Online courses directory (363)

In BIO101 [1], you were introduced to biology on a microscopic scale when you learned about the functions of molecules, genes, and cells.  In this course, you will learn about biological changes that happen on a very large scale, across entire populations of organisms and over the course of millions of years, in the form of evolution and ecology.  Evolution, the process by which different species of organisms have developed and diversified from their evolutionary forbears, has been a central theme in the field of biology ever since Darwin first published his theories about it.  Mounting evidence from many different branches of science all point to the fact that species have experienced a gradual but definite physical change.  In this course, we will learn about evolution and theories that stem from evolution. We will also learn about ecology, the study of the interactions between different types of organisms and their surroundings.  Changes in surroundings will force organisms to adapt and changeoften…

Developmental biology asks questions about how organisms come into being, how life forms, and how complex structures develop and are differentiated.  These fundamental questions have been the subject of research for centuries; accordingly, this course you will teach you not only about the beginnings of organisms, but about the beginnings of developmental biology as a science.  Currently, developmental biologists use a range of tools and research focifrom molecular techniques to surgical manipulations to chemical and environmental studiesto answer these questions.  Their approaches are multi-faceted because developmental biology itself addresses topics of importance to a wide range of fields, from molecular biology to neuroscience to evolutionary biology. In this course, you will learn about the field of developmental biology from its origins to the present day.  We will take a look at historical experiments as well as modern techniques and the mechanisms of development.  You will follow a variety of me…

The purpose of this course is to explore the subject of human disease, placing special emphasis on the cause of disease at the tissue level.  We will pay close attention to the underlying mechanisms that initiate and perpetuate the disease state.  Much can be learned about the causes of disease at the molecular and cellular level; we will accordingly spend quite a bit of time examining molecules, cells, and tissues and determining how the disruption of their normal functioning by various known and unknown causes can lead to disease. We will begin this course with a basic review of molecules, cells, and tissues in the human body.  We will then discuss the body’s first line of defense, the inflammatory reaction, and the immune system. Finally, we will survey the body’s organ systems.  We will approach each of the systems by examining the ways in which a prototype disease impacts its functioning.  (These “prototypes” will be diseases that impact a large number of patients around the world.)  We…

This course will introduce you to entrepreneurship and business planning. By way of introduction, the word entrepreneur originates from the French word entreprendre, meaning to undertake. Today, we define an entrepreneur as an owner or manager of a business enterprise who attempts to make profits by starting and growing his or her business. In earnest, entrepreneurs are a diverse group of risk-takers who share the same goal of cultivating ideas and developing them into viable business opportunities. Take a quick look at the statistics below to get a sense for some of the (potentially surprising) qualities that have been attributed to entrepreneurs. According to a recent report by the US Census, every day approximately 2,356 Americans are becoming entrepreneurs by starting new businesses. According to 2006 report from Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, 62% of entrepreneurs in the US claim innate drive as the number one motivator in starting their business. According t…

In this course, we will study the emergence of the major civilizations of the ancient world, beginning with the Paleolithic Era (about 2.5 million years ago) and finishing with the end of the Middle Ages in fifteenth century A.D. We will pay special attention to how societies evolved across this expanse of timefrom fragmented and primitive agricultural communities to more advanced and consolidated civilizations. To do this, we will rely upon textbook readings to provide historical overviews of particular civilizations and then utilize primary-source documents to illuminate the unique features of these individual societies. By the end of the course, you will possess a thorough understanding of important overarching social, political, religious, and economic themes in the ancient world, ranging from the emergence of Confucian philosophy in Asia to the fall of imperial Rome. You will also understand how many aspects of these ancient civilizations continue to remain relevant in today’s world.

Mathematics is about structure, about reasoning, and about modeling.  This course braids these three threads together.  Mathematical logic began as the study of the reasoning used in mathematics, but it turns out to be useful in describing the mathematical concept of structure and in modeling automated reasoningthat is, modeling computation. The logical approach to structure gives an alternate perspective on such other mathematical subjects as combinatorics and abstract algebra.  This, for the most part, is described by the area of model theory, which is the focus of Unit 1. In Unit 2, we will look at modeling computation.  The central fact of these models, from a logical standpoint, is that once we can handle a computation as a definable mathematical object, we can prove that certain computations are impossible.  The most famous such proof is Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, showing that it is impossible to compute truth in a system sufficiently strong to describe natural number arithmetic.

This course will introduce you to a number of statistical tools and techniques that are routinely used by modern statisticians for a wide variety of applications. First, we will review basic knowledge and skills that you learned in MA121: Introduction to Statistics [1]. Units 2-5 will introduce you to new ways to design experiments and to test hypotheses, including multiple and nonlinear regression and nonparametric statistics. You will learn to apply these methods to building models to analyze complex, multivariate problems. You will also learn to write scripts to carry out these analyses in R, a powerful statistical programming language. The last unit is designed to give you a grand tour of several advanced topics in applied statistics. [1] http://www.saylor.org/courses/ma121/…

This course provides an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, and a small amount of formal logic.  Its purpose is to provide students with the basic tools of analytical reasoning, which will give them a distinctive edge in a wide variety of careers and courses of study.  While many university courses focus on the presentation of content knowledge, the emphasis here is on learning how to think effectively.  Although the techniques and concepts covered here are classified as “philosophical,” they are essential to the practice of nearly every major discipline, from the physical sciences and medicine to politics, law, and the humanities.  The course touches upon a wide range of reasoning skills, from verbal argument analysis to formal logic, visual and statistical reasoning, scientific methodology, and creative thinking.  Mastering these will help students become more perceptive readers and listeners, more persuasive writers and presenters, and more effective researchers and scientists. Th…

If you pick up almost any newspaper looking for information about Africa, you will likely encounter stories about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi, riots in Tunisia, famine in Ethiopia, or environmental disaster in the Niger Deltaproblems that journalists often link to dysfunctional government.  Based on such accounts, you might consider Africa to be a pretty bleak place!  However, these events highlight only one side of politics in Sub-Saharan Africa.  While some African countries face great struggles, others offer great hope. This course provides an overview of African politics in historical context, synthesizing material from traditional comparative politics and area studies courses that examine democratization, economic development, and identity politics.  This course also examines Africa’s position in a broader international framework by addressing conflict, political economy, and the processes of state division and integration. Seven units organize this course.  We have organized the beginning…

In this course, we will look at the properties behind the basic concepts of probability and statistics and focus on applications of statistical knowledge.  We will learn how statistics and probability work together.  The subject of statistics involves the study of methods for collecting, summarizing, and interpreting data.  Statistics formalizes the process of making decisionsand this course is designed to help you cultivate statistic literacy so that you can use this knowledge to make better decisions.  Note that this course has applications in sciences, economics, computer science, finance, psychology, sociology, criminology, and many other fields. Every day, we read articles and reports in print or online.  After finishing this course, you should be comfortable asking yourself whether the articles make sense.  You will be able to extract information from the articles and display that information effectively.  You will also be able to understand the basics of how to draw statistical conclusions.

This introductory course in biology starts at the microscopic level, with molecules and cells. Before we get into the specifics of cell structure and behavior, however, let’s take a cursory glance at the field of biology more generally. Though biology as we know it today is a relatively new field, we have been studying living things since the beginning of recorded history. The invention of the microscope was the turning point in the history of biology; it paved the way for scientists to discover bacteria and other tiny organisms and ultimately led to the modern cell theory of biology. You will notice that, unlike the core program courses you took in chemistry and physics, introductory biology does not have many mathematical “laws” and “rules” and does not require much math. Instead, you will learn a great number of new terms and concepts that will help you describe life at the smallest level. Over the course of this semester, you will recognize the ways in which the tiniest of molecules are involved…

Welcome to BIO101B, Introduction to Molecular and Cellular Biology.  This course is intended for the student interested in understanding and appreciating common biological topics in the study of the smallest units within biology: molecules and cells. Molecular and cellular biology is a dynamic field.  There are thousands of opportunities within the medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial fields (just to name a few) for a person with a concentrated knowledge of molecular and cellular processes.  This course will give you a general introduction of these topics.  In addition to preparing for a diversity of career paths, an understanding of molecular and cell biology will help you make sound decisions in your everyday life that can positively impact your diet and health. Note that this course is an alternative to BIO101A [1], and that you may choose to take either BIO101A or BIO101B in order to learn about Molecular and Cellular Biology.  These courses cover the same material, but in a slig…

American Government belongs to the Saylor.org CLEP® PREP Program. In taking this version of POLSC232, you will master the subject of American Government and Politics. This course is also designed to prepare you to take the CLEP® exam in American Government [1]. The CLEP® (College Level Examination Program) exams are designed by the College Board, the organization which administers the AP and SAT exam programs you may have encountered or taken in high school. CLEP® exams test for the mastery of college-level material that you may have acquired through any number of ways college-level course instruction, independent study, work experience, or any other program of study you have pursued. In other words, CLEP® exams are freestanding exams that any individual can pay to take in order to prove that he or she has mastered a given subject area at the college level. Over 2,900 US colleges and universities recognize and award college credit for a satisfactory score on a CLEP® exam. A student who earns a satisf…

This course will introduce you to the fundamental principles of psychology and to the major subjects of psychological inquiry. It has been designed to not only provide you with the tools necessary for the study of psychology but to present you with a sampling of the major areas of psychology research. The course begins with a short overview of how psychology developed as an academic discipline and an introduction to a number of the principle methodologies most commonly deployed in its study. The subsequent units are arranged around broad areas of research, including emotion, development, memory, and psychopathology. We will focus on well-substantiated research and current trends within each of these categories. This course is designed to align with Excelsior College’s UExcel Psychology examination. Visit the Excelsior website [1] to download the content guide for the PSYX-101 exam.  For more information about this partnership, and earning credit through Excelsior College, go here [2].    [1] http:/…

This course will introduce the concept of environmental ethics, a philosophy that extends the ethical concepts traditionally applied to human behavior to address the entire natural world. The course will outline the history of environmental ethics, discuss the idea of environmental justice, and explore how our views about the natural world have changed over time. Though environmental ethics is considered a fairly new branch of scientific philosophy, it has actually been debated avidly since the 19th century. From the frontier era of the developing United States through to the modern-day environmental movement, you will identify and analyze the key pioneers and events in the move to help preserve our planet for future generations and species. You will also explore the notion of environmental justice and how this impacts certain social groups, particularly in poorer communities throughout the world. Finally, you will familiarize yourself with the major environmental laws and world views that support the envir…

This course will introduce you to United States history from the end of the Civil War in 1865 through the first decade of the twenty-first century. You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in America during this nearly 150-year period. The course will be structured chronologically, with each unit focusing on a significant historical subject. The units will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the growth and expansion of political representation and civil rights in America, industrial development and economic change, race and ethnicity in American society, and cultural change over time. These primary documents offer you insights into the thinking of people who directly witnessed and experienced these historical developments. By the end of the course, you will understand how the United States grew from a relatively weak and divided agricultural nation into a cohesive mil…

What is strategy?  When your friend tells you that his “strategy” in basketball is to win, he is not telling you a strategy at all.  A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a goalin the case of your friend, a more appropriately defined strategy for his basketball game would be: “I am going to apply defensive pressure and force the opposing team to make mistakes with the end goal of winning the game.”  In this course, you will learn that you must first clearly define your goals before you develop strategies in order to achieve them.  You will also learn that strategy in business is similar to strategy in sports, war, or politics; the parallels are so close that early business strategists studied military strategies in depth.  The science of strategy development has developed beyond this by now, but the parallels still exist. Strategic Management involves two processes: first, the process of identifying specific goals for a firm and designing strategies to achieve those goals, and seco…

Scott McLean, formerly the Shadle-Edgecombe Endowed Faculty Chair at Arizona Western College, introduces the textbook used throughout this course by noting that “[E]ffective communication takes preparation, practice, and persistence.  There are many ways to learn communication skills; the school of experience, or ‘hard knocks,’ is one of them.  But in the business environment, a ‘knock’ (or lesson learned) may come at the expense of your credibility through a blown presentation to a client.” Effective communication skills are a prerequisite for succeeding in business.  Communication tools and activities connect people within and beyond the organization in order to establish the business’s place in the corporate community and the social community, and as a result, that communication needs to be consistent, effective, and customized for the business to prosper.  McLean’s textbook provides theories and practical information that represent the heart of this course, while additional resources a…

The study of dynamic systems focuses on the behavior of physical systems as well as the physics of individual components and the interactions between them.  Control systems are designed to enable dynamic systems to respond in a specific manner.  In this course, we will learn about the mathematical modeling, analysis, and control of physical systems that are in rest, in motion, or acted upon by a force. Dynamic systems can be mechanical, electrical, thermal, hydraulic, pneumatic, or any combination thereof.  An electrical motor is a good example of a dynamic system in which electricity is used to drive the motor’s mechanical movement.  The operation of the motor is controlled by altering the electric current or voltage.  Another good example is a car’s suspension system, which is designed to curb abnormal vibrations while riding on a bumpy road.  In order to design a suspension system, you must analyze the mathematical equations of the physics of the suspension and its response (i.e. how effectivel…

Americans are known for their competitive nature.  Whether between two sports teams on a field or between candidates in the political arena running for office, competition is a fundamental part of the American culture.  For this reason, campaigns and elections are among the most exciting events in American politics.  In this course, you will explore campaigns and elections, learning their purpose and significance and observing the impact that they have on the American political system. Unit 1 will provide you with a basic understanding of the American electoral process by focusing on the history and evolution of elections and voting laws in the United States.  Unit 2 will look closely at what compels individuals to run for office and the many factors that must be considered when launching a campaign: strategy, organization, fundraising, themes, and messages.  In Unit 3, you will learn how political parties and interest groups play into the political drama of elections.  Units 4 and 5 will introduce yo…