Cultivation of a workforce with expertise in power electronics is crucial to building the future of clean energy, transportation electrification, and other emerging technologies. Until recently, traditional on-campus degree programs were the only way to gain a comprehensive power electronics education. Online education has opened the doors to broader accessibility of power electronics education. This talk will discuss a massively open online course (MOOC) degree program and public educational videos to develop the power electronics workforce, including survey results, successes, and challenges.
A unique MOOC-based MSEE program has been offered by the University of Colorado Boulder, with emphasis in Power Electronics and Embedded Systems Engineering. The program is tailored to the needs of working professionals. The courses are taught at the same level as regular on-campus graduate courses, with online homework assignments that feature automated grading and that foster high student engagement at a distance. A performance-based admissions policy provides an egalitarian and streamlined online admission process. A new curricular structure employs short course lengths based on the subject requirements rather than on the traditional 15-week semester. This accredited program offers both noncredit and credit-bearing versions of its courses, graduate certificates, and MSEE degree. A recent survey of enrolled MSEE students showed that 92% are employed, none are resident students, 68% are 30-49 years old, and that tuition price is an important consideration.
Public educational videos are another expanding area for learning about power electronics. During the coronavirus pandemic, many educators moved their lectures to online videos, but the structure of the lecture did not necessarily change. Today, many video-sharing platforms are widely accessible and well-used by students (such as YouTube), but the videos on these platforms utilize different qualities to engage the viewer. By leveraging shorter videos on one topic, a YouTube style to engage viewers, and making them public on a searchable video platform, power electronics education can reach a wider audience. Positive comments have been left by people around the world at all points of their careers (high school to retirement). These kinds of videos can also be used in on-campus courses using a flipped learning classroom approach that benefits students with various learning styles. Education videos can more effectively engage students and save instructors’ time in the long run. IEEE PELS is also building up IEEE Educational Videos on Power Electronics (PELS Tube), peer-reviewed videos by power electronics experts available to all.
