In "Trends," we will present various topics related to the current form of education that uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

In recent years, online education has come to play an important role in regular programs at higher education institutions, as described in the Series MicroMasters, which features MicroMasters programs offered via edX. An increasing number of institutions have begun to undertake MOOC-based certification for credits and degrees.

The "Virtual Exchange Program" is a MOOC-based credit transfer program offered by several universities around the world, including Delft University of Technology (Netherlands).
In this program, students of a partner university select credit-earnable courses offered by other partner universities and enroll after following the procedure for earning credits at their own university. After taking the course, they can earn credits at their university by fulfilling a specified set of conditions, including passing the final examination drawn up for program participants.^*

Since its commencement in January 2018, 12 universities have joined the "Virtual Exchange Program," including, in addition to Delft University of Technology, Rice University (U.S.A.), University of Paris VI (France), Australian National University (Australia), and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (China) (Details are here.) This program enables students to study abroad at partner universities around the world while staying at their own university. It demonstrates a new form of inter-university collaboration made possible through an online platform.

* MOOCs and numbers of earnable credits designed for the "Virtual Exchange Program" differ from university to university.
Reference: Virtual Exchange Program website run by Delft University of Technology

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