D001x: A collaboration between academia and industry
In May 2013, Davidson College entered into a partnership with edX to understand how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might strengthen the hallmarks of the academic experience at Davidson. Davidson's online presence was named DavidsonX, and DavidsonX launched its first course, D001x Medicinal Chemistry, in March 2014. Through the offering of D001x, DavidsonX came into contact with the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). Sharing common interests in outreach and global access to education, DavidsonX and NIBR collaboratively launched D001x in October 2014. In this collaboration, NIBR scientists voiced their personal experiences and career paths in on-line interviews. These interviews exemplify Novartis' outreach efforts to build scientific capacity throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Additional aspects of Novartis' participation in the MOOC can be seen in a recent post on the Novartis Explores Research & Development (NERD) blog. The collaboration between NIBR and Davidson has continued through the third iteration of the MOOC in fall of 2015 and into the fourth running in spring 2016.