An online tropical synoptic meteorology course package

The COMET Program (http://www.comet.ucar.edu) is an established leader in providing multimedia education materials. The rapid evolution of delivery technology for distance learning materials has enabled the COMET Program, under a multi-agency cooperative agreement, to develop cutting edge training in such a way that it not only serves our core sponsors, but also is freely available to the academic community and general public via the MetEd Website (http://www.meted.ucar.edu/).

COMET has developed Tropical Synoptic Meteorology, a university-level, online meteorology course package. The course package will be offered for free distribution to interested institutions that are expanding their course offerings, particularly their online offerings. The course fulfills the synoptic and mesoscale meteorology requirements for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Basic Instruction Package for Meteorology (BIP-M), but with an emphasis on the tropics to provide focus for those working or planning to work in tropical regions. The course utilizes existing and newly developed resources, including the online textbook, Introduction to Tropical Meteorology (http://www.meted.ucar.edu/tropical/textbook_2nd_edition/).

The course package includes an instructor's guide and model syllabus with learning objectives, free online instructional resources, introductory slides for faculty use, case examples, questions for review or discussion, student assignments, quizzes, learning activities, and guidance for online course delivery.

Plans are being developed for an adoption and implementation plan to ensure successful use. Part of this plan will include a faculty workshop to introduce the course, teach about online delivery, and provide an overview of the curriculum and course topics.

This paper was funded, in part, by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under the cooperative agreement award #NA11NWS4670004 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or any of its sub-agencies.