Penn Professor's Free Online Calculus Course Will Earn Students Credits

Calculus: Single Variable, an online Coursera course taught by Andrea Mitchell University Professor Robert Ghrist, has been recognized by the American Council on Education (ACE). Similar to advanced placement credit, this potentially would allow hundreds of institutions to award credits to students completing the course.

The class builds upon high school level knowledge of calculus, using hand-drawn graphics and animations in emphasizing conceptual understanding and applications.

"ACE credit recommendations will allow us to reward students for all the hard work that they are already doing," Ghrist said. "These students are working as hard as they can to learn this difficult material, while we are working as hard as we can to teach it, so, in the end, everyone will benefit."

To read the full release, click here.

Arts & Sciences News

1 / 2
University of Pennsylvania, Neubauer Family Foundation, and Philadelphia Police Department Partner to Support Police Leadership Education

The first-of-its-kind graduate degree in the U.S. for police leaders launches this fall at the School of Arts & Sciences.

View Article >
Marisa C. Kozlowski Named Next Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, succeeds Mark Trodden, who transitions to the Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences on June 1.

View Article >
One Fourth Year, One Alum Receive 2025 Hertz Fellowship

Eric Tao, C’25, Gr’25 (left), and Suraj Chandran, C’23, were awarded the honor, part of a group of 19 fellows selected this year. Each one receives five years of funding toward a doctoral program.

View Article >
Benjamin Nathans Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History, won for his book “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.”

View Article >
Mark Devlin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

He joins three others from Penn to receive the honor this year, all recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

View Article >
Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Rosenfeld Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They join three others from the University of Pennsylvania, selected as part of the Academy’s mission to convene leaders from “every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together.”

View Article >