Online courses directory (10358)

This course examines the governance of nonprofit organizations through the lens of a board of directors. You will explore what boards and the leadership volunteers who serve on them do and how they do it to maximize governance and organizational effectiveness. Keywords: Nonprofits, Nonprofit Sector; Voluntary Sector; Leadership, Management, Governance Process, Boards, Boards of Directors, Performance

This course will explore the reasons for the Great Depression and the accomplishments of the New Deal; the role of United States in the Second World War and its involvement in the Cold War; the strategies and results of the Civil Rights Movement; the foreign and domestic impacts of the Vietnam War; as well as U.S. social, political, and economic issues since the 1970s. Full series: U.S. History 1: First Peoples to the Early Republic: Born in Colonialism U.S. History 2: The Civil War Era: Dividing a Nation U.S. History 3: The Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties: The Emergence of Modern America U.S. History 4: The Great Depression to the War on Terror: Enter the World Stage

This course will explore the reasons for the Great Depression and the accomplishments of the New Deal; the role of United States in the Second World War and its involvement in the Cold War; the strategies and results of the Civil Rights Movement; the foreign and domestic impacts of the Vietnam War; as well as U.S. social, political, and economic issues since the 1970s. Full series: U.S. History 1: First Peoples to the Early Republic: Born in Colonialism U.S. History 2: The Civil War Era: Dividing a Nation U.S. History 3: The Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties: The Emergence of Modern America U.S. History 4: The Great Depression to the War on Terror: Enter the World Stage

World War 1 was the original catastrophe of the 20th-century. This course investigates the complex ways in which the First World War mobilized philosophical reflection during the war and the varied ways in which philosophical thought responded to the war.

Students in this course will be introduced to different philosophical reactions to the First World War through discussion and analysis of texts, documents, images, artworks, film, and music. The relation between philosophy and poetry will also be explored. In this course, students will gain historical knowledge, conceptual understanding, and literacy for a clearer grasp of the complex ways in which philosophy and the Great War intersected.

The course is divided into four thematic sections:

• An Absolute War
• The Clash of Civilizations
• Memento Mori
• The Hope of Peace

Across each of these thematic sections, we will explore different philosophical traditions and movements in England, France, and Germany during the war.

Discussions will be held in English, Dutch and French.

In the free online course The GreenPlan Champion for Communities learn how a community can save money, reduce carbon and help society by joining The GreenPlan. The GreenPlan is a system that empowers society to tackle climate change.<br /><br />The course begins by introducing The GreenPlan and its origins. You will learn about the problems that The GreenPlan tackles. You will learn how Neil McCabe originally came up with the idea for The GreenPlan and how successful it has been since then. <br /><br />Next, you will be introduced to the different parts that make up The GreenPlan system. You will learn how a community can approach using The GreenPlan system. You will learn about the seven themes of The GreenPlan. You will also learn about the two core principles of The GreenPlan - behavioural change and carbon emission reduction.<br /><br />Finally, you will learn the steps to implementing The GreenPlan system in a community. You will learn how a community joins The GreenPlan and what is involved in the community preparation process. You will learn how a community can gain a GreenPlan certificate.<br /><br />This free course will be of great interest to communities that wish to do their part in tackling climate change and save money in the process. <br />

This course examines the economic, political, social, and spatial dynamics of urban growth and decline in cities and their key component areas (downtown, suburbs, etc.). Topics include impacts of industrialization, technology, politics, and social practices on cities. Students will examine the role of public and private sector activities, ranging from zoning and subsidies to infrastructure development and real estate investment, in affecting urban growth and decline. Readings are both theoretical and empirical, with considerable thought paid to comparative and historical differences.

Learn what Dropbox, Twitter, & other successful startups do to acquire millions of users.

Examines key computational abstraction levels below modern high-level languages. From Java/C to assembly programming, to basic processor and system organization.

This course focuses on one particular aspect of the history of computing: the use of the computer as a scientific instrument. The electronic digital computer was invented to do science, and its applications range from physics to mathematics to biology to the humanities. What has been the impact of computing on the practice of science? Is the computer different from other scientific instruments? Is computer simulation a valid form of scientific experiment? Can computer models be viewed as surrogate theories? How does the computer change the way scientists approach the notions of proof, expertise, and discovery? No comprehensive history of scientific computing has yet been written. This seminar examines scientific articles, participants’ memoirs, and works by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of science to provide multiple perspectives on the use of computers in diverse fields of physical, biological, and social sciences and the humanities. We explore how the computer transformed scientific practice, and how the culture of computing was influenced, in turn, by scientific applications.

This mini-course is a general introduction to both to medieval medicine and to the value of using manuscripts. Professor Y. Tzvi Langermann presents a case study that builds from a unique 15th-century volume in which three important medical manuscripts in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic (Arabic in Hebrew characters) are sewn together. He will not only walk the student through the basics of medical knowledge training and practice in the Jewish Middle Ages and beyond, but he will also show how clues gleaned from the particular elements of a manuscript (such as marginal notes, mistakes, and handwriting) allow us to learn a great deal that we could not have gleaned from a pristine printed version. The course is made up of eight short video lectures (5-7 minutes each) that explore the fascinating highlights of an extraordinary manuscript.

While no previous knowledge is required, this course will be of most interest to advanced students of Jewish and medieval medicine studies in that it introduces a rare and fascinating medical text from the University of Pennsylvania’s manuscript collections.

To study MIT is to study the modern world. In 2016, MIT celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the move from Boston to Cambridge; therefore, this course examines the history of the Institute through the lens of the history of science and technology, and vice-versa. It is about discovery, exploration, adventure, learning, creative thinking, and the synthesis of big ideas. Additionally, this course is about the importance of the research university, what it has been in the past and what it will be in the future. The course includes guest lecturers and field trips to the Institute Archives and the MIT Museum.

The most important prerequisite for this class is curiosity, a desire to think deeply about MIT, and a willingness to communicate your thoughts and ideas. The ultimate aim is to fascinate you as much as to help you improve your skills synthesizing information from diverse sources about science, technology, and culture.

Over the past fifteen years, many of the music industry’s greatest artists have made public valuable information about how they created their iconic sounds. Through the release of memoirs and interviews, their techniques—once considered closely-guarded industry secrets and the keys to their success—are now available to anyone who wants to use them. The information, however, is scattered amongst hundreds of sources. This class strives to gather up that information and assemble it in a way that allows the student to witness the historical evolution of the industry and, even more importantly, make immediate use of each technique as it is presented.

This course will explore how the meaning of terrorism has changed over time, why some have chosen to use it, why it has become such a commonly used tactic, and how it has been opposed by states with and without success...

This course traces the destruction of the Jews and Jewish life in Europe by Nazi Germany, drawing on major works of history, literature, and film. The lectures outline the work of the Nazis as well as Jewish responses.

Learn the core skills you need to get your own home-based business off the ground successfully.

There are over 100 million horses, donkeys and mules in the world today and owners of these animals can be found on almost every continent and in almost every society. The Horse Course will cover many unique aspects of equine ownership and touch upon the science behind many of today’s management practices.

This course introduces how the human body works and how it is more than the sum of its parts

The Human Factor in Aviation will cover a variety of human factors topics that play a significant role in aviation safety. As a participant in this course you will be able to interact with students and aviation professionals from around the world.

Whereas some accidents are caused by aircraft failures, others can be traced to psychological or physiological elements, such as pilot fatigue or a mechanic’s complacency. This course will emphasize the following topics: human performance, benefits of training, advanced technology...

6.803/6.833 is a course in the department's "Artifical Intelligence and Applications" concentration. This course is offered both to undergraduates (6.803) and graduates (6.833). 6.803/6.833 is designed to help students learn about progress toward the scientific goal of understanding human intelligence from a computational point of view. This course complements 6.034, because 6.803/6.833 focuses on long-standing scientific questions, whereas 6.034 focuses on existing tools for building applications with reasoning and learning capability. The content of 6.803/6.833 is largely based on papers by representative Artificial Intelligence leaders, which serve as the basis for discussion and assignments for the course.