Welcome to EME 810, our first offering of solar energy resource education online! Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all of the material on all these pages and on our course syllabus. These resources will not only prepare you to be successful in this course, but they will also help you prepare for the "Course Information" quiz at the end of the orientation. You must get a score of at least 90% on that quiz to gain access to the assignment dropboxes for this course...and the answers are all contained on the syllabus or in this orientation!
This course orientation will complement and expand on the information provided on our syllabus. Be sure to review that document, too...carefully! A link to the syllabus is located in the menu.
You should complete the Course Orientation before the first week of class. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.
The following is an overview of those activities that must be submitted for the Course Orientation. Detailed directions and submission instructions are located within this orientation.
(You may want to print this page to serve as a checklist as you go along.)
Personalize your Canvas space |
Set up your Canvas notification preferences |
Log in to this website |
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class! |
Take the "Course Information Quiz" and score at least 90% |
If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not e-mail), located under the Modules tab in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
On the following pages you will find important information about the course structure, requirements, scheduling, and technical requirements and assistance...all of which you'll need to know in order to pass the course. Remember, you are also responsible for the information located on our course syllabus (see the menu).
This course will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
Canvas [1] - Canvas is the learning management system currently being used by Penn State University. In Canvas, registered students may consult course calendars; communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students; submit assignments; receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant; take online quizzes and surveys; and check assignment scores and course grades. A link to Canvas appears on every page.
The content of this course is divided into 12 lessons. Each lesson will be completed in approximately 1 week.
Evaluation of student performance will be based on the following assignments:
Refer to the course syllabus for assignment weighting and final grade calculation.
This site includes the majority of the instructional materials for this class. There are a few things you should know about this website.
This site uses a "tab" interface to organize content. The tabs are used as follows:
We can all appreciate that experience as an undergrad when we had that really great connection with an instructor and our classmates. The hallmark of a successful online class similarly holds meaningful interactions among students and instructors. The two web-based learning environments that we use for this course—Canvas and Drupal —support several kinds of communication, as described below.
The Canvas course management system supports several modes of communication, including course e-mail, and announcements.
Many of the pages in this website will require registered students to post comments, questions, and responses on Canvas discussions: there will be many of them: at least one for each Lesson Discussion, and one general forum for "Questions" at the very bottom of the long list. You should request to be notified of subsequent posts by "subscribing" to these forums and having your Canvas email forwarded to your preferred address. You might want to make a specific folder for EME 810 messages to be diverted from your main email inbox too. You must log into Canvas before you can do this.
OK, so this is less of a communication to others, and more of a useful tip for you. Sometimes you will not be near the web (you went to the lake, your internet is down because you just moved, you are in a café that asks you to pay [gasp] for WiFi). How can you be prepared to still make use of your time?
Like I said, this is more about having the most resources at your fingertips (maybe you commute by train or subway and want to read while you ride) to make more use of your free time for the course. Good luck!
There are many ways to get the help you need. See the "Help!" link in the Resources menu to learn more about the people and resources available to you.
Your Canvas Profile and User Settings let you control your personal information in Canvas. Take a few minutes to personalize your Canvas profile and set your Notification Preferences, by following the instructions below.
Task | Instructions |
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Personalize your Canvas Profile |
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If you use PSU OneID |
Students who are enrolled with OneID will not receive emails automatically from Canvas due to not having PSU email access. We advise that students set up a personal email address for notifications.
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Set your notification preferences |
You have the option to select how, when, and for what information you would like to receive notifications. This can be very helpful when keeping track of items such as discussion posts, assignment due dates, and exams. Visit Canvas Notification Preference Support [5] and follow the instructions for setting up your notification preferences. The video below this table provides additional information. To ensure that your Canvas Inbox messages forward to your regular e-mail account immediately, check the "Notify me right away" option (the checkmark) for each item under "Conversations" in Notification Preferences. |
Set your timezone |
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Download the Canvas App | For information on using the app by device, please see the following:
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One of your main solar project tools for this course will be NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) [10]:
"The System Advisor Model (SAM) is a performance and financial model designed to facilitate decision making for people involved in the renewable energy industry:
- Project managers and engineers
- Policy analysts
- Technology developers
- Researchers
SAM makes performance predictions and cost of energy estimates for grid-connected power projects based on installation and operating costs and system design parameters that you specify as inputs to the model. Projects can be either on the customer side of the utility meter, buying and selling electricity at retail rates, or on the utility side of the meter, selling electricity at a price negotiated through a power purchase agreement (PPA)."
If you haven't seen SAM before, please check the link to NREL now and do a little reading. The software is free for download to both Mac and Windows OS.
We will use a very useful tool to plot shading diagrams, the UO Sun Chart tool [11]. Prof. Frank Vignola and his team at the University of Oregon have developed a great web tool to get us started for plots of time and space in solar energy. I welcome you to explore their Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory main page [12]when you have time.
The course in Solar Energy Conversion requires understanding of many parameters, and study of how each parameter changes in relation to the others over the course of minutes, hours, days, seasons, and years. The modern way to work with all of those parameters is to use computing tools: text editors [13], command interfaces, ASCII files [14], math software, and dynamic simulation software. [10] In the future, those of your who continue to work in the solar world will learn to internalize most of these changing conditions, and yet you will still come to rely on simulations to describe the systems behavior of the whole.
A reliance on simulations means that a skilled professional will also understand some elements of computer programming. Even when using a fully developed program with a graphical user interface to obscure the working functions, it is to your benefit to understand the underlying algorithms. For instance, there will be times when your simulation needs to be debugged, because you found results do not agree with reality (e.g. negative units of irradiance, monetary paybacks in 85 years, system efficiencies greater than 35%, a string of odd symbols and numbers, etc), a scenario that is behaving oddly or one that does not converge on a solution. Sometimes the problem is an input error, sometimes the code is wrong, and sometimes the program is just not agreeable with the Operating System that you are using. The ability to "debug" is the same ability to assess a problem and seek solutions underlying the training in engineering, science, and economics. Consider that programming skills are equivalent to skills in problem solving and critical thinking.
By learning how to interact with computers and simulation tools, and the basic algorithms underlying solar energy conversion systems, you will be empowered to explore and explain the patterns of solar energy, and predict the benefits of solar energy integration for society across geographic regions, across generations, and the benefit of solar energy to our human-environment relations.
If you don't know about Lynda.com--you are in for a treat! This is a great educational framework that comes free to all PSU students: yes--including all of you across the World Campus! Need to use Excel, but it's been a really long time? Lynda.com can help you and allow us to focus on the course at hand. We will use Lynda.com to get started with some basic tools that we know you will use in the field of solar energy, and within the EME 810 course itself!
Throughout this course, you will use numerical software open to work through the numerical problems. We will be working with This is another tool to make repetitive jobs easier and to communicate algorithms among a team more directly than by spreadsheets. Scripts to accomplish lengthy tasks will be distributed for specific assignments early in the semester.
As this class is evolving we are recommending Python [18] as the main tool, which is free and works on multiple OS platforms. If you do not have experience in this language. There is a cloud based Python (and R) coding tool called Jupyter [19] that we will be using extensively. This is a "notebook" tool that allows us to convey instructions embedded with the code. I will be providing you with notebooks that contain the source code, and you will largely need to change the inputs and execute the commands. I will also be providing you with a tutorial resources in the first week from Lynda.com for those who are just getting used to Python. You can always go back to it later if you need help, and I will offer support as well for the short projects that we use Python on.
While many problems can be done by hand, they are much easier if done using software like Python, R [20], or Matlab/Scilab [17].
Keep in mind that the trigonometric arguments in this class are performed in degrees, not radians. In Python you will use methods in the math library [21], and we wil define shortcuts for degree based arguments, like "sind(deg arg)" instead of "sin(radian arg)" (e.g. "sind(45)" is the sine of 45 degrees).
We may explore a software called R [22] (yep, just "R"), and it's front end RStudio [23] to process some of your data sets. Think of it as Matlab or Mathematica for statistics, but easier to use (and it is open source and free). If you are not familiar with this amazing software, please go directly to Lynda.com at Penn State [24] to get up to speed with: "Up and Running with R with Barton Poulson" (sections 1 and 2) and "R Statistics Essential Training with Barton Poulson" (section 1). Again, I will offer support as well for the short projects that we might use R for.
To be sure you are able to access reserve readings and other library resources in this course, visit the library’s Online Student's Use of the Library [25] site. This guide outlines all that Penn State libraries offer you as an online student. It is strongly recommended that you visit the Services for Students [26] page.
If you have questions, just ASK! [27] a librarian! The ASK! page will connect you to librarians in a manner that meets your needs; e-mail, phone, or chat for a quick response.
We recommend the following three study habits that will maximize your chances for success in your online class:
One of the best practices you can employ as a student is that of good time management. For many of you, you're just now returning to school after some time away from the classroom. Chances are also good that life is busier and more complicated now than the last time you were a student - with family and work commitments competing for your time. As you embark on your journey through the RESS degree program or a Solar Certificate, we want to make sure we're helping to prepare you for the greatest success possible, and time management skills are a great place to start!
This is a three credit course, and as a general rule, you can expect that three credit courses will call for an average of approximately 9-12 hours of commitment each week. This time commitment will include reading and written assignments, exams, quizzes, reviewing course content on the web (like this site!), and any discussion activities or other participation requirements.
Some Lessons may hold distinctly unfamilar content for you, or will just be challenging to internalize because we are training you in new ways to think about a common solar problem. Those lessons may require more time than the average requirement. Whenever possible, I have tried to place warnings at the beginning of lessons that certain content arcs will likely be intense (like "Math Warning!"). So, when planning your schedule each semester, keep this metric in mind so that you're not overloading yourself.
Online classes are great, especially if you're also working and managing family commitments, because they afford you the flexibility to complete the work on your own time. However, that flexibility can also be a bit of a curse! With no requirement to show up for class at a specified time each week, it can be challenging to make yourself carve out specific time to devote specifically to your coursework. Suddenly, you find yourself frantically trying to complete a week's worth of work late at night as the clock races toward the deadline. We'd like to help you avoid those last minute crunches!
Bransford, J. D. et al. (Eds.) (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, and Experience. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Chickering, A. W., and Gamson, Z. F. (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7) 3-7.
Gibbs, G. (1999) Planning Your Students’ Learning Activities. In McKeachie, W.J. (Ed.) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 10th Ed. Pp. 20-33. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Palloff, R. M. and Pratt, K. (2001) Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Swan, K. et al. (2000) Course Design Factors Influencing the Success of Online Learning. Proceedings, WebNet 2000 World Conference on the WWW and Internet. San Antonio TX, October 30-November 4.
By now you hopefully have a much better idea of what this course, and the online course environment, will be like. Time to test your understanding! Once you have reviewed all of the materials for the Course Orientation and read and understand the Syllabus, you will need to take the "Course Information Quiz" and pass it with a score of 90% or better in order to unlock the assignment dropboxes for this course. You can take the quiz as many times as you need until you obtain at least a 90%.
Good luck!
You have reached the end of the Course Orientation! Double-check the to-do list on the Course Orientation Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before you begin Lesson 1. (To access Lesson 1, use the link in the "Lessons" .)
If you have anything you'd like to comment on, or add to, the course orientation materials, feel free to post your thoughts in the main Canvas forum.
Links
[1] https://psu.instructure.com
[2] http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-and-certificates/renewable-energy-sustainability-solar/overview
[3] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1293
[4] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1285
[5] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10624-4212710344
[6] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1559
[7] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1666
[8] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Notification-Settings-All-Users/ta-p/383690
[9] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/tkb-p/videos
[10] https://sam.nrel.gov/
[11] http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SoftwareTools.html
[12] http://solardat.uoregon.edu/index.html
[13] https://www.sublimetext.com/
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII
[15] https://www.lynda.com/SharedPlaylist/0fef81fd55f0497b98b570fe57714fe6?org=psu.edu
[16] https://www.lynda.com/Sublime-Text-tutorials/Up-Running-Sublime-Text-2/114325-2.html
[17] http://www.scilab.org/
[18] http://ipython.org/install.html
[19] http://jupyter.org/
[20] https://www.r-project.org/about.html
[21] https://docs.python.org/2/library/math.html#trigonometric-functions
[22] http://www.r-project.org/
[23] http://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/
[24] http://lynda.psu.edu/
[25] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide
[26] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540332
[27] http://ask.libraries.psu.edu/?stream=8