The Dutton Institute supports the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences's online course and programs offerings through resident instruction, Penn State World Campus, and MOOCs.
Resident Instruction
In 2018-19, our College provided 269 course sections of 68 EMS online courses, reaching 6,604 unique undergraduate and graduate students who generated 7,286 enrollments (23,763 student credit hours).
Penn State World Campus
The College of EMS offers 19 online certificate and degree programs through Penn State World Campus:
Masters Degrees
- Intercollege Master of Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems (Program Office)
- Master of Education in Earth Sciences (Program Office)
- Master of Geographic Information Systems (Program Office)
- Master of Homeland Security, Geospatial Intelligence Option (Program Office)
Graduate Certificate Programs
- Graduate Certificate Program in Earth Science Education
- Graduate Certificate Programs in Geospatial Intelligence (Program Office)
- Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Programming and Web Map Development (Program Office)
- Graduate Certificate Program in Remote Sensing and Earth Observation (Program Office)
- Graduate Certificate Programs In Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems (Program Office)
- Graduate Certificate Program in Weather and Climate Analytics (Program Office)
- Postbaccalaureate Certificate Program in Geographic Information Systems (Program Office)
Undergraduate Degrees
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Energy and Sustainability Policy (ESP) (Program Office)
Undergraduate Certificate Programs
- Undergraduate Certificate Program in Earth Sustainability
- Undergraduate Certificate Program in Weather Forecasting
Undergraduate Minors
Our Open Educational Resources (OER)
More than 100 EMS courses are available on the web. To maximize our exposure, including learners and teachers who cannot afford Penn State tuition, the majority of the courseware we create together is openly available through the College's Open Educational Resources initiative. Engagement with our faculty and acquisition of Penn State credit is, however, limited to registered students.
Our MOOCs
In 2013, Penn State joined Coursera in February 2013, with an agreement to offer five MOOCs. The College of EMS and the Dutton Institute are developing two of those five:
- Maps and the Geospatial Revolution by Anthony Robinson, Lead Faculty for Online Geospatial Education and Assistant Director for the GeoVISTA research center in the Department of Geography, and
- Energy, The Environment, and Our Future by Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor, Department of Geosciences.
Why MOOCs? As a University, we desire to:
- increase Penn State’s visibility and global brand,
- showcase key academic strengths and outstanding faculty,
- test the Coursera course platform capability to engage large audiences of learners and apply our learning to our online and hybrid course designs,
- reinforce Penn State’s leadership in online education,
- evaluate capability in providing access to high demand courses,
- extend Penn State content and expertise to internal and external audiences to address key societal issues,
- address Penn State student needs, such as college preparation or remediation,
- meet the engagement requirement for federal agency funding,
- increase visibility of World Campus courses and programs, and drive enrollments to specific programs, and
- consider new revenue models.