Online courses directory (363)

All managers are leaders.  All leaders are managers.  Which of these statements is true?  Neither.  The words are often confused, even in academic settings, because we think that both leaders and managers are in charge of a specific task or group of people.  However, there are many differences between the two.  One such distinction is that a manager may not be in charge of people at all.  For example, a manager may be in charge of data, including its acquisition, analysis, and dissemination.  Or consider the fact that a leader may have no formal power; many of history’s greatest leaders only had power “earned” from their peers instead of power granted by another individual or group.  Think of our country’s founding fathers, like Thomas Jefferson, who went against the British government to draft the Declaration of Independencethe situation created the “team,” and from that the recognized leaders emerged.  All of these distinctions will be explored in this course. Not only will this cour…

In this second semester course, we will cover a wide-ranging field of topics, learning everything from the equation that made Einstein famous to why you can’t replace a dead car battery with a household battery. In General Chemistry I (CHEM101 [1]), we studied the basic tools you need to explore different fields in chemistry, such as stoichiometry and thermodynamics.  This second-semester course will cover several of the tools needed to study chemistry at a more advanced level.  We will identify the factors that affect the speed of a reaction, learn how an atom bomb works on a chemical level, and discover how chemistry powers a light bulb.  Topics in advanced organic and inorganic chemistry courses will build upon what you learn in this class.  We will end with discussion of organic chemistry, a topic that is as important to biology as it is to chemistry. [1] http:///courses/chem101/…

Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes and compounds, such as cellular makeup, that bring about life in organisms.  It is a combination of multiple science fields; you can think of it as general and cell biology coupled with organic and general chemistry.  Although living organisms are very complex, from a molecular view, the material that constitutes “life” can be broken down into remarkably simple molecules, much like the breakdown of our English language to the English alphabet.  Although there exists thousands upon thousands of molecules, they all breakdown into four core components: nucleic acids, amino acids, lipids, and carbohydrates.  As we can make hundreds of thousands of words from just 26 letters, we can make thousands of different biomolecules from those 4 components.  For example, the human genome, containing the necessary information to create a human being, is really just one very long strand of 4 different nucleotides. This course is structured around that approach, so…

Remember that organic chemistry is the discipline that studies the properties and reactions of organic, carbon-based compounds.  This course is intended to be taken after the first two semesters of organic chemistry.  Many of the topics within this outline have been covered in the first two semesters of organic chemistry; however, this course will explore these topics in much greater depth.  It is important to make sure that you have a good grasp of the concepts from earlier organic chemistry courses before moving on to this course. We begin by studying a unit on ylides, benzyne, and free radicals.  Many free radicals affect life processes.  For example, oxygen-derived radicals may be overproduced in cells, such as white blood cells that try to defend against infection in a living organism.  In the first unit, you will learn about free radicals, including oxygen-containing compounds.  Afterward we move into a comprehensive examination of stereochemistry, as well as the kinetics of substitution and el…

Whether you know it or not, you are actively contributing to a comprehensive media environment forged on both regional and global levels even when you are privately using social media websites!  The media we use today has come a long way, but the basic pattern of development remains consistent.  This course introduces various academic theories, cases, and models to make sense of local and global media development.  How does a locally operated newspaper trigger development of the national mass media market?  How does a global conglomerate media company set agendas for international news distribution?  Consider how the following historical events may be connected: In 1833, The Sun, a New York-based newspaper, became available to the general public for the first time.  This marked the beginning of the mass production of information and created a market sector that could be influenced by average people. In 1995, conglomerate media company, News Corporation, headquartered in New York City, acquired the H…

The purpose of this course is to provide you with a basic understanding of the principles of microeconomics.  At its core, the study of economics deals with the choices and decisions that have to be made in order to manage scarce resources available to us.  Microeconomics is the branch of economics that pertains to decisions made at the individual level, i.e. by individual consumers or individual firms, after evaluating resources, costs, and tradeoffs.  When we talk about “the economy,” then, we are referring to the marketplace or system in which these choices interact with one another.  In this course, we will learn how and why these decisions are made and how they affect one another in the economy. Each of the following units has been designed as a building block, where the concepts you learn in one unit will enable you to understand the material you discover in the next.  By the end of this course, you will have a strong grasp on the major issues that face microeconomists, including consumer and…

Scholarship on medieval women writers is a somewhat recent phenomenon, in part because we know relatively little about men of the Middle Agesand what we know about women from the period is even more limited.  In this course, we will engage this new frontier in literary studies by examining the writings of a diverse group of medieval womenfrom reclusive anchoresses to aristocratic women of the courtand analyzing the perceptions of reality, both secular and religious, that they present.  We will also read and respond to a number of critical essays concerning medieval women and the various debates that have emerged in the study of their works. We will begin the course with a unit on context, acquainting ourselves with the major socio-historical developments that shaped the period as well as the little that is known about medieval women and their roles in society.  We will then take a look at some major feminist and gender/sex-related approaches to literature, making their various methods and beliefs availab…

This course will introduce you to the history of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance.  You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place between the fourth century and 1500.  The course is structured chronologically.  Each unit includes representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the collapse of the Roman Empire, the rise of the Christian Church, the emergence of the feudal system, the advent of the Renaissance in Italy and northern Europe, and the significance of the European Age of Exploration.  By the end of the course, you will understand how Europe transformed from a collection of barbarian kingdoms into a continent with a sophisticated cultural and economic life that would later come to dominate the globe.

This self-contained course presents a sampling of the fields of Materials Engineering and Materials Science. This course is intended primarily for engineering students who are not planning to major in either Materials Engineering or Materials Science. We will focus primarily on the concerns of the materials engineerthe person interested in choosing materials to make a finished product. This selection is determined by compromises among material properties, ease of fabrication, and cost. In contrast, the materials scientist is concerned with understanding the relationships between material properties and the internal structure of a materialthat is, atomic bonding, arrangements of atoms, grain structure, and other microscopically observable features. We leave most of these associations to advanced courses, which will use more chemistry and physics than needed for this course. The course is divided into four units: Unit 1: Ways That Materials Can Fail  What Can Go Wrong? Unit 2: Classes of Engineering Mate…

This course will introduce you to the basic concepts and methods of moral and political philosophy.  Its primary focus is on the development of moral reasoning skills and the application of those skills to contemporary social and political issues.  Although the course is organized around the central concept of justice, it uses this notion as a point of departure for discussing a wide range of philosophical topics and perspectives. Topics range from the value of human life, the moral standing of the free market, and the notion of fundamental human rights, to equality of opportunity, the legality of same-sex marriage, and the conditions for a moral community.  In order to investigate these topics, this course makes extensive use of Professor Michael Sandel’s video lecture course on justice, delivered at Harvard University in 2009.  In addition to these lectures, you will study a number of important moral and political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham, Joh…

This course is a survey of philosophical issues surrounding the concepts and practices of modern science.  The course covers the major areas of contemporary philosophy of science, including scientific reasoning, scientific progress, interpretations of scientific knowledge, and the social organization of scientific practice.  Its aim is not only to familiarize you with philosophical issues about science but also to equip you to critically interpret popular reports about contemporary scientific research. Unit 1 introduces philosophy of science as a discipline distinct from psychology of science, history of science, and sociology of science.  Unit 2 examines the nature and objectivity of observational evidence, and Unit 3 examines methods of reasoning relevant to induction, confirmation, and explanation.  Unit 4 examines accounts of theory change and scientific progress, and Unit 5 addresses the interpretation of scientific knowledge.  Finally, Unit 6 explores various topics concerning science in a social…

The purpose of Introduction to Human Resources Management is to provide a general overview of the concepts and applications of the many parts of Human Resources (HR).  This course is for the entry level HR Generalist who wants to explore how the interdependence of the major topics in HR are created and implemented.  Upon completion of this course, you will be able to apply your knowledge to real world HR issues.  While general topics such as benefits and compensation will be covered in other Human Resource Management courses, this course will focus primarily on the employee life cycle and each of its phases.  The employee life cycle is central to most of the functions and purposes of HR.  It is important to start at the beginning of any life cycle in an effort to understand how each component is dependent on the next. To begin with, you will take a look at the history of HR and determine the major events and champion theorists who brought HR to its humble beginnings.  The course will then cover the em…

This course explores the history of the artistic developments of the 20th century in Western Europe and the United States. The art of this period is characterized by extraordinary experimentation and innovation in styles, materials, techniques, and modes of dissemination. In addition to painting and sculpture, the 20th century witnessed the rise in popularity of photography, collage, montage, installations, earth art, performance, and conceptual art. Artists were sometimes inspired by the works of past masters but also often by contemporary changes in intellectual thought and social conditions. Therefore, we will examine the intellectual and cultural beliefs that this art both reflects and helped shape. Despite the great variety of artistic styles and theories that we will examine, a number of important themes consistently recur. If you keep them in mind as you progress through the course, you will find it easier to organize your thoughts and make meaningful comparisons among various artists, movements, and…

Organic chemistry is a branch of chemistry that focuses on a single element: carbon!  Carbon bonds strongly with other carbon atoms and with other elements, forming numerous chain and ring structures.  As a result, there are millions of distinct carbon compounds known and classified.  The vast majority of the molecules that contain carbon are considered organic molecules, with few debatable exceptions such as carbon nanotubes, diamonds, carbonate ions, and carbon dioxide.  Carbon is central to the existence of life as it is an essential component of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), sugars, lipids, and proteins.  A well-rounded student of science must take courses in organic chemistry to understand its application to various topics, such as the study of polymers (plastics and other materials), hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, molecular biology, biochemistry, and other life sciences. In the first semester of organic chemistry, you will learn the basic concepts needed to understand the three-dimensional structu…

In this course, we will study the architecture of Ancient Rome, beginning with its origins in the eighth century BC, and continuing through the fourth century AD with the move of the Roman capital to Constantinople.  The course of lectures and readings outlined below will familiarize you with the major building methods and styles used in Roman architecture.  In addition, interior decoration (including the very important topic of Roman wall painting) will be addressed.  By the end of the course, you will be able to identify some of the most important works of Roman architecture and discuss the historical and cultural conditions that informed their production. An important theme throughout the first half of the course is the relationship between Ancient Rome and Greek and Etruscan cultures, which were highly influential in the formation of a distinctive Roman architecture.  Understanding the role that Roman architecture played in the eastern and western Roman provinces is also significant to this course,…

The purpose of this course, as governed by the textbook at its core, Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, is to complete a fairly comprehensive examination of the evolution and impact of the media, primarily in the United States.  Each of the major media (newspapers, magazines, books, radio, movies, music, and television), as well as new media (electronic entertainment, social media, and the Internet), are examined from their conception to the present and future possibilities.  Emphasis is placed on how each media industry has evolved over time, responding to changes in society, technology, politics, and economics.  The course also explores the cultural impact of the media, from individual media products to entire industries, with particular emphasis on the cultural and ethical factors that influence production, consumption, and also, due to the advent of new media, participation.  Upon completing this course, you should be more conscious of how your viewpoints are shape…

While CS403: Introduction to Modern Database Systems [1] covered many of the core concepts behind database management systems, there are many other considerations that should be addressed if you intend to pursue a career in this field.  This course will expand upon what you learned about SQL in CS403 and introduce various other advanced topics, including query optimization, concurrency, data warehouses, object-oriented extensions, and XML.  While CS403 introduced the basics of database management systems, the additional topics covered in this course will help you become more proficient in writing queries and will expand your knowledge base so that you have a better understanding of the field.  By the end of this course, you should have a solid grasp on data warehouses and XML, which will prove to be invaluable as you progress further in your Computer Science studies. [1] http://www.saylor.org/courses/cs403/…

This course introduces major theories of economic development and to place them in a historical context. In his contributory introduction “Economic Growth, Economic Development and Human Development” in The Development Economics Reader (2008), edited by Giorgio Secondi and published by Routledge, Secondi defines economic development as the “branch of economics that studies relatively poor countries.” In the same book, Mahbub ul Haq, writing under the title “The Human Development Paradigm,” suggests that the “basic purpose of development is to enlarge people’s choices,” which is in line with the views expressed by the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Whether development is simply studying poor countries or expanding people’s choices in poor countries, one of the essential requirements is that there must be a means for making the choices available. This means that economic development must include growth, but growth can take place without economic development. Without economic growth, the choices…

What makes a novel “Gothic”?  Scholars have debated this question for decades: some consider “the Gothic” a literary time period, spanning from the 1760s to 1820; others view it as a set of thematic concerns; still others understand it as a literary mode, in which contemporary authors like Stephen King continue to write.  In this course, you will explore these and other definitions as you read a number of novels (and have the option to screen a film), attempting to define for yourself the term “Gothic.”  You will supplement your studies with critical literature on the Gothic novel and literary mode, critiquing and adapting the approaches and theories as you see fit. You will begin the course with an overview of approaches to the literary Gothic and an outline of its stereotypical characteristics and elements.  You will then progress through the course by examining Gothic novels (and an optional film) in three thematic categories (which, as you will see, often overlap): Gothic Spaces, the Monst…

This course will introduce you to the history of Europe from the medieval period to the Age of Revolutions in the eighteenth century.  You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Europe during this 800-year period.  The course will be structured chronologically.  Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, European expansion overseas, and the French Revolution.  By the end of the course, you will understand how Europe had transformed from a fragmented and volatile network of medieval polities into a series of independent nation-states by 1800.