Online courses directory (19947)

Entrepreneurship and Healthcare in Emerging Economies aims to engage students in an inter-disciplinary approach to understanding the nature of complex health problems throughout the world, with an illustrative focus on South Asia. Students will become acquainted with prior attempts to address these problems, to identify points of opportunity for smart entrepreneurial efforts, and to propose and develop their own candidate solutions.

Throughout, the emphasis is on individual agency—what can the learner do to address a defined problem? While we use the lens of health to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, students will see that both problems and solutions are inevitably of a multi-disciplinary nature, and we will draw on a range of sectors and fields of study.

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Decision makers often struggle with questions such as: What should be the right price for a product? Which customer is likely to default in his/her loan repayment? Which products should be recommended to an existing customer? Finding right answers to these questions can be challenging yet rewarding.

Predictive analytics is emerging as a competitive strategy across many business sectors and can set apart high performing companies. It aims to predict the probability of the occurrence of a future event such as customer churn, loan defaults, and stock market fluctuations – leading to effective business management.

Models such as multiple linear regression, logistic regression, auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), decision trees, and neural networks are frequently used in solving predictive analytics problems. Regression models help us understand the relationships among these variables and how their relationships can be exploited to make decisions.

This course is suitable for students/practitioners interested in improving their knowledge in the field of predictive analytics.  The course will also prepare the learner for a career in the field of data analytics. If you are in the quest for the right competitive strategy to make companies successful, then join us to master the tools of predictive analytics.

What do you know about banking? Do you know what your bank does with your money? The recent financial crisis highlighted some of the most fundamental issues with the mainstream banking system.

This course looks into banks that operate differently, namely, “just banks" that use capital and finance as a tool to address social and ecological challenges.

This course is for anyone who wants to understand the unique role banks play as intermediaries in our economy and how they can leverage that position to produce positive social, environmental, and economic change.

The instructors of this course have worked for over 10 years with just banks from around the world, as well as in the fields of community development, economic democracy, and social change.

No previous knowledge of finance or banking is needed to take this course.

This business and management course will bridge the gap between information and real world experience.

Marketing is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in management today. It is commonly used as a synonym for activities related to shopping, but it goes far beyond selling a product. In addition, many people believe they are experts in marketing, having shopped for various items all their lives and having been exposed to many advertisements.

In this introductory marketing course, you will learn the theories of marketing through practice (examples and illustrations). This course will explain what marketing management is all about in the simplest of terms and lay the foundation to your pathway to excellence in the wonderful world of marketing.

International Politics in the Korean Peninsula reviews several archetypes of politics and introduces contemporary issues of the inter-Korean relationship. Video lectures will be in Korean, with English subtitles. Discussions, quizzes, and other course content will be in English. This course is the first part of International Politics in the Korean Peninsula; the second part will start this Fall.

The course is introduced with two cases where politics brought tragedies: the hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe and the political idolization in North Korea. These two cases provide a good answer to why we study politics.

The central content of the course is organized into two modules. First, it will start with several chapters from Records of the Grand Historian (Chinese: 史記), Plutarch's Lives, and History of the Three Kingdoms (한국어: 삼국사기; Chinese: 三國史記) to find out four archetypes of politics: value creation/distribution in a political entity, conflict and cooperation among political entities, development and maintenance of an identity in a political entity, and leadership selection in an entity.

The second module of the course will link the four archetypes of politics with contemporary issues of inter-Korean politics and political events in North Korea. These issues will include the Korean Crisis in 2012, the arms race between the two Koreas, the power succession and the simultaneous (nuclear and economic) build-up strategy in North Korea, and upcoming political events.

Course videos are presented in Korean with English subtitles.

The main course image is copyright © 2013 Seoul National University News.

Vision may feel effortless: you open your eyes, and the world appears. But the process of focusing light into image on the back of the eye and translating it into meaningful nerve signals is incredibly complex. The retina and visual cortex are packed with intricate processing circuitry, and have been a mystery to neuroscientists for centuries. Now, answers are beginning to emerge.
 
Today, the visual system is often called the model system for neuroscience: its findings are relevant to all other areas and to investigating the deeper mysteries of the brain’s microstructure and function. In this course, we take you from the physics of focusing light onto the retina, to the processing of colors, form, and motion, and finally to the interpretation of visual information in the cortex. We distill the mysteries of the visual system by posing questions and investigating them in a series of thematic, animated videos. This journey through the eye, retina and brain will (quite literally) change how you see the world.

*Note - This is an Archived course*

This is a past/archived course. At this time, you can only explore this course in a self-paced fashion. Certain features of this course may not be active, but many people enjoy watching the videos and working with the materials. Make sure to check for reruns of this course.

Composites are used in many industries today to enable high-performance products at economic advantage. These industries range from space to sports and include manufactured products for aircraft, transportation, energy, construction, sports, marine, and medical use. There are many material, economic and aesthetic advantages to using composites, but a solid knowledge of the physical properties, including the mechanics, tooling, design, inspection & repair, and manufacturing options is required for working in this medium as they are intrinsically linked.

This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of composite materials for high performance structures from the point of view of Aerospace engineering design, manufacturing, and repair. It is designed to address critical areas of composite technologies that focus on materials, manufacturing, mechanics, design, inspection, and repair.  In this course students will learn how composite materials achieve properties of strength, weight ratios and durability that surpass aluminum in aircraft design.  For these high performance applications engineers typically rely on laminated structures, which are built up from many varying layers of ply-materials. Using this process the mechanical properties of the composite part can be tailored to specific applications resulting in significant weight and cost savings. Tailoring specific properties and designing innovative laminate structures highlights the multidisciplinary nature of this industry and how it touches the expertise of many disciplines including engineers, mechanics, and inspection specialists.

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to identify the unique characteristics of composites and understand how advanced composite structures are designed, manufactured and maintained.

Who Can Take This Course?

Unfortunately, learners from Iran, Sudan, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine will not be able to register for this course at the present time. While edX has received a license from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer courses to learners from Iran, Sudan and Cuba, our license does not cover this course. Separately, EdX has applied for a license to offer courses to learners in the Crimea region of Ukraine, but we are awaiting a determination from OFAC on that application. We are deeply sorry the U.S. government has determined that we have to block these learners, and we are working diligently to rectify this situation as soon as possible.

There is no doubt that technological innovation is one of the key elements driving human progress.

However, new technologies also raise ethical questions, have serious implications for society and the environment and pose new risks, often unknown and unknowable before the new technologies reach maturity. They may even lead to radical disruptions. Just think about robots, self-driving vehicles, medical engineering and the Internet of Things.

They are strongly dependent on social acceptance and cannot escape public debates of regulation and ethics. If we want to innovate, we have to do that responsibly. We need to reflect on –and include- our societal values in this process. This course will give you a framework to do so.

The first part of the course focuses on ethical questions/framework and concerns with respect to new technologies.

The second part deals with (unknown) risks and safety of new technologies including a number of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methods.

The last part of the course is about the new, value driven, design process which take into account our societal concerns and conflicting values.

Case studies (ethical concerns, risks) for reflection and discussions during the course include – among others- nanotechnology, self-driving vehicles, robots, AI smart meters for electricity, autonomous weapons, nuclear energy and CO2capture and coolants. Affordable (frugal) innovations for low-income groups and emerging markets are also covered in the course. You can test and discuss your viewpoint.

The course is for all engineering students who are looking for a methodical approach to judge responsible innovations from a broader – societal- perspective.

ISSCC Previews: Circuit and System Insights, is a class offered by the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).  The course introduces several key circuit concepts and trends in a tutorial fashion, allowing participants to understand and appreciate the broad themes covered in the ISSCC conference.

These Previews are in the form of eleven, 10-to-18 minute modules taught by leading experts that establish the current state-of-the-art in several fields, including wireless and wireline communication, analog, digital, and memory. Each module will have a few optional questions to test the students understanding of the material covered. The eleven modules are:

1. How Far Can We Go With Electrical I/O?, Elad Alon, University of California, Berkeley
2. Exascale Computing—Fact or Fiction?, Shekhar Borkar, Intel
3. Voltage Scaling Limits: How Low Can Vmin Go?, Leland Chang, IBM
4. Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Integrated Circuits in Silicon Technologies: Challenges and Solutions, Payam Heydari, University of California, Irvine
5. Creating Energy Efficient Digital Systems, Mark Horowitz, Stanford University
6. Innovation Trend of Semiconductor Memories, Nicky Lu, Etron Technology, Inc.
7. Techniques and Trade-offs in Low Power Wireless Transceivers, Al Molnar, Cornell University
8. A/D Converter Figures of Merit and Performance Trends, Boris Murmann, Stanford University
9. N-Path Filters, Bram Nauta, University of Twente
10. Impact of Scaling on Analog Design, Willy Sansen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
11. How to Extract Power from a Solar Cell, Stefano Stanzione, IMEC Netherlands

ISSCC is the flagship conference of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, and it is the premier forum for presenting advances in solid-state circuits and integrated systems-on-a-chip. The conference, held annually in San Francisco, will celebrate its 62nd anniversary in 2015 and is expected to attract over 3000 circuit experts from around the world. ISSCC 2015 will feature more than 200 stimulating technical papers covering the latest innovations in circuit and system design. In addition, there will be three exciting Plenary talks; Plenary videos from recent years can be found at the ISSCC website: www.isscc.org

Preparing for the AP Biology exam requires a deep understanding of many different topics in biology as well as an understanding of the format of the AP exam and the types of questions it asks. This course is Part 2 of the AP Biology series designed to prepare you for the AP Biology exam. 

In Part 2, you will explore genes and learn how information is passed from one generation to the next. You will look at the molecular level of genetics as well as the bigger picture, learning how DNA holds the instructions to life.

As you work through this course, you will find lecture videos taught by expert AP Biology teachers, practice multiple choice questions and free response questions that are similar to what you will encounter on the AP exam and tutorial videos that show you step-by-step how to solve problems. By the end of the course, you will be prepared to take on the AP exam!

Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

This course is authorized as an Advanced Placement® (AP®) course by the AP Course Audit. The AP Course Audit was created by the College Board to give schools and students the confidence that all AP courses meet or exceed the same clearly articulated curricular expectations of colleges and universities.

By taking an AP course and scoring successfully on the related AP Exam, students can:

• Stand Out in College Admissions
• Earn College Credits
• Skip Introductory Classes
• Build College Skills

Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these offerings.

Life on our planet is diverse. While we can easily recognize this in our everyday surroundings, an even more diverse world of life can be seen when we look under a microscope. This is the world of microorganisms. Microorganisms are everywhere, and although some are notorious for their roles in human disease, many play important roles in sustaining our global environment. Among the wide variety of microorganisms, here we will explore those that thrive in the most extreme environments, the extremophiles.

In this course, we will discover how diverse life is on our planet and consider the basic principles that govern evolution. We will also learn how we can classify organisms. Following this, we will have a look at several examples of extreme environments, and introduce the microorganisms that thrive under these harsh conditions. We will lay emphasis on the thermophiles, extremophiles that grow at high temperatures and will study how proteins from thermophiles can maintain their structure and function at high temperatures.

Politics of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865 narrates the history of the American Civil War. While it examines individual engagements and the overall nature of the military conflict, the focus is less on the battlefield than on political, social, and economic change in the Union and the Confederacy. Central to the account are the road to emancipation, the role of black soldiers, the nature of Abraham Lincoln’s wartime leadership, internal dissent in both the North and South, the changing position of women in both societies, and the war’s long-term economic and intellectual impact. We end with a look at the beginnings of Reconstruction during the conflict.

This course is part of the XSeries, Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation – the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. This XSeries will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history – how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present.

This mini-course focuses on the question of accountability in public schools.

Who is accountable for student outcomes? Should we blame the schools or hold the students themselves accountable? Who determines the standards for accountability – the federal government or the individual states?

The demand for accountability in U.S. education resulted in No Child Left Behind and has shaped the Common Core debate. Throughout this mini-course, we will trace the origins of the accountability movement, the increased role of the federal government, the design of accountability interventions, and the impact of accountability programs on student performance.

This mini-course contains five lectures, with most lectures divided into three videos. The mini-courses also include assigned readings, discussion forums, and assessments.

This is the third mini-course in a four-course sequence.

• Mini-Course 1: History and Politics of U.S. Education
• Mini-Course 2: Teacher Policies
• Mini-Course 3: Accountability and National Standards
• Mini-Course 4: School Choice

course-v1:HarvardX+1368.3x+2T2016

This course provides a quantitative and model-based introduction to basic economic principles, and teaches how to apply them to make sense of a wide range of real world problems. Examples of applications include predicting the impact of technological changes in market prices, calculating the optimal gasoline tax, and measuring the value of new products. This is a real Caltech class. It will be taught concurrently to Caltech and on-line students. This has two implications. On the costs side: the class is challenging, makes extensive use of calculus, and will demand significant effort. On the benefit side: successful completion of the class will provide you with an in-depth understanding of basic economics, and will permanently change the way you see the world.

The history of postwar Tokyo reveals an essential feature of the modern city, i.e. the city as a place of visualities. In postwar Tokyo, countless gazes fell upon others; gazes from and upon Americans and the Emperor, gazes going up skyscrapers or rushing aggressively through the cityscape, and gazes twining and wriggling among classes, genders, and ethnic groups in downtown Tokyo. In Part 2, we will focus on the geopolitics of these gazes in modern Tokyo. What kinds of gazes fell upon the war orphans, the poor, and the marginalized groups in Tokyo? How did students themselves, who represented the vast accumulation of knowledge in Tokyo, perform in front of these gazes? Moreover, how did cinema or television shows, as media for these gazes, implicate the whole city? In answering these questions, we will identify the geopolitics historically involved in the practice of “visualizing postwar Tokyo.”

Being an entrepreneur and creating a startup requires money. This money is essential to building a prototype, hiring a great team, and launching a new product or service. How do you raise money for your startup? Venture capitalists.  

Introduction to Venture Capital will teach you how to get the money needed to run your startup. You will learn who venture capitalists are, how they think and gain an understanding of their motives, investment strategies, and what they’ll expect from you.

In addition to lectures you will get first hand inside knowledge from experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on what it takes to successfully acquire money for your startup!

Part 2 of the UC Berkeley Agile Development Using Ruby on Rails XSeries Program will teach you to use JavaScript to enhance applications and create more sophisticated apps by adding relationships between models within the Ruby on Rails framework. You will also learn about what happens after the apps are deployed to real users, including how to monitor performance, identify and fix common performance problems, and avoid compromising customer data. Finally, learners will see how to apply Agile techniques to enhance and refactor legacy code and practice app deployment to real users to monitor performance, identify and fix common performance problems, and avoid compromising customer data. 

Other topics covered in this software engineering course include:

• How to form, organize and manage small programming teams
• Introduction to design patterns: what they are and how to recognize opportunities to apply them
• Using Rails for more advanced features like third-party authentication and elegantly expressing design patterns that arise frequently in SaaS

There will be four homework assignments: two programming assignments, an open source assignment and one assignment about operations/deployment. There will also be several short quizzes. The videos and homework assignments used in this offering of the course were revised in October 2016.

Learn to leverage the power of paid search advertising with this step-by-step guide

This interdisciplinary course explores the complex interactions between poverty, rural livelihoods, and forest resources in developing countries.  We will consider some of the dynamics that occur when impoverished people use forests in their daily lives. We will talk about the role of forests for medicines and wild foods, as sources of fuelwood and charcoal for energy, and other pressing topics that confront sustainable forest management such as the impacts of human health and diseases on forests. The course consists of modules on forests and livelihoods in developing countries, agroforestry, human health in forested environments, protected areas and their sustainability, small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs), and  community forestry. Three cross-cutting themes (gender, tenure and forest rights, and climate change) will span all of the modules.

This course will engage you in developing a deeper understanding of the fundamental importance of forest resources in the lives and livelihoods of people in developing countries. Participants from tropical and developing countries may have lived much of what we will talk about in this course, and your experiences will deepen our understanding of the course material. Participants not from a developing country will gain a much better appreciation for the multitude of ways that people in developing countries use forest resources. Weekly videos will be complemented by readings, quizzes, and links to online resources to help you explore current scholarship in this domain. A discussion forum will enable you to delve more deeply into these issues with other participants and the course staff. The themes covered in this MOOC are important to anyone working in international forestry.

This module, the third installment of the multi-part Poetry in America series, focuses on the poetry of Walt Whitman, a quintessentially American writer whose work continues to bear heavily upon the American poetic tradition. We will explore Whitman’s relationship to the City, the Self, and the Body through his life and poetry. Distinguished guests in this module include Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener.

Led by Harvard Professor Elisa New, Poetry in America surveys nearly 400 years of American poetry. Through video lectures, archival images and texts, expeditions to historic sites, interpretive seminars with large and small groups, interviews with poets and scholars, and conversations about poems with distinguished Americans, Poetry in America embarks on a journey through the literature of a nation. Distinguished guests, including President Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan, Henry Louis Gates, Eve Ensler, John McCain, Andrea Mitchell, Michael Pollan, Drew Faust, Tony Kushner, and Nas, among others, bring fresh perspectives to the study of American Poetry.

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.