Online courses directory (1728)

Have you ever wondered how your favorite mobile applications are developed?

Join us on a gentle journey through the mobile application development landscape, using Android as the platform. Along the way we will learn to use Android Studio, the integrated development environment (IDE) for Android apps. This course is intended for students who have some prior programming experience. The course will introduce you to the basics of the Android platform, Android application components, Activities and their lifecycle, UI design, Multimedia, 2D graphics and networking support in Android.

This course covers the following topics:

• Android platform and the Android Studio IDE
• Android components, Activities and their lifecycle, Intents
• UI Design: Widgets and Layouts, UI Events, Event Listeners
• 2D graphics: Canvas/Drawing using a view
• Multimedia: Audio playback and MediaPlayer
• Network support: AsyncTask, HttpURLConnection

This course is being offered in an experimental format. Students are welcome to audit the course, and participate in all course activities. Certificates will not be issued.

This course is designed to help you become a more effective and confident public speaker. We will demystify the process of writing, practicing, and performing a clear and engaging speech, work through the unique traits of oral versus written communication, and learn how to prepare speeches that are easier to deliver orally and understand aurally.

One of the best ways to refine your own speech ability is through a close study of others' speeches. We will have a number of opportunities to examine and discuss sample speeches and speakers. Growing out of our analysis of speakers, we will discuss who you hold up as a model speaker and analyze what makes that speaker effective. We will critically examine our own speeches and the speeches of others. By becoming a student of public speaking, you join a long history of rhetorical study dating back to ancient Greece.

This course is adapted from a similar class offered by the Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Social Sciences, a fully online degree completion program from the University of Washington.

To help ensure that your learning experience is good, please note that this course is not for beginners or those new to programming. You must have prior programming experience in an object-oriented programming language as there are concepts that are mentioned in the course that are assumed to be prior knowledge and are not explained in detail. If you are new to programming, it is highly recommended that you visit this page to learn some of the fundamentals first.

Learning C# provides a solid foundation in object-oriented programming knowledge, paves the way for learning other programming languages, and positions those who complete this course for a wide variety of in-demand computer programming jobs.  
 
The C# programming language was created to be an object-oriented programming language that offers ease of use, familiarity to C/C++ and Java developers, along with enhanced memory and resource management.  C# is prevalent on the Microsoft platform but is also being used to develop software that runs on Linux, Android, and iOS devices.  
 
This course aims to teach the basics of C# all the way through the advanced features of the language. 
 
This course is not a beginner course on C#, although beginners can still learn a lot from the material. It is intended to provide an introduction to the C# language and the world of .NET programming for existing programmers who need or want to learn more about C# and managed code development.

Chemistry and biology are traditionally taught as separate subjects at the high school level, where students memorize fundamental scientific principles that are universally accepted. However, at the university level and in industry, we learn that science is not as simple as we once thought. We are constantly confronted by questions about the unknown and required to use creative, integrated approaches to solve these problems. By bringing together knowledge from multidisciplinary fields, we are empowered with the ability to generate new ideas. The goal of this course is to develop skills for generating new ideas at the interface between chemistry and biology by analyzing pioneering studies.

When should I register?
Registration will be open throughout the course.

The actions of ordinary people are often absent in studies of urban renewal and urban ecology. Around the world, people who are fed up with environmental degradation and the breakdown of their communities come together to transform blighted vacant lots, trashed-out stream corridors, polluted estuaries, and other “broken places.” Civic ecology practices—such as community gardening, wetlands restoration, river cleanups, and tree planting—are a means for people to express resilience and rebuild communities marked by disaster and disinvestment.

Civic ecology draws on psychology, sociology, political science, education, ecology, and social-ecological systems resilience to understand how and why people care for nature and their communities.

Throughout this course, you will:

• Explore the people, places, and practices that restore nature and revitalize neighborhoods, making a difference in ways big and small.
• Discuss and evaluate contemporary thinking in resilience, social-ecological systems, and the relationship between nature and human/community wellbeing.
• Grasp an understanding of how civic ecology enables those with limited resources to defy and cope with daily struggles, including after disaster and war.
• Acquire the knowledge and skill set to enact change in your own community.
• Participate in a civic ecology service learning project to turn classroom learning into real-life application.

This course is ideal for a learner who is intrigued by both social and environmental concerns, or simply has a desire to dive into an emerging 21st century, cross-disciplinary subject area. You will complete this course with a keener awareness of social-ecological issues and concerns, as well as a greater knowledge of the practical steps required to rebuild and maintain community and nature in a world marked by inequality, conflict, and climate change.

Learn how philosophy, art, literature, and history shaped the last century and the world today.

Fundamental topics in electromagnetism: electric charge, electric fields, currents, magnetic fields, and induction.

HLS1x Copyright will explore the current law of copyright and the ongoing debates concerning how the law should be reformed.

Cuando hacer las cosas bien no es suficiente, necesitamos convertir la mejora continua en un lema diario para todos los trabajadores de la empresa. Para ello necesitamos conocer técnicas que nos ayuden a realizar esta tarea de manera más sistemática para que, por un lado tengamos mejores resultados y, por otro, no nos dispersemos con las urgencias de un día a día caótico. En este curso, aprenderás a definir problemas/oportunidades, y a convertirlas en un proyecto de mejora.

Descubrirás cómo construir un equipo que se haga cargo de estos proyectos y conocerás y practicaras diferentes técnicas para la resolución de problemas en grupo. Al finalizar el curso serás capaz de participar en grupos de resolución de problemas quesean capaces de mejorar la eficiencia de las organizaciones.

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.

If you’re interested in data analysis and interpretation, then this is the data science course for you. We start by learning the mathematical definition of distance and use this to motivate the use of the singular value decomposition (SVD) for dimension reduction and multi-dimensional scaling and its connection to principle component analysis. We will learn about the batch effect: the most challenging data analytical problem in genomics today and describe how the techniques can be used to detect and adjust for batch effects. Specifically, we will describe the principal component analysis and factor analysis and demonstrate how these concepts are applied to data visualization and data analysis of high-throughput experimental data.

Finally, we give a brief introduction to machine learning and apply it to high-throughput data. We describe the general idea behind clustering analysis and descript K-means and hierarchical clustering and demonstrate how these are used in genomics and describe prediction algorithms such as k-nearest neighbors along with the concepts of training sets, test sets, error rates and cross-validation.

Given the diversity in educational background of our students we have divided the series into seven parts. You can take the entire series or individual courses that interest you. If you are a statistician you should consider skipping the first two or three courses, similarly, if you are biologists you should consider skipping some of the introductory biology lectures. Note that the statistics and programming aspects of the class ramp up in difficulty relatively quickly across the first three courses. By the third course will be teaching advanced statistical concepts such as hierarchical models and by the fourth advanced software engineering skills, such as parallel computing and reproducible research concepts.

These courses make up 2 XSeries and are self-paced:

PH525.1x: Statistics and R for the Life Sciences

PH525.2x: Introduction to Linear Models and Matrix Algebra

PH525.3x: Statistical Inference and Modeling for High-throughput Experiments

PH525.4x: High-Dimensional Data Analysis

PH525.5x: Introduction to Bioconductor: annotation and analysis of genomes and genomic assays 

PH525.6x: High-performance computing for reproducible genomics

PH525.7x: Case studies in functional genomics

Imaging technologies form a significant component of the health budgets of all developed economies, and most people need advanced imaging such as MRIs, X-Rays and CT Scans (or CAT Scans) during their life. Many of us are aware of the misinformation sometimes offered in TV dramas, which either exaggerates the benefits or overemphasizes the risks.

This medical imaging course provides an introduction to biomedical imaging and modern imaging modalities. The course also covers the basic scientific principals behind each modality, and introduces some of the key applications, from neurological diseases to cancers. This course includes modules specially designed for the general public, whilst also providing some advanced modules which could contribute to professional development in health, engineering and IT industries.

This course is offered in an experimental format. Students are welcome to audit the course, and participate in all course activities. Certificates will not be issued.

Many early childhood educators report feeling ill equipped to meet the needs of children with challenging behavior and frustrated in their attempts to develop safe and nurturing early learning environment. If you work with young children, you are not alone in your feelings! Increasing evidence suggests that an effective approach to addressing problem behavior is the adoption of a model that focuses on promoting social-emotional development, providing support for children’s appropriate behavior, and preventing challenging behavior. In this class, you will learn a framework for addressing the social and emotional development and challenging behavior of young children.

The overarching goal of this course is to learn evidence-based practices to support the social and emotional development of infants and young children. We will read current research on the developmental trajectory of children with early-onset aggressive behaviors; positive behavior support program models; and intervention efforts that promote positive early childhood mental health. Evidence-based classroom management skills will also be studied and you will leave the course with a solid understanding of how to design supportive environments. This course incorporates a community with which you can learn from others, share your own current approaches and discuss your attempts to incorporate the learnings of this course into your early childhood practice.

Android es la plataforma libre desarrollada por Google, ampliamente utilizada en multitud de dispositivos como móviles, tabletas, TV, wearables e Internet de las cosas. Su expansión ha sido espectacular, siendo el S.O. más utilizado en la actualidad. Tras realizar este curso conocerás los fundamentos del desarrollo de aplicaciones en Android y podrás realizar sencillas aplicaciones, que incluyan los aspectos más importantes y novedosos de esta plataforma.

A lo largo del curso se desarrolla una aplicación de ejemplo, "Mis Lugares Favoritos", que nos permitirá almacenar fotografía, posición geográfica, valoración y otros datos de los lugares que más nos gustan. El curso se introducen los siguientes aspectos: repaso de Java, visión general de Android, entorno de desarrollo (Android Studio), Interfaz de usuario (vistas, Layouts, recursos, barra de acciones, preferencias, RecyclerView, Fragments...), actividades, intenciones, seguridad, posicionamiento, mapas y bases de datos.

In this education and teacher training course we will explore effective teaching methods for biology. We will emphasize approaches proven to be effective and show you how to implement them. We will also give you the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching experience and exchange ideas and share challenges with other learners in the course.

We will begin by looking at the most common method of teaching science, the lecture. We’ll discuss what the lecture method does well and look at data that illustrates when it is less effective. You will hear highly successful teachers talk about their experience with lecture and how they modified their lecture time to more actively engage students. We’ll investigate creating learning objectives and how they can be used to communicate your expectations to students. You will practice writing your own learning objectives and see how they can streamline exam construction. We’ll look at a variety of ways to include active learning during class time, discuss how active learning strategies support your learning objectives, and give you practice developing learning activities for biology topics you find challenging to teach. 

Lastly, we’ll look at how to use resources for student learning outside of class, and how to know that your students have successfully learned from both in-class and outside of class activities.

Our course is designed for instructors, or instructors-to-be, of undergraduate-level biology. High school instructors of AP Biology, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students looking ahead to teaching should find the course useful. The course can serve as a means of professional development. There are no pre-requisites, although prior satisfactory completion of a college biology course is highly recommended.

What impact can art and the humanities have on patient care? Can art enhance medical caregivers’ powers of observation and humanize their interactions with patients? Through presence alone, can caregivers heal what they cannot cure?

In Artful Medicine: Art’s Power to Enrich Patient Care, we will explore the meaning of medical professionalism, techniques for a humanistic approach to caregiving, and the positive impact of humanism on clinical outcomes.

By looking closely at works of art that portray empathy in human interaction, caregivers can discover their common humanity with patients. Caregivers can also hone observation skills that help paint a portrait of a patient as a person and not a collection of symptoms, lab tests, and scans. Through presence at the patient’s side, unmediated by technology, a caregiver can make the patient feel cared for in addition to being treated.

One needn’t be a caregiver to benefit from this course—though all of us have probably been cared for at some point and can therefore easily relate to the importance of a humanistic approach to caregiving. Anyone interested in how art can be used to enhance observational and empathic skills will find this application to medical humanism fascinating.

We will:

• Explore elements of professionalism and humanism, why they are critical to patient care, and how they are threatened by technology that increasingly distances caregivers from patients;
• Analyze art for form, narrative, and technique;
• Practice techniques used by art educators to enhance observation and improve diagnostic skills;
• Examine works of art for the professional behaviors they exemplify;
• Apply techniques to patient care that will help humanize interactions, so caregivers can refocus their attention on patients and families and enhance their understanding of behaviors critical to healing; and
• Identify with both the caregiver’s and the patient’s points of view.

This MOOC is inspired by residential seminar taught by Dr. Schiffman at Brown University's Warren Alpert School of Medicine under the name The Doc's HeArt: Reflecting on Professional Values Through Art, and is especially relevant for healthcare professionals who are interested in differentiating themselves in their given or prospective field.

The field of learning games is rapidly growing, with interest from academics, publishers, schools and startups. But what makes a good learning game? Where do ideas come from and how do you create them? These are the questions that this course tries to answer.

The premise of learning games from some perspectives seems like a perfect and easy solution - get people to learn things they don’t want to by motivating them through game play. To others it seems like an oxymoron - if learning is hard then it can’t possibly be fun at the same time. The key to designing good learning games is to reconcile these perspectives by creating games that focus on creating environments based on “hard fun.” This idea will be a central tenet of this course.

Through six units comprising nine weeks, we will look at the evolution of educational video games and hear from experts working on many aspects of learning games from design to development to implementation. For the course project, participants will create their own learning game. This course utilizes Gameblox, a game editor that uses a block based programming language to allow anyone to create games.

This course is part of the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Big Data and the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science.

Are you ready for big data science? In this course, learn how to implement predictive analytics solutions for big data using Apache Spark in Microsoft Azure HDInsight. See how to work with Scala or Python to cleanse and transform data and build machine learning models with Spark ML (the machine learning library in Spark),

Note: To complete the hands-on elements in this course, you will require an Azure subscription and a Windows client computer. You can sign up for a free Azure trial subscription (a valid credit card is required for verification, but you will not be charged for Azure services). Note that the free trial is not available in all regions.

This course is also part of the Microsoft Azure HDInsight Big Data Analyst XSeries.

Have you ever imagined what is deep under the ground? What is happening deep inside the earth? How has the earth evolved into its present state? This course is an introduction to earth science, focusing on the deep earth. We will learn how temperature and chemical compositions inside the Earth are inferred from limited observations combined with laboratory experiments. We will also explore the fate of water on the early Earth related to advanced research questions. Upon finishing this course, you will learn how scientists interpret the unknown and use the scientific method to address immeasurable research challenges.

No specific knowledge is needed. Join this course and let’s imagine the inside of the Earth together.

Urban school reform in the United States is characterized by contentious, politicized debate. This course explores a set of critical issues in the education and educational reform space, with a focus on aspects of the field that have sparked controversy and polarized views. We will dig into these debates, situating them within the larger history of public education and school reform, and considering the viewpoints, the evidence, and translation of issues into educational policy.
 
The class is designed with multiple student perspectives in mind with appropriate content and access points for policymakers, school leaders, teachers and parents or other concerned citizens. No background knowledge is required.
 
We will consider three themes in this course:

1. Federal Strategies in School Reform: How has the federal government legislated and incented public school reform? What are the implications of those approaches given the nature of local control in American public education? We will discuss three particular strategies the federal government has enacted recently and the diverging perspectives on them.
2. School Choice: How does school choice aim to improve schools? What forms does it take? Does providing school choice improve schools?
3. Accountability: What is the history of accountability in American public schooling? What are the policies and practices associated with accountability and what are the assumptions behind them? Does accountability lead to improved outcomes for students?