Teaching Quantum Mechanics to Over 28,000 Nonscientists

Freericks, J. K.; Cutler, David J.; Kruse, Anna; Vieira, Lucas B.

doi:10.1119/1.5098924

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This study is conducted within the European QTEdu CSA project, a component of the "Quantum Technologies" flagship, wherein courses on quantum physics and the application of quantum technologies are devised, implemented, and evaluated among approximately 250 students. Freericks et al [12] already 2017 developed MOOCs for teaching quantum mechanics to over 28.000 non-scientists.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing Quantum Information and Computation to a Broader Audience with MOOCs at OpenHPI

Hellstern,

Hettel,

Just

2024

Preprint

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Quantum computing is an exciting field with high disruptive potential, but very difficult to access. For this reason, numerous concepts are being developed worldwide on how quantum computing can be taught. This always raises questions about the didactic concept, the content actually taught, and how to measure the success of the teaching concept. In 2022 and 2023, the authors gave a total of nine two-week MOOCs (massive open online courses) with different possible learning paths on the Hasso Plattner Institute's OpenHPI platform. The platform's purpose is to make computer science education available to everyone free of charge. The nine quantum courses form a self-contained curriculum. A total of 17157 course attendances have been taken by 7413 natural persons, and the number is still rising. This paper presents the course concept and then evaluates the anonymized data on the background of the participants, their behavior in the courses, and their learning success. In the present paper for the first time such a large dataset of MOOC-based quantum computing education is analyzed. The summarized results are a heterogeneous personal background of the participants biased towards IT professionals, a majority following the didactic recommendations, and a high success rate, which is strongly correlatatd to following the didactic recommendations. The amount of data from such a large group of quantum computing learners offers numerous starting points for further research in the field of quantum computing education.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing Quantum Information and Computation to a Broader Audience with MOOCs at OpenHPI

Hellstern,

Hettel,

Just

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In the process of creating an online course, it is crucial to establish a learning environment which supports students' learning processes. To attain this objective, a plethora of research has been conducted, offering perspectives and criteria that should be considered when developing an online course (for example, see Debattista, 2018;Daniels et al, 2019;Freericks et al, 2019;Gegenfurtner and Ebner, 2019;Gegenfurtner et al, 2020;Mukhtar et al, 2020;Shi, 2020;Martin et al, 2021). Debattista (2018) conducted research on online education and examined four different rubrics, which were then combined into a comprehensive framework.…”

Section: Theoretical Background Design Principles For Online Coursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meaning, the creator of the online course has to be clear about what it should teach the students, which methods are used to achieve this, and what structure is given to the course (Czerkawski and Lyman, 2016). Freericks et al (2019) also suggest testing the course material thoroughly before presenting it in order to prevent errors and mistakes.…”

Section: Theoretical Background Design Principles For Online Coursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum science in a nutshell: fostering students' functional understanding of models

et al. 2023

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Fostering students' understanding of models is a challenge. However, in particular for learning quantum physics an elaborate understanding of models is required. We investigated activities to foster students' functional thinking about (quantum) models in a synchronous online course. The results of an evaluation study (N = 59) showed that the participants improved in their quantum physical thinking about photons and had slightly improved their understanding of physics models in general. A correlation analysis indicates that there are no significant correlations between the students' general understanding of models in physics and their functional understanding of quantum models. Implications of our findings for both teaching and future research with regard to quantum physics education are discussed.

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“…We teach these classes remotely on the edX platform 53,54 (as a massive open on-line class) or in person as a flipped class. In both configurations, students watch videos before class time.…”

Section: Advice For Implementationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we trade off higher-level mathematics for abstraction to improve student understanding of quantum mechanics?

Freericks

Doughty

2023

Seventeenth Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2023

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Undergraduate quantum mechanics focuses on teaching through a wavefunction approach in the position-space representation. This leads to a differential equation perspective for teaching the material. However, we know that abstract representation-independent approaches often work better with students, by comparing student reactions to learning the series solution of the harmonic oscillator versus the abstract operator method. Because one can teach all of the solvable quantum problems using a similar abstract method, it brings up the question, which is likely to lead to a better student understanding? In work at Georgetown University and with edX, we have been teaching a class focused on an operator-forward viewpoint, which we like to call operator mechanics. It teaches quantum mechanics in a representation-independent fashion and allows for most of the math to be algebraic, rather than based on differential equations. It relies on four fundamental operator identities-(i) the Leibniz rule for commutators; (ii) the Hadamard lemma; (iii) the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula; and (iv) the exponential disentangling identity. These identities allow one to solve eigenvalues, eigenstates and wavefunctions for all analytically solvable problems (including some not often included in undergraduate curricula, such as the Morse potential or the Pöschl-Teller potential). It also allows for more advanced concepts relevant for quantum sensing, such as squeezed states, to be introduced in a simpler format than is conventionally done. In this paper, we illustrate the three approaches of matrix mechanics, wave mechanics, and operator mechanics, we show how one organizes a class in this new format, we summarize the experiences we have had with teaching quantum mechanics in this fashion and we describe how it allows us to focus the quantum curriculum on more modern 21st century topics appropriate for the second quantum revolution.

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Teaching Quantum Mechanics to Over 28,000 Nonscientists

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Introducing Quantum Information and Computation to a Broader Audience with MOOCs at OpenHPI

Introducing Quantum Information and Computation to a Broader Audience with MOOCs at OpenHPI

Quantum science in a nutshell: fostering students' functional understanding of models

Should we trade off higher-level mathematics for abstraction to improve student understanding of quantum mechanics?

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