Online courses directory (10358)

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.  

The immune system is very powerful and very versatile. Most people forget it is just as capable of destroying your own cells as it is those of a pathogen.

In this biology and life sciences course, we’ll flip the basic question of, “How does the immune system protect you?” to, “How can your immune system endanger you?”

First, we will look at basic mechanisms that determine whether the immune system is roused to action or instructed to stand down, including the roles of inflammasomes and T regulatory cells and the results of mutation to genes and their importance in producing regulatory proteins. Then, we will apply these insights to explain the etiology and treatment of autoimmune diseases and look at a variety of misdirected immune attacks, including allergies, attacks on red blood cells and cellular responses that can produce damage ranging from rashes to autoimmune cellular destruction. Finally we will discuss the protection of transplants from an immune system that views them as foreign invaders instead of necessary replacements.

The word 'Incoterms' is derived from International Commercial terms, which are a series of three-letter terms related to common sales practices published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The main aim of Incoterms is to define the tasks, costs and risks associated with the transportation and delivery of products and goods. This free online course has been created by Procurement Academy, an institute dedicated to training procurement professionals. In this course you will learn about Incoterms, their definitions and classification, and their use by procurement professionals. You will also learn about the role of the buyer during the supplier selection process. This course will be of interest to procurement professionals who would like to learn more about Incoterms and their use in the procurement process.<br />

Now you can acquire an in-depth understanding of the basic concepts and theories of management while exploring the manager's operational role in all types of organizations. Gain insight into the manager's responsibility in planning, organizing, leading, staffing and controlling within the workplace.

Have you wondered how something was manufactured? Do you want to learn what it takes to turn your design into a finished product? This course introduces a wide range of manufacturing processes including machining, injection molding, and 3D printing; and explains the fundamental principles and practices of manufacturing at scale.

For each process, 2.008x explains the underlying physical principles, provides several practical examples and demonstrations, and summarizes design for manufacturing principles. Lectures are also included on cost estimation, quality and variation, robotics, and sustainability. Together, this knowledge will enable you to plan a manufacturing process for a multi-part product, make quantitative estimates of cost and throughput, and recognize important constraints and tradeoffs.

Whether you may be an engineer, entrepreneur, or from another field—by completing 2.008x you will gain the understanding needed to assess a wide variety of manufacturing techniques, identify potential improvements, and confidently pursue the scale-up of innovative products.

Taught by instructors with decades of experience on Wall Street, this economics and finance course provides students with a basic foundation in market structure, market structure science, and market mechanics.

You’ll learn about the major elements and concepts that form a market and determine its development. You’ll also learn about key market participants including market makers, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds and more.

This free course is from the New York Institute of Finance, a highly sought after designation that leading financial services and employers know and trust globally.

This free course is a great introduction to market structure. For a deeper understanding of financial markets and to be qualified to perform in the real world and meet the demanding realities of finance, see the NYIF’s professional certificate course Electronic Trading in Financial Markets.

In the current difficult economic times businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity to maximise their marketing presence to as many potential customers as is possible. The most efficient way of doing this is to implement a highly effective online marketing strategy. However, many businesses, especially small businesses, struggle to implement any kind of online marketing as they do not have the expertise. This free online course will help all business owners increase their knowledge and understanding of what online marketing involves and how to go about implementing a successful online marketing strategy. The course will show you how to build an online marketing plan, promote your business online, and improve your Website landing page for greater customer conversion rates. The course then shows you in detail how to use Google marketing tools such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords to implement your online marketing strategy. You will learn how to set up a Google AdWords account, how to write ads that attract customers, how to choose the right keywords, and budget for your online advertising. This course will be of great interest to all business owners who lack the knowledge and expertise to implement an online marketing strategy but who recognise the importance of having an effective online marketing plan for the continued success of their business. <br />

This course focuses on the fundamentals of structure, energetics, and bonding that underpin materials science. It is the introductory lecture class for sophomore students in Materials Science and Engineering, taken with 3.014 and 3.016 to create a unified introduction to the subject. Topics include: an introduction to thermodynamic functions and laws governing equilibrium properties, relating macroscopic behavior to atomistic and molecular models of materials; the role of electronic bonding in determining the energy, structure, and stability of materials; quantum mechanical descriptions of interacting electrons and atoms; materials phenomena, such as heat capacities, phase transformations, and multiphase equilibria to chemical reactions and magnetism; symmetry properties of molecules and solids; structure of complex, disordered, and amorphous materials; tensors and constraints on physical properties imposed by symmetry; and determination of structure through diffraction. Real-world applications include engineered alloys, electronic and magnetic materials, ionic and network solids, polymers, and biomaterials.

This course is a core subject in MIT's undergraduate Energy Studies Minor. This Institute-wide program complements the deep expertise obtained in any major with a broad understanding of the interlinked realms of science, technology, and social sciences as they relate to energy and associated environmental challenges.

Are you interested in obtaining a solid background in economics?

This economics course offers a thorough view of markets, including their strengths and failures. You will learn how to view markets from an economist’s perspective to help you better understand the most relevant economic problems.

This course follows a rigorous approach that combines visual arguments with realistic examples to help you connect core economic concepts with your own experience.

At the end of this course, you will be able to answer questions like:

• Why do most people in rich countries have a mortgage and why is it a problem that those in the developing world do not?
• Why is the environment one of the most challenging problems of modern societies?
• How could we estimate the economic impact of cannabis legalization?

The only required knowledge is certain familiarity with graph reading and basic high school mathematics.

Acerca de este curso
¿Estás interesado en obtener una base sólida en economía?

Este curso te ofrece una cuidadosa revisión del funcionamiento de los mercados, incluyendo sus ventajas y debilidades. Aprenderás cómo ver los mercados desde el punto de vista de una economista para tener una mejor visión de los problemas económicos más relevantes.
Este curso sigue un enfoque riguroso que combina argumentos visuales con ejemplos realistas que te permitirán conectar los conceptos económicos principales con tu propia experiencia.

Al finalizar podrás resolver preguntas como:

• ¿Por qué la gente de los países ricos tiene una hipoteca mientras que esto no ocurre en los países en desarrollo? ¿Es esto síntoma de un problema?
• ¿Por qué el medio ambiente es uno de los mayores problemas para las sociedades modernas?
• ¿Cómo podemos calcular el impacto económico de la legalización del cannabis?

El único requisito para este curso es familiaridad con lectura de gráficos y conocimientos básicos de matemáticas de bachillerato. Aunque el curso está en inglés, dispondrás de subtítulos en español para todos los vídeos y una copia de las transparencias usadas en español.

This class introduces students to the rudiments of Western music through oral, aural, and written practice utilizing rhythm, melody, intervals, scales, chords, and musical notation. The approach is based upon the inclusive Kodály philosophy of music education. Individual skills are addressed through a variety of means, emphasizing singing and keyboard practice in the required piano labs.

This course will introduce students to the theory of music, providing them with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. It will cover material such as pitches and scales, intervals, clefs, rhythm, form, meter, phrases and cadences, and basic harmony.

Nanoelectronic devices are an integral part of our life, including the billion-plus transistors in every smartphone, each of which has an active region that is only a few hundred atoms in length.

This nanotechnology course explains the fundamentals of nanoelectronics and mesoscopic physics.

Even with NO prior background in quantum mechanics, you should learn about cutting-edge developments and concepts that will prepare you for a future in nanotechnology and nanoelectronics.

Indeed we hope you will be excited to join the field and help invent the new devices that will shape the electronics of this century and meet its challenges.

Second in a two part series, this nanotechnology course provides an introduction to more advanced topics, including the Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function (NEGF) method widely used to analyze quantum transport in nanoscale devices. We will explore a number of topics within nanoelectronics, taking a more in depth look at quantum transport, gaining greater insight into the application of the Schrodinger Equation, and learning the basics of spintronics.

“The course was just awesome!”

- Student from Part A

This course is the latest in a series offered by the nanoHUB-U project which is jointly funded by Purdue and the National Science Foundation with the goal of transcending disciplines through short courses accessible to students in any branch of science or engineering. These courses focus on cutting-edge topics distilled into short lectures with quizzes and practice exams.

The modern smartphone is enabled by a billion-plus nanotransistors, each having an active region that is barely a few hundred atoms long. Interestingly the same amazing technology has also led to a deeper understanding of the nature of current flow on an atomic scale and my aim is to make these lessons from nanoelectronics accessible to anyone in any branch of science or engineering. I will assume very little background beyond linear algebra and differential equations, although we will be discussing advanced concepts in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics that should be of interest even to specialists.
 
In the first half of this course (4 weeks) we will introduce a new perspective connecting the quantized conductance of short ballistic conductors to the familiar Ohm's law of long diffusive conductors, along with a brief description of the modern nanotransistor. In the second half (4 weeks) we will address fundamental conceptual issues related to the meaning of resistance on an atomic scale, the interconversion of electricity and heat, the second law of thermodynamics and the fuel value of information.
 
Overall I hope to show that the lessons of nanoelectronics lead naturally to a new viewpoint, one that changes even some basic concepts we all learn in freshman physics. This unique viewpoint not only clarifies many old questions but also provides a powerful approach to new questions at the frontier of modern nanoelectronics, such as how devices can be built to control the spin of electrons.
 
This course was originally offered in 2012 on nanoHUB-U and the accompanying text was subsequently published by World Scientific. I am preparing a second edition for publication in 2015, which will be used for this course. The manuscript will be made available to registered students.
 
Sample comments:
From Roald Hoffmann, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Hoffmann
Cornell University
 "… the pedagogical imperative in research is very important to me, and so I really value a kindred spirit. Your (Datta's) online courses are just wonderful!"
 
From anonymous student in previous offering.
"The course was just awesome .. Prof. Datta's style of delivering lecture is mind-blowing."
 
This course is the latest in a series offered by the nanoHUB-U project which is jointly funded by Purdue and NSF with the goal of transcending disciplines through short courses accessible to students in any branch of science or engineering. These courses focus on cutting-edge topics distilled into short lectures with quizzes and practice exams.

<p>Computer networks are central to modern digital communication technologies; however, network security is constantly under attack from both external and internal sources. </p><br /> <p>This free online course examines the fundamentals of network security and covers topics such as active and passive attacks on networks, encryption, symmetric and asymmetric key systems, authentication using certification authorities, and access control using passwords and firewalls. </p><br /> <p>This course will be of interest to IT professionals who want to learn more about network security or students who are interested in a career as an IT or network administrator. </p>

Fundamentals of Neuroscience is a three part course that explores the structure and function of the nervous system -- from the microscopic inner workings of a single nerve cell, to the staggering complexity of the brain, and beyond to the social interactions and societal dynamics that our brains make possible.

In this first module we’ll look at how individual neurons use electricity to transmit information.  We’ll invite you to build up a neuron, piece by piece, using interactive simulations, and we’ll take you on field trips in and around Harvard and Boston, bring you into the lab, and show you how to conduct DIY neuroscience experiments on your own.

Lessons will include video content, interactive content, forum spaces associated with the lessons, and in Lessons 3, labs and lab content.

You can move around within the lessons at your own pace. The only 'graded' part of the course is your final exam. You don't have to get everything correct to 'complete' lessons, you just have to engage with the content! 

Please note that this course is NOT hosted on the edX platform, but can be found at  www.mcb80x.org. To receive a certificate for this course, you must register for the course through EdX and successfully complete the final exam during an established exam period.

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.

In this second module we will explore how neurons communicate with each other.  We will investigate the collective behavior of neurons in small circuits and ways in which signals between neurons are modulated.

Each lesson will be media and content rich and will challenge you to master material with interactive segments that depend on your feedback to move forward in the lesson. You will be able to use virtual labs simulating neurons and circuitry to test your understanding of the course material. Lessons will also be filled with beautiful animations, exploring the richness and complexity of the brain. Documentaries focusing on cutting-edge topics in neuroscience will take you inside labs, hospitals and research institutions around Harvard, MIT and Boston, and quiz banks will allow you to test your knowledge on your own time.

Please note that this course is NOT hosted on the edX platform, but can be found at www.mcb80x.org. To receive a certificate for this course, you must register for the course through EdX and successfully complete the final exam during an established exam period.

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 is an introductory course on the fundamentals of online education. You will learn how to convert your face-to-face class into a robust online course based on theory and practice.

<p>This free business skills course introduces you to the world of operations management and is useful to those who wish to learn and understand more about the role it plays in organisations. </p> <br /> <p>Using an interactive presentation style, the lessons go through the role of operations management in both manufacturing and service organisations. It also covers strategies used, such as capacity planning, facilities location planning, aggregate planning and scheduling, as well as inventory management techniques and quality management. </p>

Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more. This free online course introduces you to features of the Perl programming language such as formats, modules, the Perl CGI.pm and subroutines. This course will be of great interest to computer programming professionals who want to learn more about Perl and its features, and to learners who are interested in learning a programming language that has been at the heart of the development of the web.<br />