Launching the First Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Microwave Engineering and Antennas

In this paper we describe the motivation, design, and implementation details of a new massive open online course (MOOC) that provides a master-level introduction into both microwave engineering and antennas. This unique free-of-charge course provides young talent around the world the opportunity to make a start in their career to become an expert in antennas and microwave engineering. The combination of both disciplines in this course is very important, since new emerging applications at millimeter-wave frequencies call for highly integrated solutions in which the traditional domains of antennas and microwave engineering overlap each other. The inter-active course is developed in the Coursera platform and includes 33 professional web lectures, interactive online quizzes with more than 400 questions, a large challenge-based-learning project. Furthermore, the course is supported by an open-access book. Already after 4 months, more than 3000 active learners participated. The course is also used to support the regular on-campus master course.