Online courses directory (1728)

China (Part 9): China and Communism is the ninth of ten parts of ChinaX, that collectively span over 6,000 years of history. Each part consists of 4 to 8 weekly "modules," each with videos, readings, interactive engagements, assessments, and discussion forums. There are a total of 52 modules in ChinaX.

Parts 6-10 make up China and the Modern World, taught by Professor William C. Kirby. Parts 1-5 make up China: Civilization and Empire, taught by Professor Peter K. Bol.  

For more information about ChinaX, please visit the ChinaX page.

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 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.

To learn a language well, a student needs to know the culture related to the target language, especially its communications. In this course, you will learn about the communication culture in China, such as the Chinese address system, metaphors, taboo words and euphemisms, Chinese terms of respect and modesty, and more. By understanding Chinese culture, you will be able to communicate more appropriately.

要学好一门语言，必须学习与这种语言相关的文化，特别是交际文化。本课程主要介绍与汉语交际相关的交际文化，像称呼、汉语的比喻、忌讳与委婉、谦辞和敬辞、中国的风俗习惯、等等，这些内容都是在汉语交际中不可回避的，只有了解了这些文化，才能使得汉语交际更得体，适合身份、适合场合、适合对方等，提高交际的成功率

Zizhi Tongjian is one of the earliest Chinese historiographies spanning nearly 300 volumes and covering 1,300 years of history. Literally meaning “Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance,” Zizhi Tongjian is an annalistic-style history featuring the subjects of politics and the military as the main thread of narration. The collection has been cherished by scholars over numerous dynasties for its historical value and insight into governance, peace and stability.

This guided reading course will help learners deepen their understanding of Chinese history, in addition to applying Zizhi Tongjian’s ancient wisdom to modern-day governance. Because Zizhi TongJian is a rich, expansive text, this course is intended to remove colloquial barriers and help students gain a deeper understanding of Chinese history from Emperor Qin to Caocao and Emperor Taizong.
 
资治通鉴》是北宋司马光主持编纂的著名编年体史书、传统史籍“通鉴体”门类的开山之作。该书以政治、军事为记述主线，上起公元前403年，下迄公元 959年，以294卷、300多万字的篇幅，系统展现一千三百多年间华夏大地波澜壮阔的历史画卷。该书问世以来，不但以其不可替代的史料价值为历代学者所 重视，更以其资政育人、总结历代治乱兴衰之道的根本动机与高卓史识为后世所称道，呈现出超越时空的巨大生命力。然而《资治通鉴》篇幅浩瀚、内容复杂，加以 历史文献自身的时代特点，非文史专业出身的广大青年学生难以通读并领会其要旨。“《资治通鉴》导读”课程作为一门人文通识课程，目的即在于消除专业壁垒， 引导同学近距离感受这部中国伟大史学著作的魅力。课程主讲张国刚教授潜心研读《资治通鉴》数十年，通过精心选取其中的经典人物言行与历史场景，钩沉发覆、 条分缕析，以现代思维总结文化精髓，以生动语言阐发历史智慧，尤其侧重其中修身、齐家、治国的现实意义，以及中西文化之间的历史性比较。通过“《资治通 鉴》导读”课程的学习，同学们不但可对战国至五代之间中国历史发展演化的基本脉络产生较为全面的把握，还可领悟到如何从传统文化汲取现实营养的基本方法， 为将来进一步学习中国文化开辟道路。

This course is designed to give students a thorough introduction to early (pre-221 BCE) Chinese thought, its contemporary implications, and the role of religion in human well-being. Important themes to be discussed include the ideal of wu-wei or “effortless action,” the paradox of how one can consciously try not to try, mindfulness techniques and self-cultivation, models of the self and society, rationality versus emotions, trust and human cooperation, and the structure and impact of different spiritual and political ideals.

This period of Chinese history witnessed the formation of all of the major indigenous schools of Chinese thought (Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism and Legalism), which in turn had an impact on the development of East Asian cultural history that is still felt today. We will also explore parallels with Western philosophical and religious traditions, the relevance of early Chinese thought for contemporary debates in ethics, moral education, and political philosophy, and the manner in which early Chinese models of the self anticipate recent developments in the evolutionary and cognitive sciences.

This course provides a full university semester’s worth of material broken into two parts. Each part of the course will last 5 weeks, with a week-long break in between. For each part, there will be four weeks worth of new material. The fifth week will be reserved for review and completion of the final exam.

Part 1 introduces the basic philosophical, religious and scientific concepts that will be drawn upon throughout the course, and then goes on to cover early Shang and Zhou religious thought, the Analects of Confucius, the Daodejing (a Daoist text attributed to Laozi), the utilitarian thinker Mozi, the newly discovered and very exciting Guodian texts, and the momentous philosophical changes that occurred in the mid Warring States period.

See also: Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science - Part 2

This course is designed to give students a thorough introduction to early (pre-221 BCE) Chinese thought, its contemporary implications, and the role of religion in human well-being. Important themes to be discussed include the ideal of wu-wei or “effortless action,” the paradox of how one can consciously try not to try, mindfulness techniques and self-cultivation, models of the self and society, rationality versus emotions, trust and human cooperation, and the structure and impact of different spiritual and political ideals.

This period of Chinese history witnessed the formation of all of the major indigenous schools of Chinese thought (Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism and Legalism), which in turn had an impact on the development of East Asian cultural history that is still felt today. We will also explore parallels with Western philosophical and religious traditions, the relevance of early Chinese thought for contemporary debates in ethics, moral education, and political philosophy, and the manner in which early Chinese models of the self anticipate recent developments in the evolutionary and cognitive sciences.

This course provides a full university semester’s worth of material broken into two parts. Each part of the course will last five weeks with a week-long break in between. For each part, there will be four weeks worth of new material. The fifth week will be reserved for review and completion of the final exam.

Part 2 builds upon Part 1 by exploring late Warring States thinkers such as the Confucian Mencius, the Daoist Zhuangzi, and the return to externalism in the form of Xunzi—who believed Mencius betrayed the original Confucian vision—and his former student Hanfeizi, a “Legalist” thinker who helped lay the foundations for the autocratic system that unified the Warring States into China’s first empire. We will conclude with some reflections on what it means to study religious thought, and the thought of other cultures, in a modern, globalized world. Part 2 can be taken as a stand-alone course, but will be more comprehensible and rewarding with the background provided in Part 1.

See also: Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science - Part 1

Le christianisme s’oppose-t-il à la raison philosophique ? Ce questionnement d’ordre général peut trouver une première réponse dans l’étude historique de la confrontation entre christianisme et philosophie dans l’Antiquité. Cette confrontation a joué un rôle très important dans la constitution de la doctrine chrétienne. Elle prend la forme d’une polémique entre les chrétiens et les philosophes, mais également d’un rapprochement, les chrétiens reprenant à la philosophie un grand nombre de concepts et de modes de raisonnement pour penser, exprimer et défendre leur foi. On verra ce qui oppose le christianisme et la philosophie comme deux voies d’accès concurrentes à la vérité, avant d’envisager différents aspects de la dette du christianisme à l’égard de la philosophie antique. On se demandera pour finir quel a été le rôle du christianisme dans l’histoire de la philosophie en tant que telle.

Ce cours constitue une introduction au christianisme des origines ainsi qu’au monde intellectuel de l’Empire romain. Il permettra de comprendre comment se sont constitués les aspects centraux de la doctrine chrétienne. On évoquera aussi dans ce cadre les modalités pratiques de la production et de la transmission des idées dans l’Antiquité (papyrus, manuscrits) avec l’intervention de plusieurs spécialistes.  

Christianity is a global religion. From modest beginnings 2,000 years ago, it has grown to encompass nearly a third of the human population. Diverse in languages, cultures, histories and creeds, Christians nonetheless share a common collection of sacred scripture called the Bible.

This religion course introduces you to the Bible and its scripture and asks the questions:

• What are the contents, languages, and forms of Bibles in various times and places?
• How have Christians lived out their stories and teachings?
• How does Christian history reflect the contested and varied uses of scripture—in the ancient Roman world where Christianity began, in its spread through European and American colonialism, in the diverse forms it takes in varied locations around the globe?

You will begin to explore these questions and others while learning about the content and interpretations of these sacred texts.

No previous knowledge of Christianity or the Bible required.

This course is part of the World Religions Through Their Scriptures XSeries Program. 

Want to learn about circuits and electronics, but unsure where to begin? Wondering how to make computers run faster or your mobile phone battery last longer? This free circuit course taught by edX CEO and MIT Professor Anant Agarwal and colleagues is for you.

This is the first of three online Circuits & Electronics courses offered by Professor Anant Agarwal and colleagues at MIT, and is taken by all MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) majors.

Topics covered include: resistive elements and networks; circuit analysis methods including KVL, KCL and the node method; independent and dependent sources; linearity, superposition, Thevenin & Norton methods; digital abstraction, combinational gates; and MOSFET switches and small signal analysis. Design and lab exercises are also significant components of the course.

Weekly coursework includes interactive video sequences, readings from the textbook, homework, online laboratories, and optional tutorials. The course will also have a final exam. 

This is a self-paced course, so there are no weekly deadlines. However, all assignments are due by June 15, 2019, when the course will close.

Student Testimonials

“Brilliant course! It's definitely the best introduction to electronics in Universe! Interesting material, clean explanations, well prepared quizzes, challenging homeworks and fun labs.” - Ilya

“6.002x will be a classic in the field of online learning. It combines Prof. Agarwal's enthusiasm for electronics and education. The online circuit design program works very well. The material is difficult. I took the knowledge from the class and built an electronic cat feeder.” - Stan.

Want to learn how to construct an amplifier for mobile phones? Wondering how energy storage elements like capacitors and inductors work, or how to make microchips run faster? This free circuit course taught by edX CEO and MIT Professor Anant Agarwal and colleagues is for you.

This is the second of three online Circuits and Electronics courses and is taken by all MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) majors.

Topics covered include: MOSFET large signal and small signal analysis; amplifiers; energy storage elements like capacitors and inductors; and dynamics of first-order networks and circuit speed. Design and lab exercises are also significant components of the course.

Weekly coursework includes interactive video sequences, readings from the textbook, homework, online laboratories, and optional tutorials. The course will also have a final exam.

This is a self-paced course, so there are no weekly deadlines. However, all assignments are due by June 15, 2019, when the course will close.

Student Testimonials

“Brilliant course! It's definitely the best introduction to electronics in Universe! Interesting material, clean explanations, well prepared quizzes, challenging homeworks and fun labs.” - Ilya. 

“6.002x will be a classic in the field of online learning. It combines Prof. Agarwal's enthusiasm for electronics and education. The online circuit design program works very well. The material is difficult. I took the knowledge from the class and built an electronic cat feeder.” - Stan 

Want to learn how your radio works? Wondering how to implement filters using resistors, inductors, and capacitors? Wondering what are some other applications of RLC and CMOS circuits? This free circuit course, taught by edX CEO and MIT Professor Anant Agarwal and MIT colleagues, is for you.

The third and final online Circuits and Electronics courses is taken by all MITElectrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) majors.

Topics covered include: dynamics of capacitor, inductor and resistor networks; design in the time and frequency domains; op-amps, and analog and digital circuits and applications. Design and lab exercises are also significant components of the course.

Weekly coursework includes interactive video sequences, readings from the textbook, homework, online laboratories, and optional tutorials. The course will also have a final exam.

This is a self-paced course, so there are no weekly deadlines. However, all assignments are due by June 15, 2019, when the course will close.

Student Testimonials

“Brilliant course! It's definitely the best introduction to electronics in Universe! Interesting material, clean explanations, well prepared quizzes, challenging homeworks and fun labs.” - Ilya.

“6.002x will be a classic in the field of online learning. It combines Prof. Agarwal's enthusiasm for electronics and education. The online circuit design program works very well. The material is difficult. I took the knowledge from the class and built an electronic cat feeder.” - Stan 

Do you want to contribute to a more sustainable society? Tackle the challenges in the transition towards a circular economy? In this course you will analyse what it takes to create a circular economy including sustainable supply chains.

Circular economy challenge

The transition towards a circular economy is one of the biggest challenges in order to create a more sustainable society. This transition requires an interdisciplinary approach, combining socio-technical, managerial, and environmental considerations.

Valuable resources often end up as waste. We challenge you to find and analyse examples of this in your own environment. You could consider possible solutions to reduce or recycle waste, but you soon realise that waste is not the only problem. Precious materials such as copper, gold and phosphorus are gradually disappearing. Water is becoming scarce, pollution of water and air is massive and a lot of food is thrown away.

Right now we design products from cradle to grave: from production to consumption to waste, which is a linear model. But we should design products from cradle to cradle: in a closed loop whereby they don’t become waste, but valuable resources again. And when we start thinking in circles, we might as well try to reinvent not just supply chains, but entire systems.

Because that’s what we have been doing with sustainability: we have been departing from the status quo, while cradle to cradle and circular pushes us to think outside the box.

Conventional understanding of sustainability proposes activities defined in terms of decreasing and reducing, such as ‘zero footprint’, ‘zero waste’, reduction of pollution, reduction of energy consumption. The focus is on reducing negative impacts. We call this eco-efficiency, which is often seen as a goal in itself – we can keep doing what we do, just strive to do it less.

Cradle to Cradle celebrates abundance; it recognises that people, just like ants and trees, are abundant and have a large impact on their environment. The challenge is to make this impact a positive one and we invite you to join this challenge!

Systems approach to circular economy

In this course, we therefore take a systems approach to the circular economy, considering different stakeholder perspectives, their incentive structures, and their impacts on circular alternatives.

The circular solutions will be identified by technological assessment using applied as well as emerging technologies. Since identifying and evaluating potential circular alternatives based on quantitative techniques is key in achieving sustainable solutions, you will also learn how to use life cycle assessment and agent-based modelling to assess the socio-technical and manageable challenges and environmental benefits of alternative solutions.

By integrating all perspectives in a case study, you will learn how to comprehensively and critically assess strategies to transition towards a circular economy.

Our global society is not sustainable. We all know about the challenges we’re facing: waste, climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity. At the same time, we want to sustain our economies and offer opportunities for a growing world population. This course is about providing solutions we really believe in: a Circular Economy.

In this course we explore the Circular Economy: how businesses can create value by reusing and recycling products, how designers can come up with amazingly clever solutions, and how you can contribute to make the Circular Economy happen. 

You will learn to re-think the economic system you’re experiencing every day, and act upon it. Be a leader in this major paradigm shift! Shape a more circular future together with our global network.

The course is led by TU Delft and co-created with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability.

LICENSE

The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.

Government works best when citizens are directly engaged in policymaking and public service delivery.

This social sciences course explores citizen engagement and the role citizens can play in actively shaping public policy.

Throughout the course, you will learn about cutting edge research and theories related to citizen engagement, and examples of ways citizens and governments are working together in new ways to improve their societies.

This course was developed in partnership with many individuals and organizations. We have partnered with top experts from a wide range of fields and countries to present this course, creating a truly global faculty.

We have also partnered with 4 leading institutions – the London School of Economics, Overseas Development Institute, Participedia and CIVICUS – who have taken leading roles in the development of each week’s content.

Inquiry-based learning aims to increase student engagement by helping learners develop hands-on, minds-on skills. This education and teacher training course explores the 5E instructional model and its uses in the classroom. You will have the opportunity to learn from videos of classroom teachers modeling a 5E lesson and access teacher commentary as they use inquiry-based strategies with their students. As a result, you will develop the skills and strategies needed to implement inquiry-based instruction in your own classroom.

An inquiry-based approach honors the complex work of learning. It prioritizes the knowledge and experience that students bring to the classroom and it promotes active problem solving, communication, and the shared construction of new ideas. Inquiry-based instruction is the foundation for the UTeach model. This education course serves as a useful introduction to this approach.

Do you want to talk about climate change from an informed perspective? Are you interested in how global warming works? Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time, and climate science is critical to finding solutions. How can we make the best decisions about our present and future? By taking this course, you can be part of the global conversation. 

Climate Change: The Science is an introduction to climate science basics. We’ll discuss flows of energy and carbon in Earth’s climate system, how climate models work, climate history, and future forecasts.

This course will give you the knowledge you need, and practice communicating about climate change. You’ll meet people from around the world with a huge range of local and regional climate change issues. Join us, learn the science, and share your own stories.

Organizations are increasingly moving their critical information and assets to the cloud. Understand the technology, best practices, and economics of cloud computing, and the rewards and risks of this rush to the cloud.

In this course, part of the Cloud Computing MicroMasters program, you will learn the essentials of cloud computing, including Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS), Platform As A Service (PaaS), Software As A Service (SaaS), and other "X as a service" platforms.

You will explore how the cloud can support businesses by increasing productivity and effectiveness.

As Cloud Computing shapes businesses of all sizes, it is vital to understand the technologies behind cloud infrastructure, both public and private.

In this course, part of the Cloud Computing MicroMasters program, you will learn to evaluate and compare cloud systems, technologies and providers. In doing so, you will build an understanding of the concepts of elasticity and availability through cloud orchestration.

Some industry leading cloud platforms will be covered in this class, including: Amazon Web Services, VMware vSphere, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and OpenStack. You will use the built-in tools and management consoles within those platforms to configure and manage the infrastructure.

The exciting field of Cloud Computing is rapidly changing how businesses operate today. Cloud computing provides rapid access to shared pools of resources, such as: compute, storage, networks, applications, services, or libraries using an on-demand, utility-based model. The characteristics of a cloud computing model include: self-service, network access, resource pools, rapid elasticity, and metered resource usage. As with any large-scale shift, new skills and processes must be learned and implemented to overcome management challenges. Existing business processes, workflows, and policies must be adapted to account for this new technology.

This course, part of the Cloud Computing MicroMasters program, focuses on commonly encountered management issues with the adoption and implementation of cloud computing. Examples include: Cloud migration, Cloud Requests for Proposals, Cloud Service Level Agreements, and other business process compliance issues.

You will examine these issues in depth, then review industry best practices and other case studies to develop the techniques that address and mitigate them. Business processes such as procurement, vendor management, and end-user management are also covered.

How do you protect the critical data that is increasingly being stored in the cloud? Learn how to build a security strategy that keeps data safe and mitigates risk.

In this course, part of the Cloud Computing MicroMasters program, you will be introduced to industry best practices for cloud security and learn how to architect and configure security-related features in a cloud platform. Case studies and government standard documents will be reviewed to help ensure appropriate levels of security are implemented.

You’ll develop the necessary skills to identify possible security issues in the cloud environment. You will also gain experience with tools and techniques that monitor the environment and help prevent security breaches such as monitoring logs and implementing appropriate security policies.

Around the world, major challenges of our time such as population growth and climate change are being addressed in cities. Here, citizens play an important role amidst governments, companies, NGOs and researchers in creating social, technological and political innovations for achieving sustainability.

Citizens can be co-creators of sustainable cities when they engage in city politics or in the design of the urban environment and its technologies and infrastructure. In addition, citizens influence and are influenced by the technologies and systems that they use every day. Sustainability is thus a result of the interplay between technology, policy and people’s daily lives. Understanding this interplay is essential for creating sustainable cities. In this MOOC, we zoom in on Amsterdam, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Nairobi, Kampala and Suzhou as living labs for exploring the dynamics of co-creation for sustainable cities worldwide. We will address topics such as participative democracy and legitimacy, ICTs and big data, infrastructure and technology, and SMART technologies in daily life.

This global scope will be used to illustrate why specific forms of co-creation are preferred in specific urban contexts. Moreover, we will investigate and compare these cities on three themes that have a vast effect on city life: 

• Water and waste
• Energy, air, food and mobility
• Green spaces and food

This MOOC will teach you about the dynamics of co-creation and the key principles of citizens interacting with service providing companies, technology and infrastructure developers, policy makers and researchers. You will gain an understanding of major types of co-creation and their interdependency with their socio-technical and political contexts. You will become equipped to indicate how you can use co-creation to develop innovative technologies, policy arrangements or social practices for a sustainable city in your own community. You will demonstrate this by developing an action plan, research proposal or project idea.

Basic knowledge of sustainability in urban settings, urban environmental technology and urban management is assumed.

This course forms a part of two educational programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) - AMS Vital and Circular city research themes. It is developed by Wageningen UR and TU Delft, two of the founding universities of AMS Institute, and in cooperation with Tsinghua University.

License:
Unless otherwise specified the Course Materials of AMS.URB.2x are Copyright Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.