Completion of college-level requirements in the mathematical sciences is one of the most common and vexing impediments to college completion rates, especially for students from lower-income families and underrepresented minorities, where high-school preparation in mathematics is often insufficient. For this reason, important efforts to improve student outcomes in higher education have focused on the application of learning science and use of digital learning platforms to improve the delivery of mathematical sciences content, and on the identification of common learning outcomes and broadly accepted standards in foundational courses—especially introductory statistics.
The University System of Maryland (USM) is partnering with edX, the free online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT, to offer four new MicroMasters® Programs. These programs consist of free, non-credit master's-level courses, which can accelerate the pathway to an advanced degree and save students thousands of dollars in tuition and fees.
The non-degree programs in Bioinformatics, Cloud Computing, Instructional Design and Technology, and Software Testing and Verification will be offered by national online education leader University of Maryland University College (UMUC), a USM member institution.