getting off the ground. Pilgreen went with the riskier option, seeing it as an opportunity for more hands-on learning, another kind of investment in himself. He started at the company in March 2021 after completing a two-month training program, learning the ropes of institutional trading in a sales role before moving into an engineering position to lead the startup’s architecture migration effort. 

Now a senior engineer at BondCliQ, Pilgreen reflects on the journey that began nearly two years ago with OCW. He says, “I feel nothing but gratitude for my instructors, the organizers, and the facilitators of both OCW and the MicroMasters. I am on the cusp of greatness and it was derived from learning.”

For MITx MicroMasters learners, Purdue's Krannert School of Management will waive 10 degree credits towards its Master’s in Global Supply Chain Management, which has been ranked as the No. 2 SCM graduate program in the world. Credits: Image courtesy of Purdue University

Purdue University is now joining eight other global universities to become a pathway to a master's degree for learners in the MITx MicoMasters in supply chain management program.

Purdue's Krannert School of Management will waive 10 credits towards its master’s in global supply chain management, which has been ranked as the No. 2 supply chain management (SCM) graduate program in the world. Students earn the remaining 20 credit hours by enrolling at the Indiana-based university to complete a master’s degree.

An accelerated pathway to a master’s

The MITx MicroMasters in SCM credential offers online learners from around the globe a foundational understanding of supply chain management. The five courses — delivered on edX —plus a final comprehensive exam represent the equivalent of one semester of coursework at MIT.

“These online courses offer the same rigor and relevance as the material taught on campus through MIT’s world-renowned supply chain management program,” says Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning and the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor in Mechanical Engineering.

In becoming a pathway for a master’s degree for students with the MITx MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management credential, Purdue now joins the Zaragoza Logistics Center (Spain), the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (Malaysia), Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), Curtin University (Australia), University of Queensland (Australia), Doane University (USA), and Galileo University (Guatemala), as well as MIT. Purdue’s globally-ranked master’s in SCM program builds upon the university’s core strength in operations, supply chain management, and business analytics to prepare students and professionals for a career in managing global supply chains.

“Students and employers need exceptional education delivered with flexibility and modularity, especially in disciplines like global supply chains and operations management,” says Krannert School of Management Dean David Hummels. “We are proud to work with MIT in creating a unique pathway for well-prepared students to complete a highly ranked MS degree in SCM with great access to high-profile faculty expertise, hands-on experience from local company projects, and the state of the art educational technologies.” 

A career-boosting professional and academic credential

Although the credential on its own is regarded as an impressive academic and professional achievement, learners anywhere can take their MITx MicroMasters in SCM credential and then apply to complete a master’s degree at Purdue, MIT, or at a growing number of universities around the globe.

“This hybrid approach to learning is highly-accessible and will accelerate the careers of busy supply chain professionals around the world who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to complete a master’s degree,” says Chris Caplice, director of the SCM MicroMasters program and executive director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.

The average learner in the MITx MicroMasters in SCM already has six full years of work experience, and their average age is 33, which suggests that global learners are taking full advantage of the benefits this blended learning offers to advance their careers in supply chain management. The inaugural cohort of 40 MIT blended master's in supply chain management students were selected from applicants who completed the MicroMasters in SCM in 2017. They are now on campus through May, completing their course work and group projects.

“Blending” convenience with an accelerated, cost-effective approach

Experiential learning is a key part of Purdue’s master’s in SCM program. Teams of three to five master’s students complete a project for a partnering company, while being closely supervised by Purdue/Krannert Operations Management faculty. The learners are responsible for completing all deliverables as specified by the partner company and present final results to management.

An emphasis on real-world, practical learning is also a focus of the MITx MicroMasters.

“We offer a flexible approach to learning that can accommodate the schedules of busy SCM professionals,” says MIT Dean for Digital Learning Krishna Rajagopal. “We also enable them to accelerate their path towards a master’s degree with world-class, MIT-quality SCM content, and we do all this in a cost-effective way that facilitates access. The combination of the learning that can now be delivered online with the magic that happens when you have students working together in one place, as they now can at Purdue, is a powerful career accelerator.”