It was Aldo Leopold — the 20th century conservationist, father of wildlife management and former University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty member, who once said, "There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other and the relation of people to the land."
Ackerman
Beginning in 2015, UW-Madison will take Leopold's words to heart by offering six Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with a shared theme of sustainability and the environment.
Faculty members of the College of Letters & Science will lead two of the new courses.
Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Steven Ackerman, along with Margaret Mooney, senior outreach specialist for the Space Science and Engineering Center, will teach Changing Weather and Climate in the Great Lakes Region.
Meanwhile, Professor of Geoscience Alan Carroll will lead Energy and the Earth.
Carroll
MOOCs are unique, online delivery systems that allow people from around the globe to participate in free, noncredit learning experiences. Building on the momentum of UW-Madison's phase one pilot of four courses, which reached more than 135,600 registrants from approximately 141 countries and all 50 states, the university will continue its partnership with the online learning company Coursera.
To read more about all of the new MOOCs, read this story from University Communications.