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Over 50,000 students enroll in SUNY-ESF solar energy course
Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor
The course has been overwhelmingly popular with people aged 18 to 24 40% of those enrolled are in that age group.
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An online SUNY-ESF class on solar energy has an enrollment about 29 times that of the school’s total student population, reaching students from around the globe.
ESF professor Neal Abrams teaches the course, Solar Energy Basics, on an online learning platform, Coursera. While the course started as an in-person, non-credit intensive workshop, growing demand led ESF to move the course online.
“As solar got bigger, we also realized there was a need for reach because of our expertise,” Abrams said.
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Open Academy s non-credit Solar Energy Basics course on the Coursera platform recently hit a milestone of 50,000-plus enrollments since it launched back in 2019. It puts that course in the top 10 enrollments of SUNY courses on the Coursera platform, out of approximately 60 courses.
The course was developed by Dr. Neal Abrams, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry with instructional design and technical support from the Open Academy.
The course has a global reach, and has been subtitled into eight languages in addition to English. It s one of three courses on solar energy for Coursera developed by Abrams to provide learners with a foundation for designing photovoltaic systems. The second course, Solar Energy System Design, launched in the summer of 2020 and a third will launch this summer. Abrams has also been using these courses as part of a credit-bearing course this semester as part of the online Sustainability Management program, SUS 496- Solar Power: