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Apr 23, 2013

IntroAstro: an intense experience

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Introduction to Astronomy (“IntroAstro”) was one of Duke’s first MOOCs delivered on the Coursera platform. Launched in November 2012, this eight week journey through the universe offered by Dr. Ronen Plesser was based on a semester-long Duke University course . We’ve released a report which summarizes the development and delivery of this course and captures […]


Introduction to Astronomy (“IntroAstro”) was one of Duke’s first MOOCs delivered on the Coursera platform. Launched in November 2012, this eight week journey through the universe offered by Dr. Ronen Plesser was based on a semester-long Duke University course . We’ve released a report which summarizes the development and delivery of this course and captures the experiences of the instructor and some of the 40,000 students who participated. Some key findings include:

  • The course delivered over 24 hours of video lectures and demonstrations
  • Out of 40,000 students who viewed the first video, approximately 5,500 remained active throughout the course
  • 2141 students earned a Statement of Accomplishment in this challenging course
  • Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the instructor found the experience rewarding
  • Over 1000 hours of effort from the instructor, his TA and other staff went into building and delivering this course.

More information is available in our full report. We welcome your comments.


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