MOOC: APPLIED PHYSICS

We are developing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Applied Physics with the financial support of the Catalonia agency AGAUR. This course will begin on February 2016 and the communication language will be Spanish to connect with Spanish and Latin-American professors and learners (last year of high school, first year of university).

The main objectives are:
A) Improving knowledge of physics and the importance of physics in understanding everyday reality.
B) Improving the academic performance of the students.
C ) Support the educational material for teachers of pre-university education.
The course will follow a modular structure. This modular structure should facilitate the adaptation to the needs of students and teachers.

In order to facilitate the initial contact the contents of the course follows a classification based in classical physics, such as:
1. Introduction to Physics.
2. Kinematics and dynamics.
3. Thermodynamics
4. Electromagnetism
5. Oscillations and waves
6. Radiation.

At the same time, however, the course will enable the study of examples of specific areas of application and to show the most attractive content for an applied physics course. The introduction of MOOC courses no clashes with the current university culture, because in many cases both students and teachers have expressed their support to the need to prepare students for university. In the future, the course aims to internationalize by offering it also in English.

Acknowledgement:
Financial support from Catalonia agency AGAUR with the project 2014MOOC-00040.