Online courses directory (1728)

Want to learn about how you become who you are, but not sure where to kick off that journey?  This is a fantastic course for you.

This course covers important factors influencing your growing up.  We discuss personality and emotion, romantic and intimate relationships, as well as the interplay between culture and these factors on your personal growth journey. In the course, we allude to the findings pertinent to the Chinese samples.

Have you ever wanted to change the world? Have you ever wondered what motivates some people to become activists? What experiences in your childhood or when you were a teenager may have shaped your political identity? Join us, along with Gloria Steinem, Loretta Ross, and others, in a seven-week exploration of these questions and more. In this course, you will analyze some of the psychological theories that help explain what leads people to want to change society.

Through rich, interactive case studies you will meet nine prominent women activists who were engaged in efforts and movements in the U.S. from the 1960s through the 1990s including the Civil Rights Movement, the LGBTQ Movement, and the Reproductive Justice Movement. Within our online community you will discuss and debate how psychological theories can explain these activists’ motivations, discover where the theories are and are not applicable, and collaboratively create new understandings and analyses.

Each week, Gloria Steinem (SC ‘56) will provide her thoughts and insight into how these theories might apply to contemporary issues.

Photo Credit: Diana Davies

In the information age, data is all around us. Within this data are answers to compelling questions across many societal domains (politics, business, science, etc.). But if you had access to a large dataset, would you be able to find the answers you seek?

This course, part of the Data Science MicroMasters program, will introduce you to a collection of powerful, open-source, tools needed to analyze data and to conduct data science. Specifically, you’ll learn how to use:

• python
• jupyter notebooks
• pandas
• numpy
• matplotlib
• git
• and many other tools.

You will learn these tools all within the context of solving compelling data science problems.

After completing this course, you’ll be able to find answers within large datasets by using python tools to import data, explore it, analyze it, learn from it, visualize it, and ultimately generate easily sharable reports. 

By learning these skills, you’ll also become a member of a world-wide community which seeks to build data science tools, explore public datasets, and discuss evidence-based findings. Last but not least, this course will provide you with the foundation you need to succeed in later courses in the Data Science MicroMasters program.

Cities are becoming the predominant living and working environment of humanity, and for this reason, livability or quality of life in the city has become crucial.

This urban planning course will focus on four areas that directly affect livability in a city: Urban energy, urban climate, urban ecology and urban mobility. The course begins by presenting measurable criteria for the assessment of livability, and how to positively influence the design of cities towards greater livability. We will focus on this basic topic of the human habitat in a holistic way, and introduce possibilities of participatory urban design by citizens, leading towards the development of a citizen design science.

You will be able to share your experiences with the other participants in the course and also with the experts from the teaching team. In completing this course, you will better understand how to make a city more livable by going beyond the physical appearance and by focusing on different properties and impact factors of the urban system.

Livability in Future Cities is the second course in a series of MOOCs under the title “Future Cities.” This series aims to bring the latest research on planning, managing and transforming cities to places where this knowledge has the highest benefit for its citizens. “Future Cities” provided an overview, and this course will focus on livability in existing and new cities. 

Do you have an interest in biology and quantitative tools? Do you know computational methods but do not realize how they apply to biological problems? Do you know biology but do not understand how scientists really analyze complicated data? 7.QBWx: Quantitative Biology Workshop is designed to give learners exposure to the application of quantitative tools to analyze biological data at an introductory level. For the last few years, the Biology Department of MIT has run this workshop-style course as part of a one-week outreach program for students from other universities. With 7.QBWx, we can give more learners from around the world the chance to discover quantitative biology. We hope that this series of workshops encourages learners to explore new interests and take more biology and computational courses.

We expect that learners from 7.00x Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life or an equivalent course can complete this workshop-based course without a background in programming. The course content will introduce programming languages but will not teach any one language in a comprehensive manner. The content of each week varies. We want learners to have an introduction to multiple languages and tools to find a topic that they would want to explore more. Participants with programming experience will find some weeks easier than students with only biology experience, while those with a biology background should find the week on genetics easier. We recommend that learners try to complete each week to find what interests them the most.

Workshop Content Creators and Residential Leaders

Gregory Hale, Michael Goard, Ph.D., Ben Stinson, Kunle Demuren, Sara Gosline, Ph.D., Glenna Foight, Leyla Isik, Samir El-Boustani, Ph.D., Gerald Pho, and Rajeev Rikhye

Residential Outreach Workshop Organizer and Creator

Mandana Sassanfar, Ph.D.

This workshop includes activities on the following biological topics: population biology, biochemical equilibrium and kinetics, molecular modeling of enzymes, visual neuroscience, genetics, gene expression and development, and genomics. The tools and programming languages include MATLAB, PyMOL, StarGenetics, Python, and R. This course does not require learners to download MATLAB. All MATLAB activities run and are graded within the edX platform. We do recommend that participants download a few other free tools for the activities so that they learn how to use the same tools and programs that scientists use.

How can you tell a secret when everyone is able to listen in? In this course, you will learn how to use quantum effects, such as quantum entanglement and uncertainty, to implement cryptographic tasks with levels of security that are impossible to achieve classically.

This interdisciplinary course is an introduction to the exciting field of quantum cryptography, developed in collaboration between QuTech at Delft University of Technology and the California Institute of Technology.

By the end of the course you will

• Be armed with a fundamental toolbox for understanding, designing and analyzing quantum protocols.
• Understand quantum key distribution protocols.
• Understand how untrusted quantum devices can be tested.
• Be familiar with modern quantum cryptography – beyond quantum key distribution.

This course assumes a solid knowledge of linear algebra and probability at the level of an advanced undergraduate. Basic knowledge of elementary quantum information (qubits and simple measurements) is also assumed, but if you are completely new to quantum information additional videos are provided for you to fill in any gaps.

Already know something about quantum mechanics, quantum bits and quantum logic gates, but want to design new quantum algorithms, and explore multi-party quantum protocols? This is the course for you!

In this advanced graduate physics course on quantum computation and quantum information, we will cover:

• The formalism of quantum errors (density matrices, operator sum representations)
• Quantum error correction codes (stabilizers, graph states)
• Fault-tolerant quantum computation (normalizers, Clifford group operations, the Gottesman-Knill Theorem)
• Models of quantum computation (teleportation, cluster, measurement-based)
• Quantum Fourier transform-based algorithms (factoring, simulation)
• Quantum communication (noiseless and noisy coding)
• Quantum protocols (games, communication complexity)

Research problem ideas are presented along the journey.

Learner Testimonial

“This course is hard!” 
-- Anonymous MIT graduate student

Quantum computation is a remarkable subject building on the great computational discovery that computers based on quantum mechanics are exponentially powerful. This course aims to make this cutting-edge material broadly accessible to undergraduate students, including computer science majors who do not have any prior exposure to quantum mechanics. The course starts with a simple introduction to the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics using the concepts of qubits (or quantum bits) and quantum gates. This treatment emphasizes the paradoxical nature of the subject, including entanglement, non-local correlations, the no-cloning theorem and quantum teleportation. The course covers the fundamentals of quantum algorithms, including the quantum fourier transform, period finding, Shor's quantum algorithm for factoring integers, as well as the prospects for quantum algorithms for NP-complete problems. It also discusses the basic ideas behind the experimental realization of quantum computers, including the prospects for adiabatic quantum optimization and the D-Wave controversy.

Before your course starts, try the new edX Demo where you can explore the fun, interactive learning environment and virtual labs. Learn more.

Do I need a textbook for this class?
No. Notes will be posted each week. If you wish to consult other references, a list of related textbooks and online resources will be provided.

What is the estimated effort for course?
About 5-12 hrs/week.

Why is the work load range so wide?
How long you spend on the course depends upon your background and on the depth to which you wish to understand the material. The topics in this course are quite open ended, and will be presented so you can understand them at a high level or can try to follow it at a sophisticated level with the help of the posted notes.

How much does it cost to take the course?
Nothing! The course is free.

Will the text of the lectures be available?
Yes. All of our lectures will have transcripts synced to the videos.

Do I need to watch the lectures live?
No. You can watch the lectures at your leisure.

Quantum Mechanics for Everyone is a four-week long MOOC that teaches the basic ideas of quantum mechanics with a method that requires no complicated math beyond taking square roots (and you can use a calculator for that). Quantum theory is taught without “dumbing down” any of the material, giving you the same version experts use in current research. We will cover the quantum mystery of the two-slit experiment and advanced topics that include how to see something without shining light on it (quantum seeing in the dark) and bunching effects of photons (Hong-Ou-Mandel effect).

To get a flavor for the course and see if it is right for you, watch "Let's get small", which shows you how poorly you were taught what an atom looks like, and "The fallacy of physics phobia." 

Please note: the four sections of this course will be released on a weekly basis from April 18, 2017 to May 9, 2017, when all the course material will be available and the course will become fully self-paced.

Knowing the geometrical structure of the molecules around us is one of the most important and fundamental issues in the field of chemistry. This course introduces the two primary methods used to determine the geometrical structure of molecules: molecular spectroscopy and gas electron diffraction.

In molecular spectroscopy, molecules are irradiated with light or electric waves to reveal rich information, including:

• Motions of electrons within a molecule (Week 1),
• Vibrational motions of the nuclei within a molecule (Week 2), and
• Rotational motions of a molecule (Week 3).

In the gas electron diffraction method, molecules are irradiated with an accelerated electron beam. As the beam is scattered by the nuclei within the molecule, the scattered waves interfere with each other to generate a diffraction pattern. In week 4, we study the fundamental mechanism of electron scattering and how the resulting diffraction images reveal the geometrical structure of molecules.

By the end of the course, you will be able to understand molecular vibration plays an important role in determining the geometrical structure of molecules and gain a fuller understanding of molecular structure from the information obtained by the two methodologies.

FAQ

Do I need to buy a textbook?

No, you can learn the contents without any textbooks. However, if you hope to learn more on the subjects treated in this course, you are recommended to read the textbook introduced below:

Kaoru Yamanouchi, “Quantum Mechanics of Molecular Structures,” Springer-Verlag, 2012.

In this quantum physics course you will learn the basic concepts of scattering – phase-shifts, time delays, Levinson’s theorem, and resonances – in the simple context of one-dimensional problems. We then turn to the study of angular momentum and the motion of particles in three-dimensional central potentials. We learn about the radial equation and study the case of the hydrogen atom in detail.

This is the final course in a series which includes:

• Quantum Mechanics: Wavefunctions, Operators, and Expectation Values
• Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Physics in 1D Potentials
• Quantum Mechanics: 1D Scattering and Central Potentials

The series is based on the MIT 8.04: Quantum Mechanics I. At MIT, 8.04 is the first of a three-course sequence in Quantum Mechanics, a cornerstone in the education of physics majors that prepares them for advanced and specialized studies in any field related to quantum physics.

After completing the 8.04x series, you will be ready to tackle the Mastering Quantum Mechanics course series on edX, which will be available in Spring 2018.

In this quantum physics course you will acquire concrete knowledge of quantum mechanics by learning to solve the Schrodinger equation for important classes of one-dimensional potentials. We study the associated energy eigenstates and bound states. The harmonic oscillator is solved using the differential equation as well as algebraically, using creation and annihilation operators. We discuss barrier penetration and the Ramsauer-Townsend effect.

This is the second course in a series which includes:

• Quantum Mechanics: Wavefunctions, Operators, and Expectation Values
• Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Physics in 1D Potentials
• Quantum Mechanics: 1D Scattering and Central Potentials

The series is based on the MIT 8.04: Quantum Mechanics I. At MIT, 8.04 is the first of a three-course sequence in Quantum Mechanics, a cornerstone in the education of physics majors that prepares them for advanced and specialized studies in any field related to quantum physics.

After completing the 8.04x series, you will be ready to tackle the Mastering Quantum Mechanics course series on edX, which will be available in Spring 2018.

In this quantum physics course you will learn the basics of quantum mechanics. We begin with de Broglie waves, the wavefunction, and its probability interpretation. We then introduce the Schrodinger equation, inner products, and Hermitian operators. We also study the time-evolution of wave-packets, Ehrenfest’s theorem, and uncertainty relations.

This is the first course in a series which includes:

• Quantum Mechanics: Wavefunctions, Operators, and Expectation Values
• Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Physics in 1D Potentials
• Quantum Mechanics: 1D Scattering and Central Potentials

The series is based on MIT 8.04: Quantum Mechanics I. At MIT, 8.04 is the first of a three-course sequence in Quantum Mechanics, a cornerstone in the education of physics majors that prepares them for advanced and specialized studies in any field related to quantum physics.

After completing the 8.04x series, you will be ready to tackle the Mastering Quantum Mechanics course series on edX, which will be available in Spring 2018.

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

Transact-SQL is an essential skill for data professionals and developers working with SQL databases. With this combination of expert instruction, demonstrations, and practical labs, step from your first SELECT statement through to implementing transactional programmatic logic.

Work through multiple modules, each of which explore a key area of the Transact-SQL language, with a focus on querying and modifying data in Microsoft SQL Server or Azure SQL Database. The labs in this course use a sample database that can be deployed easily in Azure SQL Database, so you get hands-on experience with Transact-SQL without installing or configuring a database server.

Have you ever wondered how you can apply math and science skills to real life? Do you wish you could go beyond what you've learned in the classroom? This science course will advance your knowledge as we unpack some important scientific thinking skills using real-world examples. By completing this course, you will be better prepared to continue studying math and science at the high school level and beyond.

In this course, a collaboration between The University of Queensland and Brisbane Grammar School, we will cover key scientific concepts related to:

• Measurement
• Estimation
• The validity of evidence
• The difference between logic and opinion
• Misconceptions
• Modeling
• Prediction
• Extrapolation

Each concept will be explored through real world examples and problems that will help you visualize how math and science work in your life.

This course is ideal for high school students looking to challenge themselves and further develop an interest in math and science. It is also applicable to high school science teachers looking for additional materials for teaching.

Clique aqui​ para a versão em português.

How much can we know of the physical world? Can we know everything? Or are there fundamental limits to how much we can explain? If there are limits, to what extent can we explain the nature of physical reality? RealityX investigates the limits of knowledge and what we can and cannot know of the world and ourselves.

We will trace the evolution of ideas about the nature of reality in philosophy and the natural sciences through the ages. Starting with the philosophers of Ancient Greece and ending with cutting edge theories about the universe, quantum physics, and the nature of consciousness.

Learners who complete this course will be able to:

A. Communicate with others about the latest scientific discoveries in various disciplines including cosmology, quantum physics, mathematics, machine intelligence and cognitive science.

B. Identify key points in history where scientific advances changed humanity’s philosophy and understanding of the nature of reality and our place in the Universe.

C. Reflect on and examine their own worldview and identify if any changes occurred during this course.

D. Confidently argue about scientific evidence, philosophical viewpoints, and others’ interpretations of both.

E. Demonstrate how the scientific method works, its limitations, and how scientists use it to construct knowledge about physical reality.

Join world-renowned physicist and author Marcelo Gleiser and leading experts as we explore how philosophers and physicists from Plato to Einstein and many others have attempted to explain the nature of the world and of reality.

This course will be offered in both English and Portuguese. Videos will have subtitles,discussions will be supported in both languages, as will all assignments.

This course is a project of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth (ICE), dedicated to transforming the dialogue between the sciences and the humanities in academia and in the public sphere in order to explore fundamental questions where a cross-disciplinary exchange is essential.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get your train on the right platform at the scheduled time every day?

Understanding the complexity behind today’s sophisticated railway systems will give you a better insight into how this safe and reliable transportation system works. We will show you the many factors which are involved and how multiple people, behind the scenes, have a daily task that enables you to get from home to work. Journey with us into the world of rail - a complex system that connects people, cities and countries.

Railway systems entail much more than a train and a track. They are based on advanced technical and operational solutions, dealing with continuously changing demands for more efficient transport for both passengers and freight every day. Each system consists of many components that must be properly integrated: from trains, tracks, stations, signaling and control systems, through monitoring, maintenance and the impact on cities, landscape and people. This integration is the big challenge and the source of many train delays, inconvenient connections and other issues that impact our society.

This engineering course attempts to tackle those issues by introducing you to a holistic approach to railway systems engineering. You will learn how the system components depend on each other to create a reliable, efficient and state-of-the-art network.

We will address questions such as:

• How do railways work and how did they evolve over time?
• What factors give rise to everyday issues?
• How do different components of the railway system interact?
• What is the effect of train stations and the network from an urban, social and economic point of view?
• What can be done to improve the monitoring and maintenance of tracks?
• How are timetables designed in a way that balances passenger demand with the capacity of the railway and is adaptable to handle unexpected disturbances?
• What can be done to prevent and deal with disturbances caused by external factors and how do they affect the whole rail system?
• How does the design of railways influence their performance over time?

A new serious game has been designed for this course to guide you through the process of decision making while building a rail network and maintaining it. Cities have to be connected in an ever-changing setting, dealing with wear, capacity, developments and disturbances. What choices do you make and how do they affect the performance of the system?

For this MOOC, our very own TU Delft Measurement Train will be used to give you insights of the track and vehicle design, real-life monitoring and pantograph/catenary interaction. Together with the game this will give you the opportunity to see real-life examples and implement the knowledge you learn in a simulated environment.

This first ever MOOC on railway systems engineering is delivered by the renowned experts of TU Delft and leading professionals working in the industry. It combines theoretical knowledge with practical examples, with the main objective to maintain a high degree of reliability under predictable and unknown circumstances.

If you want to learn about the science behind the exciting world of railway systems - whether train, metro or tram - this course will set you on the right track!

Con este curso aprenderás los conceptos básicos relacionados con las reacciones químicas y profundizarás en su estudio desde el punto de vista cuantitativo, es decir su estequiometría. Entenderás el comportamiento de los gases y las disoluciones y aplicarás las leyes que regulan su comportamiento en los procesos químicos en los que participan.
 
La ecuación química representa lo que sucede cuando tiene lugar un proceso en el que unas sustancias se convierten en otras mediante una “reacción química”.

En las reacciones se cumple la ley de la conservación de la masa y es posible calcular las cantidades de reactivos que reaccionan y de productos que se obtienen.
 
El estudio de las reacciones químicas y de los aspectos cuantitativos de las mismas, es decir su “estequiometría”, es competencia de la Química, una materia básica que se estudia en muchas titulaciones Universitarias.
 
Este curso va dirigido a los alumnos que acceden a la Universidad, especialmente aquellos que no han cursado Química y que requieren de los conocimientos básicos en estos aspectos.
 
Las unidades que trataremos:

• Conceptos básicos: masa, mol y fórmula química
• Gases. Ecuación de los gases ideales
• Disoluciones y formas de expresar la concentración
• Ecuaciones y reacciones químicas
• Estequiometría y cálculos en reacciones completas
• Reacciones reversibles y cálculos estequiométricos en el equilibrio

How do health professionals predict global patterns of disease? In the case of an epidemic, disaster, or armed conflict, how do experts determine what health care interventions to use? Is it possible to eradicate diseases like guinea worm and polio? How can health systems address their challenges?

In this course, learners will hear from leading experts as they engage with current issues and challenges in global health. The course will examine the global response to diseases, such as the developing Zika outbreak. The backbone of this learning experience is a set of 18 reviews, co-edited by David Hunter and Harvey Fineberg, published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The combined reviews constitute an up-to-date survey of global health topics from authoritative leaders in the field, covering disease patterns and predictions, infectious and non-communicable diseases, and health systems and institutional responses.

Participants will read the reviews, hear from the authors through a series of interviews, and engage with the content and one another through assessments and discussion questions.

HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs harvardx@harvard.edu.

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.

Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form.

The increased demand by consumers and businesses for more utility, connectivity and smarter and more efficient electronic technology not only creates a need for more embedded systems but also for engineers in the embedded systems field.

In this lab-based computer science course, explore the complexities of embedded systems and learn how to develop your own real-time operating system (RTOS) by building a personal fitness device with Bluetooth connectivity (BLE). An operating system (OS) is a software system that computers use to manage the resources of a computer. The OS decides which tasks are performed when and decides how resources are utilized. Simple embedded systems, which are a combination of electrical, mechanical, chemical, and computer components designed to perform a dedicated function, originally did not need an OS. However, as embedded systems have evolved, so have their complexities. To manage this, an RTOS is now required.

Embedded systems are often deployed in safety-critical situations such as automotive, military, industrial, and medical applications. In applications such as communications and consumer electronics, response time and processing speed are important. A real-time system not only needs to arrive at the correct answer, but must also get the correct answer at the correct time. A RTOS manages a computer's resources so that tasks are performed in a timely mannner.

In this computer science course, students will learn the design fundamentals of an RTOS from the bottom up and use these fundamentals to build practical real-time applications. We will provide a board support package (BSP), so students will be able to focus on the RTOS and Bluetooth network without needing prior experience in circuits and I/O device driver software. This is a hands-on project-based lab course, where you will incrementally build a personal fitness device with Bluetooth connectivity.

This course is intended for students and professional engineers wishing to improve their skills in the fields of embedded systems, product development, computer architecture, operating systems, and Bluetooth networks.

To complete this course, you will need to purchase a lab kit including a microcontroller board, an I/O board, and a Bluetooth module. Instructions about purchasing the kit and installing required software are at http://edx-org-utaustinx.s3.amazonaws.com/UT601x/RTOS.html .