Courses tagged with "African+American+Studies" (21)

Globalization is a fascinating spectacle that can be understood as global systems of competition and connectivity. These man-made systems provide transport, communication, governance, and entertainment on a global scale. International crime networks are outgrowths of the same systems. Topics include national identity, language diversity, the global labor market, popular culture, sports and climate change.

However, an increase in integration has not brought increased equality. Globalization creates winners and losers among countries and global corporations, making competition the beating heart of the globalization process.

The globalization process exemplifies connectivity. Globalization is unimaginable without the unprecedented electronic networks that project dominant cultural products into every society on earth.

Learn how to identify and analyze global systems and better understand how the world works.

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

Discover the impact of drug development and become an informed consumer or scientist.

Learn the theory of linear algebra hand-in-hand with the practice of software library development.

Build real-world embedded solutions using a bottom-up approach from simple to complex in this hands-on, lab-based course.

Foundations to Frontiers (LAFF) is packed full of challenging, rewarding material that is essential for mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and anyone working with large datasets. Students appreciate our unique approach to teaching linear algebra because:

• It’s visual.
• It connects hand calculations, mathematical abstractions, and computer programming.
• It illustrates the development of mathematical theory.
• It’s applicable.

In this course, you will learn all the standard topics that are taught in typical undergraduate linear algebra courses all over the world, but using our unique method, you'll also get more! LAFF was developed following the syllabus of an introductory linear algebra course at The University of Texas at Austin taught by Professor Robert van de Geijn, an expert on high performance linear algebra libraries. Through short videos, exercises, visualizations, and programming assignments, you will study Vector and Matrix Operations, Linear Transformations, Solving Systems of Equations, Vector Spaces, Linear Least-Squares, and Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors. In addition, you will get a glimpse of cutting edge research on the development of linear algebra libraries, which are used throughout computational science.

MATLAB licenses will be made available to the participants free of charge for the duration of the course.

This summer version of the course will be released at an accelerated pace. Each of the three releases will consist of four ”Weeks” plus an exam . There will be suggested due dates, but only the end of the course is a true deadline.

We invite you to LAFF with us!

FAQs

What is the estimated effort for the course? 

About 8 hrs/week.

How much does it cost to take the course?

You can choose! Auditing the course is free.  If you want to challenge yourself by earning a Verified Certificate of Achievement, the contributions start at $50.

Will the text for the videos be available?

Yes. All of our videos will have transcripts synced to the videos.

Are notes available for download?

PDF versions of our notes will be available for free download from the edX platform during the course.  Compiled notes are currently available at www.ulaff.net.

Do I need to watch the videos live?

No. You watch the videos at your leisure.

Can I contact the Instructor or Teaching Assistants?

Yes, but not directly. The discussion forums are the appropriate venue for questions about the course. The instructors will monitor the discussion forums and try to respond to the most important questions; in many cases response from other students and peers will be adequate and faster.

Is this course related to a campus course of The University of Texas at Austin?

Yes. This course corresponds to the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computing titled “SDS329C: Practical Linear Algebra”, one option for satisfying the linear algebra requirement for the undergraduate degree in computer science.

Is there a certificate available for completion of this course?

Online learners who successfully complete LAFF can obtain an edX certificate. This certificate indicates that you have successfully completed the course, but does not include a grade.

Must I work every problem correctly to receive the certificate?

No, you are neither required nor expected to complete every problem.

What textbook do I need for the course?

There is no textbook. PDF versions of our notes will be available for free download from the edX platform during the course. Compiled notes are currently available at www.ulaff.net.

What are the principles by which assignment due dates are established?

There is a window of 19 days between the material release and the due date for the homework of that week. While we encourage you to complete a week’s work before the launch of the next week, we realize that life sometimes gets in the way so we have established a flexible cushion. Please don’t procrastinate. The course closes 25 May 2015. This is to give you nineteen days from the release of the final to complete the course.

Are there any special system requirements?

You may need at least 768MB of RAM memory and 2-4GB of free hard drive space. You should be able to successfully access the course using Chrome and Firefox.

A wondrously romantic belief is that brilliant thinkers magically produce brilliant ideas: Einstein jostles his hair and relativity falls out. We can enjoy these fanciful visions of leaps of genius, but we should not be fooled into believing that they’re reality.

Brilliant innovators are brilliant because they practice habits of thinking that inevitably carry them step by step to works of genius. No magic and no leaps are involved.

Professor Starbird will discuss how habits of effective thinking and creativity can be taught and learned through puzzles and mathematics. Anyone who practices these habits of mind will inevitably create new insights, new ideas, and new solutions.

The last century ushered in significant progress. Philosophers, scientists, artists, and poets overthrew our understanding of the physical world, of human behavior, of thought and its limits, and of art, creativity, and beauty. Scientific progress improved the way we lived across the world. Yet the last century also brought increased levels of war, tyranny, and genocide. Man pushed boundaries of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice – and people lost faith in values. Now, thinkers and leaders are reconstructing theories of value and creating institutions to embody them. Join this thought-provoking, broad-sweeping course as it draws intriguing connections between philosophy, art, literature, and history, illuminating our world and our place in it. Before your course starts, try the new edX Demo where you can explore the fun, interactive learning environment and virtual labs. Learn more.

Medicine has eradicated or eased the symptoms of many diseases. This course reveals how new drugs go from research innovation to a medicine that can be prescribed to patients. You’ll learn the process, challenges and issues in developing pharmaceutical products. Drug development is a dynamic field where innovation and entrepreneurship are necessary to keep up with health care expectations, strict regulations and tightening development budgets. An overview of drug development, approval, and consumer issues will be presented and discussed in the context of research practices, science, marketing, public welfare and business.

Participants from all backgrounds and interest, including scientists, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs and the general public, are encouraged to participate.

Medicines have eradicated or eased the symptoms of many diseases. This course explores the process, challenges and issues facing consumers when it comes to pharmaceutical products. An overview of drug development and approval with a focus on consumer issues will be presented and discussed in the context of regulations, public welfare, and healthcare providers.

Participants from all backgrounds and interest, including scientists, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs and the general public, are encouraged to participate.

Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker. John Coltrane. You’ve heard their names, but do you know what makes them great? In Jazz Appreciation, you will learn what these artists and many others contributed to America’s great original art form, revered the world over for its innovation and creativity. Jazz emerged during a time of tremendous change and upheaval in American society; this course will also discuss how its evolution both reflected and contributed to those changes.

Much more than a lecture series, Jazz Appreciation weaves in musical performances and examples that will deepen your understanding of the musical process and develop your ability to identify and analyze different jazz eras and great jazz soloists. It also incorporates cutting-edge adaptive learning technology that will allow you to practice your new knowledge and skills, at your own pace, until you reach mastery.

Join this course to enhance your enjoyment of jazz by developing an informed understanding and deep appreciation of the art.

Please note: This course includes a wealth of music. In sensitivity to artists’ rights, course videos including music are available for a limited time only. Materials are released weekly on Saturday mornings, and videos are removed nine days later, on Sunday nights. Please plan to keep pace with the course in order to get the most out of it. 

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 .

In this interactive pre-Calculus course, you will deepen and extend your knowledge of functions, graphs, and equations from high school algebra and geometry courses so you can successfully work with the concepts in a rigorous university-level calculus course. This course is designed to engage learners in the “doing” of mathematics, emphasizing conceptual understanding of mathematical definitions and student development of logical arguments in support of solutions. The course places major emphasis on why the mathematics topics covered work within the discipline, as opposed to simply the mechanics of the mathematics.

In this first part of a two part course, we’ll walk through the basics of statistical thinking – starting with an interesting question. Then, we’ll learn the correct statistical tool to help answer our question of interest – using R and hands-on Labs. Finally, we’ll learn how to interpret our findings and develop a meaningful conclusion.

This course will consist of:

• Instructional videos for statistical concepts broken down into manageable topics
• Guided questions to help your understanding of the topic
• Weekly tutorial videos for using R Scaffolded learning with Pre-Labs (using R), followed by Labs where we will answer specific questions using real-world datasets
• Weekly wrap-up questions challenging both topic and application knowledge

We will cover basic Descriptive Statistics – learning about visualizing and summarizing data, followed by a “Modeling” investigation where we’ll learn about linear, exponential, and logistic functions. We will learn how to interpret and use those functions with basic Pre-Calculus. These two “units” will set the learner up nicely for the second part of the course: Inferential Statistics with a multiple regression cap.

Both parts of the course are intended to cover the same material as a typical introductory undergraduate statistics course, with an added twist of modeling. This course is also intentionally devised to be sequential, with each new piece building on the previous topics. Once completed, students should feel comfortable using basic statistical techniques to answer their own questions about their own data, using a widely available statistical software package (R).

With these new skills, learners will leave the course with the ability to use basic statistical techniques to answer their own questions about their own data, using a widely available statistical software package (R). Learners from all walks of life can use this course to better understand their data, to make valuable informed decisions.

Join us in learning how to look at the world around us. What are the questions? How can we answer them? And what do those answers tell us about the world we live in?

In the second part of a two part statistics course, we’ll learn how to take data and use it to make reasonable and useful conclusions. You’ll learn the basics of statistical thinking – starting with an interesting question and some data. Then, we’ll apply the correct statistical tool to help answer our question of interest – using R and hands-on Labs. Finally, we’ll learn how to interpret our findings and develop a meaningful conclusion.

We will cover basic Inferential Statistics – integrating ideas of Part 1. If you have a basic knowledge of Descriptive Statistics, this course is for you. We will learn how to sample data, examine both quantitative and categorical data with statistical techniques such as t-tests, chi-square, ANOVA, and Regression.

Both parts of the course are intended to cover the same material as a typical introductory undergraduate statistics course, with an added twist of modeling. This course is also intentionally devised to be sequential, with each new piece building on the previous topics. Once completed, students should feel comfortable using basic statistical techniques to answer their own questions about their own data, using a widely available statistical software package (R).

This course will consist of:

• Instructional videos for statistical concepts broken down into manageable topics
• Guided questions to help your understanding of the topic
• Weekly tutorial videos for using R
• Scaffolded learning with Pre-Labs (using R), followed by Labs where we will answer specific questions using real-world datasets
• Weekly wrap-up questions challenging both topic and application knowledge

With these new skills, learners will leave the course with the ability to use basic statistical techniques to answer their own questions about their own data, using a widely available statistical software package (R). Learners from all walks of life can use this course to better understand their data, to make valuable informed decisions.

Join us in learning how to look at the world around us. What are the questions? How can we answer them? And what do those answers tell us about the world we live in?

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.

Thinking about teaching Computer Science, or incorporating CS into a subject you already teach? CS skills are fundamental to student success and you can teach it!

This course is intended for prospective K-12 Computer Science teachers to review key topics in Technology Applications, Programming Languages and CS special topics.

The course provides extensive detailed instruction, examples and practice on everything from introductory programming topics such as variables, functions, loops and logical expressions to more advanced topics such as data structures, recursion, and object oriented programming.

States around the country have adopted the Praxis Computer Science Test as a component of their certification/licensure and this course covers all of the topics in that test and more. In the state of Texas this test is called TExES 141/241 Grades 8-12 Computer Science Certification exam. Hundreds of teachers from around the country have already taken the course and many have gone on to achieve state certification.

Whether you plan to take a certification exam or not, this course will strengthen your understanding of key CS concepts and constructs and increase your confidence in teaching CS.

Note: In addition to the verified certificate, Texas Teachers that successfully complete this course will receive 36 hours of CPE credit.

Linear Algebra: Foundations to Frontiers (LAFF) is packed full of challenging, rewarding material that is essential for mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and anyone working with large datasets. Students appreciate our unique approach to teaching linear algebra because:

• It’s visual.
• It connects hand calculations, mathematical abstractions, and computer programming.
• It illustrates the development of mathematical theory. 
• It’s applicable.

In this course, you will learn all the standard topics that are taught in typical undergraduate linear algebra courses all over the world, but using our unique method, you'll also get more! LAFF was developed following the syllabus of an introductory linear algebra course at The University of Texas at Austin taught by Professor Robert van de Geijn, an expert on high performance linear algebra libraries. Through short videos, exercises, visualizations, and programming assignments, you will study Vector and Matrix Operations, Linear Transformations, Solving Systems of Equations, Vector Spaces, Linear Least-Squares, and Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors. In addition, you will get a glimpse of cutting edge research on the development of linear algebra libraries, which are used throughout computational science.

MATLAB licenses will be made available to the participants free of charge for the duration of the course.

We invite you to LAFF with us!

Is my program correct?  Will it give the right output for all possible permitted inputs?  Computers are now essential in everyday life.  Incorrect programs lead to frustration in the best case and disaster in the worst. Thus, knowing how to construct correct programs is a skill that all who program computers must strive to master. 

In this computer science course, we will presents "goal oriented programming" the way Edsger Dijkstra, one of the most influential computer scientists, intended. You will learn how to derive programs hand-in-hand with their proofs of correctness. The course presents a methodology that illustrates goal-oriented programming, starting with the formalization of what is to be computed, and then growing the program hand-in-hand with its proof of correctness. The methodology demonstrates that, for a broad class of matrix operations, the development, implementation, and establishment of correctness of a program can be made systematic.

Since this technique focuses on program specifications, it often leads to clearer, correct programs in less time. The approach rapidly yields a family of algorithms from which you can then pick the algorithm that has desirable properties, such as attaining better performance on a given architecture. 

The audience of this MOOC extends beyond students and scholars interested in the domains of linear algebra algorithms and scientific computing. This course shows how to make the formal derivation of algorithms practical and will leave you pondering how our results might extend to other domains.

As a result of support from MathWorks, learners will be granted access to MATLAB for the duration of the course.

Learn how electronic gadgets are designed, developed, and built as embedded systems that shape the world.

This is part one of a two part sequence. Together these are hands-on, learn-by-doing courses that show you how to build solutions to real-world problems using embedded systems. In this course, we take a bottom-up approach to problem solving, building gradually from simple interfacing of switches and LEDs to complex concepts like a microcontroller-based pacemaker, digital lock, and a traffic light controller. We will present both general principles and practical tips for building circuits and programming the microcontroller in the C programming language. You will develop debugging skills using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and software instrumentation. Laboratory assignments are first performed in simulation, and then you will build and debug your system on the real microcontroller. At the conclusion of this part 1 you will possess the knowledge to build your own traffic light controller from the ground up.

This is the fourth time we have offered this course. Since the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive we do not plan major changes over the previous offerings of the course. We did however break the large class into two smaller classes. There are eight labs in part 1 and six labs in part 2. Students can pick and choose a subset of labs to achieve certification. The three labs that students found most rewarding in this part were designing the software algorithm for a demand pacemaker, interfacing switches and LEDS, and the finite state machine traffic light controller.

To complete this course, you will be required to purchase a Texas Instruments TM4C123 microcontroller kit and a few electronic components.

This microcontroller has a state-of-the-art ARM Cortex-M4 processor.

We will provide instructions about purchasing the kit and installing required software at: http://edx-org-utaustinx.s3.amazonaws.com/UT601x/index.html.

Learn how electronic gadgets are designed, developed, and built as embedded systems that shape the world.

This is part two of a two part sequence. In this class, we will use interrupts to design a range of real-time systems including an audio player, a data acquisition system, a control system, and an interactive game. This is a hands-on, learn-by-doing course that shows you how to build solutions to real-world problems using embedded systems. These courses use a bottom-up approach to problem solving, building gradually from simple interfacing of switches and LEDs to complex concepts like display drivers, digital to analog conversion, generation of sound, analog to digital conversion, motor control, graphics, interrupts, and communication. We will present both general principles and practical tips for building circuits and programming the microcontroller in the C programming language. You will develop debugging skills using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and software instrumentation. Laboratory assignments are first performed in simulation, and then you will build and debug your system on the real microcontroller. At the conclusion of this course you will possess the knowledge to build your own arcade-style game from the ground up.

This is the fourth time we have offered this course. Since the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive we do not plan major changes over the previous offerings of the course. We did however break the large class into two smaller classes. There are eight labs in part 1 and six labs in this class. Students can pick and choose a subset of labs to achieve certification. The three labs that students found most rewarding were the hand-held video game, generating sound using a digital to analog convertor, and creating a smart object using Wifi communication.

To complete this course, you will be required to purchase a Texas Instruments TM4C123 microcontroller kit and a few electronic components. This microcontroller has a state-of-the-art ARM Cortex-M4 processor.

We will provide instructions about purchasing the kit and installing required software at: http://edx-org-utaustinx.s3.amazonaws.com/UT601x/index.html.