Measurement uncertainty online course 12th run has successfully finished!

On May 14, 2025, the on-line course (MOOC) Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis offered by the University of Tartu finished successfully. Eventually, altogether 1061 people registered from 100 countries. 525 participants actually started the course (i.e. tried at least one graded test at least once). The overall completion rate was 29%. The participation rate was 49% this year. The completion rate of the participants who started the studies was 59%, with 307 successfully finished participants. This result is quite stable during the 12 runs. This result can be considered good for a MOOC, especially for one that has quite difficult calculation exercises, which need to be done correctly with a limited number of attempts to complete the course. All statistics during the 12 years can be found in the table below. The participants were very active and asked lots of questions. The questions were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course has several forums (general and by topic), and during the course period, the overall number of forum posts was above 400 (!) (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers) and the forums are still active and posts are still coming in. We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success! We plan to repeat this course again in Spring 2026!

Measurement Uncertainty online course: 1061 participants from 100 countries!

On Tuesday, March 25, 2025 the web course Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis was launched the twelfth time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course)!

Altogether 1061 participants from 100 countries are registered – the largest number of participants the course has ever had! In the map presented above, the yellow color marks the countries form where participants come. True, the map is coarse and some countries are small. Therefore, not all countries are visible. We are very happy, that we have 9 participants also from Ukraine this year. Slava Ukraini!
Registration for this run is closed. But good news: if you did not manage to register this time, you are welcome to register for the 2026 edition of the course.

The full course material is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/measurement/uncertainty. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises). In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to pass six graded tests and get higher than 50% score from each of them. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform.

This course is run under the umbrella of the Estonian Center of Analytical Chemistry (https://www.akki.ee/) and forms a part of the Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (https://www.analyticalchemistry.eu/) Erasmus Mundus master’s programme.

LC-MS Validation online course 9th run has finished!

On February 14, 2025, the on-line course (MOOC) LC-MS Method Validation offered by the University of Tartu finished successfully.

Eventually, altogether 1029 people registered from 99 countries. Roughly half of them, 509 participants actually started the course (i.e. tried at least one graded test at least once) and, out of them, 299 successfully completed the course. The overall completion rate was 29%. The completion rate of participants who started the studies was 59%. The completion rates of active participants (i.e. who started the course) seems to have stabilized at around 60%, which can be considered good. In any case, there is some food for thought for us on how we could improve the overall completion rate…

At the same time, those participants who actually took part in the course were very active and asked lots of questions. The questions were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course has several forums (general and by topic) and during the course period the overall number of forum posts was above 300 (!) (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers) and the forums are still active and posts are still coming in.

This active participation made teaching this MOOC a great experience also for us, the teachers. The discussion threads gave a lot of added value to the course.

We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success!

We plan to repeat this course again in Autumn 2025.

Measurement Uncertainty online course: registration is now open!

The 2025 edition of the web course (MOOC) Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis will be running from March 25 to May 7, 2025. Registration is now open!

The full course material (as well as the registration link) is accessible from the web page. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files, and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises) and examples. Almost all areas of analytical chemistry are addressed, ranging from simple volumetric operations and titrations to sophisticated instrumental analysis, such as determining pesticide residues by LC-MS. Efforts are made in the course to address also such uncertainty sources encountered in chemical analysis that are difficult to quantify, e.g. uncertainty due to possible interference effects (incomplete selectivity), analyte losses, etc.

In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to take six graded tests and get a higher than 50% score on every graded test. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform.

Participants who successfully pass the course will get a certificate from the University of Tartu. A digital certificate of completion is free of charge. A certificate of completion on paper can be requested for a fee of 60 euros.

You are welcome to distribute this message to potentially interested people!

LC-MS Method Validation web course: 1034 participants from 99 countries!

On Tuesday, November 26, 2024 the web course LC-MS Method Validation was launched for the ninth time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). There are 1034 registered participants from 99 countries, ranging from Mexico to Japan and from Australia to Iceland. The image below shows the countries where the participants come from.

This is a practice-oriented online course on validation of analytical methods, specifically using LC-MS as the technique. The course introduces the main concepts and mathematical apparatus of validation and covers the most important method performance parameters and ways of estimating them. The LC-MS validation course is delivered by a team of 7 teachers, each with their own specific area of competence. This way it is expected to offer the best possible knowledge in all the different subtopics of analytical method validation.

The full set of course materials is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/lcms_method_validation/. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged calculation exercises). In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to take all tests and get higher than 50% score from each of them. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform. Participants who successfully pass the course will get a certificate from the University of Tartu.

 

Measurement uncertainty online course 11th run has successfully finished!

On May 09, 2024 the on-line course (MOOC) Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis offered by the University of Tartu finished successfully.

Eventually altogether 1047 people registered from 104 countries. 655 participants actually started the course (i.e., tried at least one graded test at least once). The overall completion rate was 38%. The participation rate was this year 63%. The completion rate of the participants who started the studies was 61%, with 398 successfully finished participants. This result is quite stable during the 11 runs, showing also a small improving tendency compared to years after the COVID pandemic. This result can be considered good for a MOOC, especially for one that has quite difficult calculation exercises, which need to be done correctly with limited number of attempts for completing the course. All statistics during the 11 years can be found in the table below.

The participants were very active and asked lots of questions. The questions were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course has several forums (general and by topic), and during the course period, the overall number of forum posts was around 300 (!) (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers) and the forums are still active and posts are still coming in.

We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success!

We plan to repeat this course again in Spring 2025 with a new breath in the course appearance!

Measurement Uncertainty online course: 1048 participants from 104 countries!

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, the web course Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis was launched for the eleventh time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course)!

Altogether 1048 participants from 104 countries are registered – the largest number of countries the course has ever had! In the map presented above, the yellow color marks the countries from where participants come. True, the map is coarse and some countries are small. Therefore, not all countries are visible. We are very happy, that we have 16 participants also from Ukraine this year. Slava Ukraini!

The entire course material is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/measurement/uncertainty. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files, and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises). In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to pass six graded tests and get higher than 50% score from each of them. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform.

This course is run under the umbrella of the Estonian Center of Analytical Chemistry (https://www.akki.ee/) and forms a part of the measurements and chemical analysis related master programmes at UT: Applied Measurement Science (https://ams.ut.ee/) and Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (https://www.analyticalchemistry.eu/).

 

LC-MS Method Validation web course: 1013 participants from 109 countries!

Number of participants and countries updated on 22.11.2023!

On Tuesday, November 21, 2023 the web course LC-MS Method Validation was launched for the fifth time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). There are 973 1013 registered participants (the first time ever over 1000) from 107 109 countries, ranging from Chile to China and from Australia to Iceland. And the number is still growing. The image below shows the countries where the participants come from.

This is a practice-oriented on-line course on validation of analytical methods, specifically using LC-MS as technique. The course introduces the main concepts and mathematical apparatus of validation, covers the most important method performance parameters and ways of estimating them. The LC-MS validation course is delivered by a team of 7 teachers, each with their own specific area of competence. This way it is expected to offer the best possible knowledge in all the different subtopics of analytical method validation.

The full set of course materials is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/lcms_method_validation/. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged calculation exercises). In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to take all tests and get higher than 50% score from each of them. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform. Participants who successfully pass the course will get a certificate from the University of Tartu.

Measurement Uncertainty online course: 914 participants from 98 countries!

On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 the web course Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis was launched for the tenth time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course)!Currently, 914 participants from 98 countries are registered. In the map presented above, the yellow color marks the countries where participants come from. True, the map is coarse and some countries are small. Therefore, not all countries are visible. We are very happy that we have two participants also from Ukraine this year. Slava Ukraini!

The full course material is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/measurement/uncertainty. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files, and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises). In order to pass the course, the registered participants have to pass six graded tests and get a higher than 50% score from each of them. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform.

This course is run under the umbrella of the Estonian Center of Analytical chemistry (https://www.akki.ee/) and forms a part of the measurements and chemical analysis related master programmes at UT: Applied Measurement Science (https://ams.ut.ee/) and Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (https://www.analyticalchemistry.eu/).

LC-MS Validation online course 7th run has finished!

On February 10, 2023 the on-line course (MOOC) LC-MS Method Validation offered by the University of Tartu finished successfully.

Eventually, altogether 903 people registered from 104 countries. Less than half, 376 participants actually started the course (i.e. tried at least one graded test at least once) and out of them 218 successfully completed the course. The overall completion rate was 24%. The completion rate of participants who started the studies was 58%. The completion rates of active participants (i.e. who started the course) seems to have stabilized not too far from 60%, which can be considered good. However, the overall completion rate is still in decline (although there is no statistically significant difference between the 25% and 24% of the last two editions). In any case, there is some food for thought for us on how we could improve the overall completion rate…

At the same time, those participants who actually took part in the course, were very active and asked lots of questions. The questions were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course has several forums (general and by topic) and during the course period the overall number of forum posts was above 400 (!) (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers) and the forums are still active and posts are still coming in.

This active participation made teaching of this MOOC a great experience also for us, the teachers. The discussion threads gave a lot of added value to the course and some of them triggered making important modifications to the course materials, even during the course. Importantly, thanks to active participants, several mistakes were found and corrected in the course materials. As a result, the overall quality of the course improved.

We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success!

We plan to repeat this course again in Autumn 2023.