Online courses directory (217)

The ability to research topics and incorporate information from your sources into your work is an important skill both in college and on the job.  This course will reinforce the concepts you practiced in English Composition I by introducing you to basic research concepts and techniques.  It will also give you a chance to put these new concepts and techniques to work as you develop a final research paper.  We will begin by looking at how to build research into an effective writing process.  First, you will learn to think of researching not as a requirement for getting a good grade on a paper but as a valuable tool that can make your writing more powerful and convincing.  You will learn how to build research into your writing process so that you can add persuasive power to your finished work.  Through rigorous practice of the fundamental techniques, you will come to see that, like writing itself, research is an act of discovery rather than a search for prefabricated ideas. The intent of this course is t…

Spanish 277 is the prerequisite course for minors and concentrators in Spanish. This course combines online self-instruction of Spanish grammar with an introduction to literature in Spanish. In-class discussions will focus on literary concepts and will integrate the study of grammar usage in the readings. The online materials include print handouts, PowerPoint presentations, audio mini-lessons, and links to online grammar explanations, all of which will allow students to bring their grammar skills up to the desired level. There are also self-correcting electronic exercises, all of which provide feedback on correct/incorrect answers. Course Level: Undergraduate This Work, Spanish 277 - Reading, Grammar, and Composition, by Dennis Pollard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

This course is designed to introduce students to the writing, reading, and thinking skills necessary for success at the college level. Upon completing this course, students will be able to: A. Compose essays demonstrating proficiency in developing and organizing ideas, using language effectively, and writing in standard edited English. B. Find, evaluate, and use sources appropriately. C. Demonstrate continued use and development of effective writing strategies in upper division courses. To achieve these outcomes, students will focus on writing as a recursive process that includes prewriting, drafting, editing, and revising. Emphasis will be placed on personal, reflective, and expository writing. Students will develop critical reading skills and use course readings to analyze specific writing techniques and strategies that can be used to improve their own writing. Students will also identify at least five personal grammatical, mechanical, and stylistic errors that recur in their work and find resources that assist them in resolving these problems. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Written by Daryl Smith O'Hare Edited and designed by Susan C. Hines

Great managers are made, not born. Learn about the qualities and skills of great managers in this Business 101 course. Instructor Sherri Hartzell holds both an MBA and Ed.D., so she's an excellent choice to teach you about principles of management.

Start by learning about the different levels of management in organizations and then dive into how good managers lead to great employees. Students of business, budding entrepreneurs and independent online learners alike can benefit from these short, engaging video lessons and interactive online quizzes. Business 101: Principles of Management can prepare you to earn real, widely transferable college credit by taking the Principles of Management CLEP exam or the Excelsior Principles of Management exam .

The Diploma in English Language and Literature gives you the opportunity to gain comprehensive knowledge and understanding of important aspects of English language and literature. It is ideal for people who have always wanted to study English language and literature in greater detail, as well as learners who are studying English as a second language.<br /><br />The English language modules cover the fundamentals of grammar, effective speaking, and writing skills.<br /><br />The English literature modules analyze literature with an emphasis on renowned authors and poets, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Miller and William Shakespeare.<br /><br />A qualification in this free online diploma course is the ideal way of demonstrating your proficiency in the English language.<br />

Great managers are made, not born. Learn about the qualities and skills of great managers in this Business 101 course. Instructor Sherri Hartzell holds both an MBA and Ed.D., so she's an excellent choice to teach you about principles of management.

Start by learning about the different levels of management in organizations and then dive into how good managers lead to great employees. Students of business, budding entrepreneurs and independent online learners alike can benefit from these short, engaging video lessons and interactive online quizzes. Business 101: Principles of Management can prepare you to earn real, widely transferable college credit by taking the Principles of Management CLEP exam or the Excelsior Principles of Management exam .

Build your earth science vocabulary and learn about cycles of matter and types of sedimentary rocks through the Education Portal course Earth Science 101: Earth Science. Our series of video lessons and accompanying self-assessment quizzes can help you boost your scientific knowledge ahead of the Excelsior Earth Science exam . This course was designed by experienced educators and examines both science basics, like experimental design and systems of measurement, and more advanced topics, such as analysis of rock deformation and theories of continental drift.

College Writing 2.1x is an introduction to academic writing for English Language Learners, focusing on essay development, grammatical correctness, and self-editing. The five-week course includes a review of basic grammar terminology and understanding; writing effective sentences and paragraphs; introductions and conclusions; strategies for writing longer texts; and thesis statements. The course materials will be offered via readings and videos. An optional course workbook, in ebook form, may be used for additional writing work. Students will participate in online discussions as well as peer review. Students will complete an essay for this part of the course.

In partnership with the U.S. Department of State

UC Berkeley is partnering with the U.S. Department of State to extend the reach of College Writing 2X. Participating U.S. Embassies will host in-person, facilitated discussions sessions around the course content in order to maximize the learning experience. The State Department-supported EducationUSA network will also offer facilitated discussions in some locations for students interested in pursuing higher education in the United States. This partnership is part of the English Education Alliance (E2A), a global effort of the U.S. Department of State to address the global demand for 21st century English language skills.

Shakespeare wrote for a popular audience and was immensely successful. Shakespeare is also rightly regarded as one of the greatest playwrights the world has known. This course will try to understand both Shakespeare’s popularity and his greatness by starting from a simple premise: that the fullest appreciation of Shakespeare can be achieved only when literary study is combined with analysis of the plays as theatre. Hence, as we delve into the dimensions that make Shakespeare’s plays so extraordinary--from the astonishing power of their language to their uncanny capacity to illuminate so much of human life--we will also explore them in performance from Shakespeare’s own theatre to the modern screen. At the same time, actors will occasionally join our effort and demonstrate ways of bringing the text alive as living theatre. Plays to be studied will include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale.

Image courtesy Castle Rock Entertainment/The Kobal Collection

Before your course starts, try the new edX Demo where you can explore the fun, interactive learning environment and virtual labs. Learn more.

Is there a required textbook?
The texts of all six plays will be required. Free, electronic versions can be found on numerous sites on the internet, including the following, which offers pdf downloads: http://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/download.html. However, free, internet editions do not provide glosses or notes that explain difficult words and phrases. We strongly recommend that participants purchase texts (paper or electronic) that provide important aids to reading.

This module, the third installment of the multi-part Poetry in America series, focuses on the poetry of Walt Whitman, a quintessentially American writer whose work continues to bear heavily upon the American poetic tradition. We will explore Whitman’s relationship to the City, the Self, and the Body through his life and poetry. Distinguished guests in this module include Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener.

Led by Harvard Professor Elisa New, Poetry in America surveys nearly 400 years of American poetry. Through video lectures, archival images and texts, expeditions to historic sites, interpretive seminars with large and small groups, interviews with poets and scholars, and conversations about poems with distinguished Americans, Poetry in America embarks on a journey through the literature of a nation. Distinguished guests, including President Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan, Henry Louis Gates, Eve Ensler, John McCain, Andrea Mitchell, Michael Pollan, Drew Faust, Tony Kushner, and Nas, among others, bring fresh perspectives to the study of American Poetry.

HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.

This course, the first installment of the multi-part Poetry in America series, covers American poetry in cultural context through the year 1700. The course begins with Puritan poets--some orthodox, some rebel spirits--who wrote and lived in early New England. Focusing on Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Michael Wigglesworth, among others, we explore the interplay between mortal and immortal, Europe and wilderness, solitude and sociality in English North America.

Led by Harvard Professor Elisa New, Poetry in America surveys nearly 400 years of American poetry. Through video lectures, archival images and texts, expeditions to historic sites, interpretive seminars with large and small groups, interviews with poets and scholars, and conversations about poems with distinguished Americans, Poetry in America embarks on a journey through the literature of a nation. Distinguished guests, including President Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan, Henry Louis Gates, Eve Ensler, John McCain, Andrea Mitchell, Michael Pollan, Drew Faust, Tony Kushner, and Nas, among others, bring fresh perspectives to the study of American Poetry.

HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.

Princess stories have been popular for centuries and remain so today around the world; we’ll dive into what these fairy tales mean, and trace the history of these narratives back to their source material, examining contexts all along the way. We’ll borrow tools from cultural studies, literature studies, and film studies to help us analyze these phenomena and what they mean to our society. Many of us may associate princess stories with modern-day products (much of it marketed to small children) or with Disney movies and theme parks. We’ll examine these current versions of fairy tale mythos as well, using our new interpretive tools to uncover not just what’s been changed in the moral and message of the narrative, but what the stories mean as told now.

The field of technical writing has come a long way from writing clearly and concisely using a keyboard into a new world of structured writing and content management. Documents are no longer written and published as individual entities within a documentation set but rather written as data segments for reuse on systems that automate processes for controlling and managing the segments. Information is no longer published as a document solely for paper ouput, but for electronic access on PCs, cell phones, and other handheld devices. This means that the technical writer today must be familiar with the solutions that employ the features of structured writing for reuse, and the latest standard approaches for segmenting and storing information for output to multiple types of formats and access on different devices. The course is designed to further your technical writing skills with use of XMetaL, XML, and the DITA standard. It also introduces you to other writing standards, output options, and content management systems. Basic knowledge of writing standards, output options, and content management systems is helpful. Participants can choose to receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. The cost of the Certificate and Processing will generally be $59.00 (US) domestic and $69.00 (US) international. For this self-paced course, the average time of completion is 6-7 weeks. There are 7 lessons. You may complete the lessons and activities at your own pace after the course start date and complete the work as quickly as you care to.

This seven-and-a-half week online course will introduce you to basic writing skills, especially as they pertain to novel writing. This includes everything from basic story construction and character development, through the intricacies of plotting. You’ll learn to identify skill strengths and weaknesses. You’ll also start thinking like a writer by developing your writing and analytical skills. During the course, you’ll learn to talk about writing as working writers do, and develop a toolkit of techniques, which you’ll use throughout your career. This course will offer both a badge and, certificate of completion. Cost of enrollment: $65.00 Required Materials: The textbook for this course is 21 Days to a Novel by Michael A. Stackpole It is available as a PDF from Stormwolf.com Cost: $20 The sample novel for this course is Star Wars X-wing Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole. (I am using this book as an example because I am absolutely certain I know what the author was thinking when he was writing this book or any passage in it, and that I can reliably relate the author’s true thoughts and intentions.) The book is widely available in paper or ebook format. There is one other book each student should read: any novel published in the last two years, written by an author after whom you would like to style your writing. In the first week you'll share your draft-choice novel with others. These shared books should form a solid library of examples to study. (Writers must read other writers.)

The study of literary texts can be dramatically enriched if one takes into account the material form in which they are presented to the reader. In this course, we will focus on the relationships between the text and the other elements that may surround it (like illustrations) or between the text and the various material forms that shape it (like the digital hypertext format).

What the what? A course about swearing? (No need to put a quarter in the swear jar; it’s totally academic.) An honest-to-goodness linguistics professor will guide you through the study of taboo language, including syntax, semantics, phonology & morphology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, second language acquisition, and cross-linguistic comparison. See? No four-letter words here, so you know it’s for scholars. Enroll today (unless you’re averse to obscenity) and learn everything you always wanted to know about bad words, but were afraid to ask your mother. Required text: This Book is Taboo: An Introduction to Linguistics through Swearing Available for purchase at Kendall Hunt Hard-cover: $54.60 E-book: $43.68 Students who successfully complete this course will receive a certificate of attendance. This course is offered through Instructure as a non-credit course created by the University of Utah. Students enrolled in this course are not considered students of the University of Utah.

This course revolves around the work of revising writing, learning, and engaging with language and community. You will explore who you are as a learner as you write about yourself and your language use, as well as consider who you are as a communicator as you critique texts, persuade audiences, and collaborate with others. We've designed this course to help you revise how you write and to help you collect a toolkit of effective reading, writing, and learning strategies. Each of the four modules integrates academic and social contexts (e.g., Facebook, ELI peer review application) to encourage a wide application of the skills you acquire during the course. The skills you will practice in this course (like narration, summary, etc.) are fairly typical for writing classes at many U.S. universities; however, our course focuses on you as a writer and thinker. Recognizing specific learning and communication practices and considering ways to employ them can make you more successful in future coursework and in all communication.

Intended for English language teachers and students, world language teachers and students, and everyone else wishing to understand the structure of English, this course explains English holistically by describing the fixed order of the sentence and the interrelationship of its parts. This course is not a series of independent lessons, but a deeper, more focused, unified look into the structure of English. Participants quickly discover that all English sentences follow the same principles by identifying the places contained in every sentence and the types of relationships and phrases found in those places. From day one, participants describe English sentences in a simple, straightforward manner and are able to apply this information for editing purposes. These skills facilitate the teaching and learning of other languages as well. Course content is taken from linguistics and adapted to language teaching and learning. Course content is cumulative, applies directly to every sentence, and becomes the method for describing how words and phrases are combined into sentences to create meaning. X-words (traditionally called auxiliary verbs or helping verbs) are our keys for unlocking and revealing the hidden structure of every sentence. Class content is provided through the X-Word Grammar online video series available at the X-Word Grammar Store. Subscription cost is $15. The philosophy of X-Word Grammar: The simple sentence is a unique approach and quite different than any other grammar you have ever studied. It is logical, useful, and interesting! If you want to learn about the structure of the English sentence, this class is for you. Try it. You will like it!

This course will introduce you to the range of drama written and performed in England and Continental Europe between roughly 1660 and1800, a period often termed “the long eighteenth century.”  In this course, we will refer to the “long-eighteenth century” as the period that began with the Restoration of the English monarchy with King Charles II following the English Civil War and concluded with the first years of the nineteenth century.  During this period, drama flourished in England, France, and Germany.  After quite a long period in which theater was not in vogue, the emergence of brilliant new dramatists, the development of novel forms of plays (including derivates of the Italian opera, comedy, and the musical), and the passage of laws that finally allowed women actors on stage sparked renewed interest amongst theatergoers.  In this course, we will explore the major plays, players, and playhouses from this era in conjunction with a thorough and in-depth historical contextualization. This cou…

This course is a detailed investigation of the major issues and problems in the study of lexical argument structure and how it determines syntactic structure. Its empirical scope  is along three dimensions: typology, lexical class, and theoretical framework. The range of linguistic types include English, Japanese, Navajo, and Warlpiri. Lexical classes include those of Levin's English Verb Classes and others producing emerging work on diverse languages. The theoretical emphasis of this course is on structural relations among elements of argument structure.