Ruzic videos extend energy lessons to Illinois teachers, worldwide learners

David Ruzic, professor of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at Illinois, brought his highly effective and engaging teaching style to a worldwide audience this past spring through Coursera’s free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform.

Working with the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, Ruzic spent three years filming 130 videos under the title, Energy, Environment and Everyday Life. Each video is six to 10 minutes long and focuses on an energy-related topic, with material taken from Ruzic’s popular Introduction to Energy Sources (NPRE 101) course. More recently, Ruzic has extended that effort, offering the series to all Illinois science teachers.

“We thought to ourselves, ‘How could we make this more available to the public?’ We did all this work; why not have it used?” he said. “I think this is a great public service.”

A short promotional video available at https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/%22Energy%2C+Environment+and+Everyday+Life%27s%22+MOOC+with+University+of+Illinois+Professor+David+Ruzic+Promo%21/1_00safvim , in which Ruzic illustrates surface tension by “walking on water,” provides an entertaining while educational preview of the full-length videos.

The series first became available in April, through the MOOC platform. The University of Illinois has partnered with Coursera to promote the university’s land-grant mission of sharing knowledge with people who are unable to physically come to campus. The effort also introduces the university to prospective students and lifelong learners across the globe.

Included in the videos are an overview of energy, chemistry, fuel cells, electricity and the electric grids, coal, oil, natural gas, solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, nuclear energy, nuclear accidents (Chernobyl and Fukushima), nuclear waste, economics and fusion. Ruzic said the series is not sequential, so viewers or teachers making lesson plans can pick and choose videos that appeal to them.

“My course is not that way – it doesn’t build one lecture to another,” Ruzic said. “If you want to learn about coal, you learn about coal. You don’t have to know about oil before you know about coal.”

Click for a description of each of the video segments.