Online courses directory (10358)

Learn the science behind how and why medicines work, and what can improve the patient treatment experience.

Everyone has an opinion on parenting – where babies should sleep, what they should eat, and whether parents should spank, scold, or praise. What’s more, the media often offers support for whichever opinions appear most popular at any given time. This leaves those of us who like to base our decisions on firm, provable facts feeling dizzy.

“The Science of Parenting” addresses this confusion by moving beyond the chatter and opinion surrounding parenting, and by looking directly at the science. Parenting itself is far from a science. Nevertheless, scientists have conducted thousands of studies that can help parents – or future parents – make sensible, informed decisions.

One goal of this course will be to provide a survey of important scientific findings spanning a range of topics that are central to the lives of parents: 

• diet;
• sleep;
• discipline;
• learning;
• screen time;
• impulse control;
• vaccination.

We’ll also explore ongoing mysteries, like what causes autism, and why so many children are allergic to peanuts.

Perhaps more important, this course will not only dig into existing science, but will also explore the underlying nature of parenting science itself. Often, scientists measure correlations: they ask how different parenting practices are related to different behaviors in children. But the claims they make from correlational data are often much, much stronger. For example, from correlational data, scientists often claim that parents cause the behaviors of their kids. This course will show how this type of error – common in the scientific literature – can explain a significant amount of the confusion present in the media and general public. We will discuss how to avoid the same error when evaluating science, and how to use the sum of available evidence to inform decision making.

The course’s instructor, David Barner, is a leading authority on cognitive development. He is joined by leading experts on behavior genetics, vaccination, autism, lying, and spanking, as well as by real live parents who try to use science to inform their decisions. This class is suitable not only for parents, future parents, and grandparents, but also for professionals interested in health care, social work, and early childhood education who want to increase their knowledge and analysis skills.

Drawing on new scientific advances, this religion course examines foundational questions about the nature of religious belief and practice.

The course is based on the idea that religion is a naturalistic phenomenon — meaning it can be studied and better understood using the tools of science. Religious belief and practice emerge naturally from the structure of human psychology, and have an important impact on the structure of societies, the way groups relate to each other, and the ability of human beings to cooperate effectively.

Topics to be covered will include traditional and contemporary theories of religion, with a special emphasis on cultural evolutionary models.
 

Production of this MOOC was partially funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Partnership Grant on ‘The Evolution of Religion and Morality’ (PI: Edward Slingerland), and represents one of this grant’s major knowledge mobilization and research dissemination initiatives.

Health professionals and students and health consumers interested in learning about patient safety will acquire foundational knowledge of the principles of the science and culture of safety in healthcare in this five-week course.

Explore the solar system using concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. Learn the latest from Mars, explore the outer solar system, ponder planets outside our solar system, and search for habitability in the universe.

Whether you are trying to lose weight yourself, or are supporting others, this food and nutrition course will dispel common myths about weight loss and teach you the science behind healthy eating for a healthy weight.

This course is not a diet plan – there are plenty of diet plans out there to choose from. Rather, we will take you through the science behind weight loss and arm you with the knowledge and tools to make the right decisions.

Based on the latest research, you’ll learn to develop a healthy eating plan to achieve a healthy weight. You’ll also discover more about the definition of a healthy weight, the nutritional composition of foods, how to cut calories or kilojoules, proper portion sizes, and how to identify and avoid fad diets.

If you are unable to access Youtube, the introductory video is available via XuetangX.  Connect with the course team and fellow learners on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HKUxArchitecture

This 5-week introductory course is for those who would like to explore and be fascinated by vernacular architecture – the subject and study of everyday buildings, landscapes and sites which are not designed by professional architects but “ordinary” practitioners. It explores vernacular architecture as an expression of local identity, indigenous traditions, and assimilation of different cultures.

This course covers topics such as native building materials, the interaction between people, culture and the vernacular, as well as the vernacular landscape. It has a special emphasis on the built heritage of Asia, which allows students to take a closer look at examples in diverse locales, such as the leather yurts in Mongolia, timber houses in Japan, brick, mud and straw houses in India, reinforced concrete fortified towers and grey brick courtyard houses in Southern China including Macau and Hong Kong.

Designed to promote discussion and dialogue while contributing to the discourse surrounding the concept of the vernacular, this course challenges the perception of tradition and stimulates a deeper analysis of one’s local environment. Indeed, we are keen to hear about how you link your new understanding to vernacular architecture in your neighborhood.

Those who wish to extend their experience and exploration please also join our subsequent 5-week course The Search for Vernacular Architecture of Asia, Part 2 in Summer 2015.

本入门课程为期5周，适合本土建筑爱好者。本土建筑的研究对象是普通日常建筑、景观以及场所。它们并非出自建筑师之手，而是由普通人自己建造。在本课程中，我们将民居建筑视作不同地区的“社区认同”和“本地传统”以及不同文化融合的一种表达方式。

课程内容包括建筑技术和建筑材料、人与文化和传统、 以及本土建筑与景观。本课程以亚洲建筑文化遗产为实例，供学生深入学习，其中包括蒙古地区的蒙古包、日本的木结构房屋、印度的土屋、中国南方澳门与香港一带以钢筋混凝土为建筑材料的塔楼和灰砖庭院。

本课程旨在以讨论和对话的方式研究亚洲的本土建筑，推动本土概念的发展。在此之上，本课程反思了“传统”这个概念，使我们能够更加深入地分析自身所处的环境。我们期待能够听到一些您对本土建筑的新理解。

感兴趣的学生可以参加《探索亚洲地区的民居建筑，第2部分》。

Get under the skin of brands as we reveal the secret powers behind the most potent commercial and cultural force on the planet.

Created by MPD, serial entrepreneur and VC, this course is designed to give entrepreneurs control over their fundraising

Learn how social factors promote mental health, influence the onset and course of mental illness, and affect how mental illnesses are diagnosed and treated.

This course is an introduction to the theory that tries to explain how minds are made from collections of simpler processes. It treats such aspects of thinking as vision, language, learning, reasoning, memory, consciousness, ideals, emotions, and personality. It incorporates ideas from psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer science to resolve theoretical issues such as wholes vs. parts, structural vs. functional descriptions, declarative vs. procedural representations, symbolic vs. connectionist models, and logical vs. common-sense theories of learning.

This course is an introduction to a theory that tries to explain how minds are made from collections of simpler processes. The subject treats such aspects of thinking as vision, language, learning, reasoning, memory, consciousness, ideals, emotions, and personality. Ideas incorporate psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer science to resolve theoretical issues such as whole vs. parts, structural vs. functional descriptions, declarative vs. procedural representations, symbolic vs. connectionist models, and logical vs. common-sense theories of learning.

This seminar provides an introduction to scholarship in a growing research community: the sociologists and sociologically-inclined organization theorists who study issues that relate, at least in a broad sense, to the interdisciplinary field of inquiry that is known as "strategy" or "strategic management" research. The course is not designed to survey the field of strategy. Rather, the focus is on getting a closer understanding of the recent work by sociologists and sociologically-oriented organization theorists that investigates central questions in strategic management. In particular, we will be concerned with identifying and assessing sociological work that aims to shed light on: (a) relative firm performance; (b) the nature of competition and market interaction; (c) organizational capabilities; (d) the beginnings of industries and firms; (e) the diffusion or transfer of ideas and practices across firms; and (f) strategic change.

Enhance your software skills and capabilities from a software innovation perspective. Do you have a career in the software industry? Join us for this 8-week course to find out.

The world is becoming increasingly digital and software is everywhere. Every company is affected by software so having the knowledge to succeed in this industry is essential. This course will introduce the skills necessary to create software. We will explain how people from different professions can work together in order to create innovative software. We will also present the most important activities for generating effective software products and services to meet tomorrow’s demands.

This subject is a seminar-style course aimed at anyone who is interested in founding a software company or working for a software company or company that uses software technology extensively as a senior manager, developer, or product/program manager. It is also appropriate for people interested in the industry or in working as an industry analyst. Many of the issues we discuss are highly relevant for companies whose businesses are heavily dependent on software, such as in e-business or financial services, or embedded software for industrial applications.

This is an introduction to the study of the solar system with emphasis on the latest spacecraft results. The subject covers basic principles rather than detailed mathematical and physical models. Topics include: an overview of the solar system, planetary orbits, rings, planetary formation, meteorites, asteroids, comets, planetary surfaces and cratering, planetary interiors, planetary atmospheres, and life in the solar system.

This workshop explores how designers might become as sensitive to space as they are to objects. Through a number of projects and precedent studies, architectural design is studied in relation to the Space Between. The design process is studied in reverse, considering space first and objects second. This is not to imply that objects are not important, but rather that space is equally important.

This MOOC focuses on Spanish history between the Renaissance and Baroque periods—a time when the Spanish culture set the tone in the Western world.

The monarchy of this Spain created the first global empire of History. The greatest literary works of this period, including La Celestina, Lazarillo de Tormes, were immediately translated in the first European and American printing houses. Spanish fashion was the trendiest at the Courts of Early Modern Europe. Spanish military and political treaties set the standard for political machinations of the era.

In this period—between the 16th and 17th centuries—, Spain’s society achieved excellence in Arts and Literature. Exceptional and talented people such as Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Velázquez, were drawn to Madrid. Literary academies, theatre productions and celebrations flourished in other big cities of the Empire as Seville, Lisbon, Barcelona, Naples, Mexico, and Lima. A synthesis of nations united for the loyalty to the Crown and the Catholic faith. In our tour through the Spain of Don Quixote, we will discuss the relationship between fantastic to real geography. Society was polarized between the privileged—nobility and clergy—and the poor and rogues. Humanism was cultivated in universities. Family, food, housing, games, and celebrations played a part in everyday life.

In times of Don Quixote, the lights of Literature and Art geniuses shined upon the shadows of the Inquisition. Let’s travel to this sublime culture of Spanish Golden Age.

The Adventures and Misadventures of the Early Spanish Explorers

Description: Lessons from the Nonprofit Management Institute 2010 held at Stanford University.