In the following, I will briefly review the course “Global Sustainable Energy: Past, Present and Future” by Prof. Wendell Porter of the University of Florida on Coursera.
Synopsis
The course covered a variety of topics, whereby 3 of the topics, residential energy, renewable energy sources, and transportation were covered more in-depth by the students themselves in peer assessments/papers, which were then graded (anonymously) by other students.
Course format
The course included videos, short and to the point, quizzes, and mandatory discussions in the forums, where the topics were covered first, with the peer assessments following up in-depth. Prof. Porter used the online medium very wisely through the mix of videos that were partly shot at various outdoors locations and especially the 3 longer peer assessments that where then graded by other students.
Rating ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍ ✍
I definitely learned a lot, particularly while researching for the projects/peer assessments and while grading other students’ projects. I could have done without some of the mandatory discussions, simple because more often than not people posted random statements without references or links just to get credit. Nevertheless, the rest of the course far outweighed this slight drawback. Overall, I can definitely recommend this course.
