MD: What is the expected commitment to complete the course? Are classes in person or online?

DS: This program is a fully online, asynchronous program, and it’s delivered through Coursera. It launches in July.

It’s in pilot beta right now. It’ll be out there for any learner around the world. Some will access it directly, some will access it through their corporate learning environments or through campus access.

Each course is an average of about 8 to 15 hours. In total, on average, about 50 hours. That’s what we’re finding from those who have gone through the pilot. But they can take it at their own pace.

MD: What types of projects or assessments are included in the program to verify a practical understanding? How do students demonstrate that they’ve understood and that Siemens can stand behind their new credential?

DS: When we looked at the rigor of this program and how to assess the quality and that they’ve met the learning objectives, we had a real focus on learning experience. I mentioned bringing in that education expertise. We looked at multiple formats because, while we may design this for a certain persona, we know that there might be multiple generations of people accessing this curriculum.

So, we did a number of different things. We brought in live video with subject matter experts who did some avatar-based things. And then we get into assessments, which might be in many forms. It might be quizzes, it might be formative, summative, there might be peer evaluations. We found that that’s a really strong modality. Discussion prompts, fill in the blanks, multiple choice. And then we started getting into some interactive activities and even things as creative as an escape room. So, we really try to give immersive environments that are fun and engaging for that learning experience.

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MD: Microcredentialing is a great opportunity for anyone, at any age. But do you foresee this style of curriculum as something that will replace certain certifications or even graduate-level coursework?

DS: For us, the goal here was, how do we meet this need and how do we complement what’s out there and drive change in that method? The challenge that engineering education has is typically that it takes many years to stand up new programs and evolve. If we can bring recognized credentials to bear, they’re going to be able to drive change more frequently.

We definitely are doing this to drive change in engineering education, to augment it, to complement it, but also to provide access to learners that are out to explore. And I hope that creates more pathways for them to even consider engineering from the get-go.

MD: How will you measure the success of your program?

DS: Initially, we want to look for demand. So, is there strong enrollment? Is that enrollment growing? As I seek feedback from our customers, I want to see that they’re adopting and trying to hire from this. But in the end, to have a robust talent pipeline that our customers, our partners and Siemens can have access to, because we know that’s really what’s going to help them drive more digital transformation in their organizations. That’s what we’re trying to get to, so that eventually we have closed that skills gap.

MD: Who are your partners?

DS: Expedite – Skills for Industry is a Siemens credential. It’s been mainly Siemens subject matter experts.

And then we have various other partnerships. I mentioned the previous credential that got ABET recognized with UC Boulder. And so, we’ve looked for some strategic universities that we can now partner with to say, now that we have ABET recognition on a credential, what does that look like? How do we start to embed that in more curricula?

There will be more partnerships you’ll see us announce going forward. We’ve got a number of those that we’re working with, both workforce development organizations and academic institutions.

So, we developed Expedite – Skills for Industry, but we partnered with strategic universities to pilot this. We have 100 students that have just gone through the pilot, have taken their feedback and made adaptations to it. And that’s at about 10 different schools across the U.S. A global pilot will roll out this summer.

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