Online courses directory (264)

This course is intended to provide students with the fundamentals of fencing, including footwork, bladework, bouting and refereeing. It will allow students to develop the ability to analyze a fencing bout, and promotes creativity in applying acquired skills in a fencing bout.

Walk through the basics of nutrition, how eating disorders develop, and learn the benefits of various diets.

Explore the world of football, its role in the world today, finances, clubs, nations, rivalries and much more.

This course will provide an introduction to the scientific, statistical, and ethical aspects of clinical trials research. Topics include the design, implementation, and analysis of trials, including first-in-human studies (dose-finding, safety, proof of concept, and Phase I), Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV studies. All aspects of the development of a study protocol will be addressed, including criteria for the selection of participants, treatments, and endpoints, randomization procedures, sample size determination, data analysis, and study interpretation. The ethical issues that arise at each phase of therapy development will be explored.

This course contains 12 modules. The modules will be released Monday of each week, with the exception of some holiday weeks. Most students should plan to spend 4 – 6 hours on each module. Students will have until February 14, 2014 to earn a HarvardX certificate.

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

HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code : https://www.edx.org/edx-terms-service. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.

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 : http://harvardx.harvard.edu/research-statement to learn more.

Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form : https://www.edx.org/contact-us.

This introductory course provides an overview of the principles of nutritional science. Subject matter includes description and functions of nutrients, digestion and absorption, effects of nutrient deficiencies and toxicities, requirements, food sources, nutrient interactions, dietary guidelines, and the role of nutrition in health and disease.

When you're sick, you may wonder, "Why me?" But the real question should be, "Why am I not sick all the time?" You might even ask, "Why does my body respond with a fever, and is it really a good idea to lower it?" This course explores immunology, how the body defends itself from constant assault by parasites and pathogens. This course will present the fundamentals of both innate and adaptive immunity, emphasizing functional interactions among cells and organs. We will cover signaling, pathogen recognition and the division of labor among myeloid, lymphoid and supporting cells. The subject matter will also supply health professionals and biomedical researchers with the basic vocabulary and concepts necessary to understand both clinical press releases and primary literature. The course materials also provide support to other immunology instructors by presenting difficult concepts in creative ways using analogies and models.

The immune system plays a fascinating and vital role in the human body, recognizing outside threats and protecting our bodies against disease. This introductory immunology courses will help you understand the interactions of the immune system, and the jargon scientists use to describe immune function.

This is the second of a two-part course. In the first part we learned about innate immunity and B cell function. This second part covers T cell function and coordination of the immune response.

This immunology course surveys the cells of the immune system and describes how they talk to each other, receive information from the rest of the body and coordinate your defenses.

By presenting complex concepts in innovative, easy-to-understand ways, this course provides a solid introduction to how our immune system keeps us healthy.  

In this class you will learn how drugs affect the body, how they alter disease processes and how they might produce toxicity. We will discuss how new drugs are tested and developed prior to them being used for patient care. We will describe how personalization of medicine will become a common day reality in patient care.

Think that a prescription medication must be safer than a “street drug”? Think again. Investigate the epidemic rise of prescription drug abuse and use science to debunk commonly held misconceptions regarding this phenomenon.

To acquire an understanding of the fundamental concepts of genomics and biotechnology, and their implications for human biology, evolution, medicine, social policy and individual life path choices in the 21st century.

A critical, unbiased introduction to using new genomic tools for diagnosing and managing disease.

While the advances in genomics promise to usher a new era in medical practice and create a major paradigm shift in patient care, the ethical, legal and social impact of genomic medicine will be equally significant. The information and potential use of genomic discoveries are no longer issues left for scientists and medical professionals to handle, but have become ones for the public at large. Rarely a day passes without a genomics-related story reported in the media. By the end of this course, students will be able to better understand the field of genomics; be familiar with various online databases and resources; and understand and appreciate the medical, social, ethical, and legal issues associated with the availability of personal genomic information.

Given the diversity of the topics and the specific expertise required to cover each, this is a unique cross-disciplinary course where faculty from different disciplines including genetics, computational sciences, bioinformatics, genetic counseling, bioethics, law, and business will participate in lecturing. We have assembled a team of experts from various departments at Georgetown University and other institutions, to teach this comprehensive online genomics course.

For a detailed description of the weekly topics, see the course outline.

Current emergency care in Ghana is sub-optimal with significant delays to definitive care and high morbidity and mortality. The Ghanaian government has recently invested in physical infrastructure for emergency care at major teaching hospitals, but the human resources to provide care are inadequate. To address this need, the Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative has proposed an innovative training program focused on medical students, nurses, and residents with the formation of a new faculty for sustainable training. This program will train emergency medicine personnel in injury and acute medical illness management, expose trainees to research methodology, administrative and leadership aspects of emergency medicine. The Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative is a joint project between Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, University of Michigan, Ghana Ministry of Health, Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Ghana Ambulance Service. This Work, Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative, by Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

How will we feed an extra two billion people by the middle of this century?

Is humanitarianism an effective, justifiable and sustainable response to ill-health, inequality, injustice and war?

This introductory global health course aims to frame global health's collection of problems and actions within a particular biosocial perspective. It develops a toolkit of interdisciplinary analytical approaches and uses them to examine historical and contemporary global health initiatives with careful attention to a critical sociology of knowledge. Four physician-anthropologists - Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, Anne Becker, and Salmaan Keshavjee - draw on experience working in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Americas to investigate what the field of global health comprises, how global health problems are defined and constructed, and how global health interventions play out in both expected and unexpected ways.

The course seeks to inspire and teach the following principles:

A global awareness. This course aims to enable learners to recognize the role of distinctive traditions, governments, and histories in shaping health and well being. In addition, rather than framing a faceless mass of poor populations as the subject of global health initiatives, the course uses ethnographies and case studies to situate global health problems in relation to the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

A foundation in social and historical analysis. The course demonstrates the value of social theory and historical analysis in understanding health and illness at individual and societal levels.

An ethical engagement. Throughout the course, learners will be asked to critically evaluate the ethical frameworks that have underpinned historical and contemporary engagement in global health. Learners will be pushed to consider the moral questions of inequality and suffering as well as to critically evaluate various ethical frameworks that motivate and structure attempts to redress these inequities.

A sense of inspiration and possibility. While the overwhelming challenges of global health could all too easily engender cynicism, passivity, and helplessness, learners will observe that no matter how complex the field of global health and no matter how steep the challenges, it is possible to design, implement, and foster programs and policies that make enormous positive change in the lives of the world’s poorest and suffering people.

HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.

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.

Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form.

This course proposes an overview of current global health challenges drawing on the insights of several academic disciplines including medicine, public health, law, economics, social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary approach will guide the student into seven critical topics in global health.

Health Care Workers and Health Professions Students can prepare to plan and deliver TB care in their communities by applying the latest clinical and research data presented in this nine-week course focusing on TB/HIV Co-Infection.

This course explores musculoskeletal anatomy of the Upper Limb, and common injuries that affect its function. We discuss parts of the upper limb, the anatomy of bones, joints and muscles, nerve injuries and common pathologies.

The fundamentals of Parkinson's disease.