In June, Xiaoli Guo Larsén, professor at DTU Wind, presented a relaunched version of DTU's digital continuing education in wind energy from 2015 to colleagues and curious attendees.
The programme is also known as a MOOC, which stands for Massive Open Online Course, and it sums up the essence of continuing education. It can accommodate a huge number of participants (there is no upper limit on the number), it is open to everyone, and it is fully digital. All you need to participate is a computer and Internet access.
The relaunch of the continuing education programme contains 16 updated lectures, which together provide a broad introduction to the very latest wind energy research.
Morten Willaing Jeppesen, Head of Department at DTU Wind, pointed out in his speech that the MOOC in wind energy is a democratization of knowledge thanks to its digital, free, and English-language format. The programme has so far had no less than 150,000 registrations since it was launched in 2015.
"We have a MOOC in wind energy because we want to share our knowledge about wind energy with a wide audience outside DTU. The 16 researchers who teach on the MOOC communicate their groundbreaking and internationally leading research in a way that is easy to understand, so that as many people as possible can gain insight into how wind energy works and what is needed to use it as a green energy source," he explains.
"Offshore wind energy has moved from Northern Europe to all over the world, and the global wind industry is expanding enormously right now. This produces a great need for skilled people with knowledge of wind technology—throughout the world—and we hope that we can help meet this need with the new edition," says Morten Willaing Jeppesen about the purpose of the relaunch.
A taste of world-leading wind energy research
Xiaoli Guo Larsén, Professor at DTU Wind and course coordinator, calls the updated edition a taste of the world-leading wind energy research conducted at DTU.
"The participants can contact the lecturers if they would like to know even more about wind energy after having participated in the continuing education programme. This means that our MOOC in wind energy can both stand alone and be a stepping stone to enrolling in a longer study programme on the subject at DTU," explains Xiaoli Guo Larsén.
A MOOC in wind energy takes eight weeks to complete, the academic level is the same as on DTU's BSc programmes, and the lectures are supplemented with exercises and texts on wind energy that the participants can do and read at any time of the day. This makes it an ideal continuing education programme if you have a full-time job or live far from a technical university.
"The participants can use each other as sounding boards during the course, making our MOOC an obvious opportunity for learning more about wind energy and expanding your professional network no matter where in the world you live," Xiaoli Guo Larsén concludes.
One of the most important reasons for the updated version of the continuing education is to reflect some of the most current research topics at DTU Wind, which can be divided into four themes, namely wind energy systems, wind turbine design, materials and components and power and energy systems.
Also, DTU Wind is unique because it covers all essential components of modern wind energy in terms of research and innovation.
