Online courses directory (10358)

Understand social work practice through the critical examination of methods associated with decision-making, critical thinking, and ethical judgment.

The course integrates the core themes related to multiculturalism and diversity; social justice and social change; promotion, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation; and behavioral and social science research.

You will learn how to formulate appropriate research questions and hypotheses, techniques for testing relationships and patterns among variables, methods of data collection, methods to assess and improve the validity and reliability of data and measures, and the ethics of scientific inquiry.

This course will cover:

• quantitative and qualitative research methods

• commonly used statistical procedures

• approaches to the evaluation of practice

Learn how to understand and appreciate a scientific approach to building practice knowledge and for evaluating practice, and to use research to advocate for clients and inform policy. Special emphasis will be placed on increasing one's ability to formulate research questions, apply research methods, conduct statistical analysis, and interpret research reports. The latest statistical, graphical, and display technologies will be used.

This course is part of the Social Work: Practice, Policy and Research MicroMasters Program offered by MichiganX.

How can you determine if a proposed real estate development project is socially responsible? Or determine whether the developer used the tools of social impact assessment (SIA), environmental impact assessment (EIA), and public consultation effectively?

This course will teach you how to evaluate a development project and practice socially responsible real estate yourself by applying SIA, EIA, and consultation methods. It is also designed to help students build their own personal theory of what constitutes socially responsible real estate development.

Taught by a professor with more than forty-five years of teaching experience at MIT, using an applied case study method, this course will open new opportunities for real estate developers and urban planners to see how SIA, EIA, and stakeholder engagement are the keys to creating socially-responsible real estate development throughout the world. 

From understanding social identities to modeling the spread of disease, this eight-week course will span key science and survival themes using AMC’s The Walking Dead as its basis. Four faculty members from the University of California, Irvine will take you on an inter-disciplinary academic journey deep into the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, exploring the following topics: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—is survival just about being alive? Social order and structures—from the farm and the prison to Woodbury Social identity, roles, and stereotyping—as shown through leaders like Rick and the Governor The role of public health in society—from the CDC to local community organizations The spread of infectious disease and population modeling—swarm! The role of energy and momentum in damage control—how can you best protect yourself? Nutrition in a post-apocalyptic world—are squirrels really good for you? Managing stress in disaster situations—what’s the long-term effect of always sleeping with one eye open? Each week we’ll watch engaging lectures, listen to expert interviews, watch exclusive interviews with cast members talking about their characters, use key scenes from the show to illustrate course learning, read interesting articles, review academic resources, participate in large and small group discussions, and—of course—test our learning with quizzes. We recommend that you plan on spending about two (2) to four (4) hours per week on this course, though we believe the course is compelling enough you’ll want to spend more time. At the end of this course, you will be able to: Describe how infectious diseases—like a zombie epidemic—spread and are managed Apply various models of society and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to existing and emerging societies as a means for understanding human behavior Analyze existing social roles and stereotypes as they exist today and in an emerging world Debate the role of public health organizations in society Describe how mathematical equations for population dynamics can be used to study disease spread and interventions Apply concepts of energy and momentum appropriately when analyzing collisions and other activities that either inflict or prevent damage Summarize multiple methods for managing stress in disaster situations

Articulating important sociological principles, this course provides a critical understanding of social institutions and issues, while furnishing a framework for possible solutions to the crises that plague human societies.

Sociology examines individuals in their social contexts.

Psychology 102 takes a look at why we behave the way we do , and applies that information to the classroom setting. This is valuable to students of psychology and education alike.

Dr. Wind Goodfriend and Dr. Melissa Hurst combine classic psychological theories and experiments with practical applications for classroom teachers. These bite-sized video lessons are accompanied by free, self-grading quizzes for self-assessment. Watch the videos, test your knowledge, and then let us know what you think using the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons on the top right-hand corner of each video.

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.

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.

The free online course Sociology Studies - Social Inequality is the second in a series of online courses that gives the leaner an understanding of inequality in society and how many of these inequalities have come about. The course begins by using the United States as a case study where learners will explore open and closed stratification systems including caste and class systems along with the idea of an ideal system based on merit. You will then look at social stratification globally, looking first at how countries are classified and the cyclical nature of poverty and how this affects the poorest countries. Next, you will explore race, ethnicity and minorities, the prejudices and discrimination that occur and why they persist in a society. You will also learn about gender, gender identity and gender roles and why these are commonly associated with inequality due to historically strong cultural norms. Finally, you will learn about education, how prejudices often persist at an institutional level, and how this impacts on the individual throughout their life. This free course will be of great interest to anyone with an interest in areas as diverse as medicine, politics, law, urban organization, and marketing, and anybody who would like to know more about inequalities within a society.<br />

Sociology Studies - Social Institutions is the third in a series of four free online courses and this course will give you an understanding of social institutions and how they establish patterns of rule-governed behaviours. You will learn how sociology defines family, the variation in family structures and what the social impact of changing family structures is along with the challenges faced by families through divorce and abuse. Next you will look at religion from a sociological perspective and get an understanding of the different types of religion, and how religion has brought about social change. You will also study power and authority and its use in government and politics. The course describes different types of authority and the various forms of government from dictatorships and oligarchy to democracy. You will also learn what affect race, gender and class have on voter participation and electoral outcomes. The world of work and the economy are explored next with a focus on capitalism and socialism, both in theory and practice. You will also review the pros and cons globalisation in modern society. Finally, the course covers healthcare from the social construction of health and medical sociology to global health and social epidemiology. You will also explore the differences between low and high income nations. Using the United States as an example you will explore healthcare issues such as access for different socio-economic groups, mental health and disability issues and the correlation between medicalisation and stigmatisation. This free online course will be of great interest to professionals working in areas as diverse as medicine, politics, law, urban organization and marketing. It will also be of great interest to all learners who would like to know more about how cultures and societies evolve and change.<br />

This course covers the theory and practice of software analysis, which lies at the heart of many software development processes such as diagnosing bugs, testing, debugging, and more. It presents diverse techniques, each with their own strengths and limitations, for automating tasks such as testing, debugging, and finding bugs in complex real-world programs. These techniques include dataflow analysis, constraint-based analysis, type systems, model checking, symbolic execution, and more. The course teaches the principles underlying these techniques as well as imparts hands-on experience with using and implementing tools based on these techniques.

Software Architecture and Design teaches the principles and concepts involved in the analysis and design of large software systems. This course is split into four sections: (1) Introduction, (2) UML and Analysis, (3) Software Architecture, and (4) Software Design.

6.005 Software Construction introduces fundamental principles and techniques of software development, i.e., how to write software that is safe from bugs, easy to understand, and ready for change. The course includes problem sets and a final project. Important topics include specifications and invariants; testing; abstract data types; design patterns for object-oriented programming; concurrent programming and concurrency; and functional programming.

The 6.005 website homepage from Spring 2016, along with all course materials, is available to OpenCourseWare users.

This computer science course is the first of a two-course sequence about writing good software using modern software engineering techniques.

In this course, you will learn what software engineers mean by "good" code -- safe from bugs, easy to understand, and ready for change. You will also learn ways to make your code better, including testing, specifications, code review, exceptions, immutability, abstract data types, and interfaces.

This is a challenging and rigorous course that will help you take the next step on your way to becoming a skilled software engineer.

Photo by Wizou on Flickr. (CC BY) 2.0

This is the third course in the Software Development MicroMasters program. You will learn how to build larger and more complex software systems using the Java programming language.

The course begins with the topic of data abstraction - from specification to implementation. Particular attention is given to how to write robust tests using JUnit. Then the course expands on these ideas to explore how type hierarchies and polymorphism can be used to decrease redundancy in your code. The course wraps up with a discussion of how to design robust classes.

By the end of the course, you will have a solid foundation in designing software in Java, and be ready to move onto Software Construction: Object-Oriented Design, where you will learn more complex design patterns and principles designing object-oriented programs.

Learners who enroll in the Verified track will receive staff grading for the course project and increased interaction with the instructors and staff.

This course, part of the Software Development MicroMasters program, will dig deep into the principles of object oriented design, and introduce new abstraction techniques and design patterns. You will use these techniques to build an application that makes use of popular online services and APIs – the most complex software design project so far.

By the end of the course, you will have a solid foundation in Java and Object-Oriented Design, as well as many software development concepts that can be applied to any language.

Learners who enroll in the Verified track will receive staff grading for the course project and increased interaction with the instructors and staff.

In this class you will learn how to debug programs systematically, how to automate the debugging process and build several automated debugging tools in Python.

In this course, you will learn about software defined networking and how it is changing the way communications networks are managed, maintained, and secured.

In this course, you will learn about software defined networking and how it is changing the way communications networks are managed, maintained, and secured.

Software Defined Networking/OpenFlow is emerging as one of the most promising and disruptive networking technologies of recent years. It has the potential to enable network innovation and create choice...