Courses tagged with "Business" (1739)

Drawing on new scientific advances, this religion course examines foundational questions about the nature of religious belief and practice.

The course is based on the idea that religion is a naturalistic phenomenon — meaning it can be studied and better understood using the tools of science. Religious belief and practice emerge naturally from the structure of human psychology, and have an important impact on the structure of societies, the way groups relate to each other, and the ability of human beings to cooperate effectively.

Topics to be covered will include traditional and contemporary theories of religion, with a special emphasis on cultural evolutionary models.
 

Production of this MOOC was partially funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Partnership Grant on ‘The Evolution of Religion and Morality’ (PI: Edward Slingerland), and represents one of this grant’s major knowledge mobilization and research dissemination initiatives.

Whether you are trying to lose weight yourself, or are supporting others, this food and nutrition course will dispel common myths about weight loss and teach you the science behind healthy eating for a healthy weight.

This course is not a diet plan – there are plenty of diet plans out there to choose from. Rather, we will take you through the science behind weight loss and arm you with the knowledge and tools to make the right decisions.

Based on the latest research, you’ll learn to develop a healthy eating plan to achieve a healthy weight. You’ll also discover more about the definition of a healthy weight, the nutritional composition of foods, how to cut calories or kilojoules, proper portion sizes, and how to identify and avoid fad diets.

If you are unable to access Youtube, the introductory video is available via XuetangX.  Connect with the course team and fellow learners on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HKUxArchitecture

This 5-week introductory course is for those who would like to explore and be fascinated by vernacular architecture – the subject and study of everyday buildings, landscapes and sites which are not designed by professional architects but “ordinary” practitioners. It explores vernacular architecture as an expression of local identity, indigenous traditions, and assimilation of different cultures.

This course covers topics such as native building materials, the interaction between people, culture and the vernacular, as well as the vernacular landscape. It has a special emphasis on the built heritage of Asia, which allows students to take a closer look at examples in diverse locales, such as the leather yurts in Mongolia, timber houses in Japan, brick, mud and straw houses in India, reinforced concrete fortified towers and grey brick courtyard houses in Southern China including Macau and Hong Kong.

Designed to promote discussion and dialogue while contributing to the discourse surrounding the concept of the vernacular, this course challenges the perception of tradition and stimulates a deeper analysis of one’s local environment. Indeed, we are keen to hear about how you link your new understanding to vernacular architecture in your neighborhood.

Those who wish to extend their experience and exploration please also join our subsequent 5-week course The Search for Vernacular Architecture of Asia, Part 2 in Summer 2015.

本入门课程为期5周，适合本土建筑爱好者。本土建筑的研究对象是普通日常建筑、景观以及场所。它们并非出自建筑师之手，而是由普通人自己建造。在本课程中，我们将民居建筑视作不同地区的“社区认同”和“本地传统”以及不同文化融合的一种表达方式。

课程内容包括建筑技术和建筑材料、人与文化和传统、 以及本土建筑与景观。本课程以亚洲建筑文化遗产为实例，供学生深入学习，其中包括蒙古地区的蒙古包、日本的木结构房屋、印度的土屋、中国南方澳门与香港一带以钢筋混凝土为建筑材料的塔楼和灰砖庭院。

本课程旨在以讨论和对话的方式研究亚洲的本土建筑，推动本土概念的发展。在此之上，本课程反思了“传统”这个概念，使我们能够更加深入地分析自身所处的环境。我们期待能够听到一些您对本土建筑的新理解。

感兴趣的学生可以参加《探索亚洲地区的民居建筑，第2部分》。

Enhance your software skills and capabilities from a software innovation perspective. Do you have a career in the software industry? Join us for this 8-week course to find out.

The world is becoming increasingly digital and software is everywhere. Every company is affected by software so having the knowledge to succeed in this industry is essential. This course will introduce the skills necessary to create software. We will explain how people from different professions can work together in order to create innovative software. We will also present the most important activities for generating effective software products and services to meet tomorrow’s demands.

This MOOC focuses on Spanish history between the Renaissance and Baroque periods—a time when the Spanish culture set the tone in the Western world.

The monarchy of this Spain created the first global empire of History. The greatest literary works of this period, including La Celestina, Lazarillo de Tormes, were immediately translated in the first European and American printing houses. Spanish fashion was the trendiest at the Courts of Early Modern Europe. Spanish military and political treaties set the standard for political machinations of the era.

In this period—between the 16th and 17th centuries—, Spain’s society achieved excellence in Arts and Literature. Exceptional and talented people such as Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Velázquez, were drawn to Madrid. Literary academies, theatre productions and celebrations flourished in other big cities of the Empire as Seville, Lisbon, Barcelona, Naples, Mexico, and Lima. A synthesis of nations united for the loyalty to the Crown and the Catholic faith. In our tour through the Spain of Don Quixote, we will discuss the relationship between fantastic to real geography. Society was polarized between the privileged—nobility and clergy—and the poor and rogues. Humanism was cultivated in universities. Family, food, housing, games, and celebrations played a part in everyday life.

In times of Don Quixote, the lights of Literature and Art geniuses shined upon the shadows of the Inquisition. Let’s travel to this sublime culture of Spanish Golden Age.

Fake news is a real problem. From allegations of election fraud to Pizzagate, fake news saturates our newsfeeds-- and our national discourse. Some say it has compromised the authority of journalism, others say writing fake news stories has brought them a fistful of money. What do we make of this phenomenon? Why is fake news so prevalent these days? And how should we respond?

In this 2-week course, we’ll pose these questions (and more) to scholars, working journalists, and media pundits in order to get a hold on this complicated issue. Join a vibrant community of critical thinkers who are interested in exploring these questions together. Share your experience and see how it compares to others around the world.

This course is part of a broader series from Davidson College, called Davidson Now. We seek to explore critical issues and engage in honest and courageous conversations.

Courses offered via edX.org are not eligible for academic credit from Davidson College. A passing score in a DavidsonX course(s) will only be eligible for a verified certificate generated by edX.org.

Does your business need a make-over? Are you unsure how to start?

Having an innovative business model is key for a profitable business and growth. In this business and management course, you will learn how to design, test and implement new business models for sustainable success.

This course introduces you to the main topics of business model innovation. You will learn what drives business model innovation and why it is valuable to you and your business. You will apply practical tools to (re)design and test a business model.

Be inspired by real-life business model examples from fellow entrepreneurs and learn from leading experts who design business model innovations. By the end of this course, you will be able to structure your thinking and communicate your business model ideas and learn how to improve your own business.

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.

ME209.1x is a basic course in thermodynamics, designed for students of mechanical engineering. We will study the terms and concepts used in thermodynamics, with precise definitions. The three laws of thermodynamics (zeroth, first, and second) will be explored in detail, and the properties of materials will be studied. Many useful relations will be derived. The topics include:

• basic concepts and definitions
• the work interaction
• the first law, energy, and the heat interaction
• the zeroth law, temperature, and scales of temperature
• properties of gases and liquids, equations of state
• the second law, thermodynamic temperature scales, and entropy
• relations between properties
• open thermodynamic systems

There will be emphasis on problem-solving. Students will need to spend significant effort on solving exercises.

The course is designed for students in mechanical engineering. However, others (both engineers and scientists) are likely to find it useful. The course has also been found to be useful to teachers of thermodynamics.

Please note that this course is self-paced and you can enroll at any time.  At normal pace, this course requires 12 weeks of study, about 10 hours a week.

Learn how to create your own artistic images and animations and display them in our online gallery, which has now been enhanced to suit self-paced learners.

Our world is becoming increasingly digitized. For many of us, barely a day goes past without recording a video, taking and editing photos, and sharing digital content across multiple applications. But how well do we understand the technology we're using, and how is digital information created and manipulated?

With many careers today involving some form of computation, there is a growing urgency for individuals to move beyond digital literacy, to understand how digital technologies work, and to develop literacy in code. This course will help you acquire it.

In this course, you will not only learn the inner workings of your digital world, but also create and manipulate images with code, creating new artworks and interactive animations. Your images and animations will be displayed in an online Art Gallery, forming part of a vibrant learning community.

You will also develop effective computational thinking skills and concepts transferable to other coding environments and programming languages.

The most noteworthy startups and entrepreneurs of our day are known for bucking trends in business and leadership.

New ventures often position themselves in a way that forces their more established competitors to react and rethink the fundamentals of their original value proposition. The advantage of these new players often lies in a different management approach compared with large, more established companies.

You can learn to think like these innovators too.

From this course, you’ll better understand the typical process entrepreneurs follow when launching a new venture, thereby helping you to adequately respond to upcoming threats through newly established companies.

You’ll explore an entrepreneur’s perspective in comparison to a manager in a large company; working through the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.You’ll profile the entrepreneur as a personality type, exploring whether an entrepreneurial mindset is something that people inherently possess or something that can be developed over time. You’ll gain insights into the generation of business ideas and how leaders manage to ensure that their ideas also represent a concrete business opportunity with commercial potential.

The course introduces the decision-making process of successful entrepreneurs and specifies how it differs from that of managers in large companies, identifying common patterns. It further introduces the lean start-up process to give you a concrete toolkit applied by successful entrepreneurs and specific pitfalls that typically occur at various stages of the start-up process - to help you avoid similar mistakes.

Besides the online lectures, participants will engage in a series of homework exercises and tutorials. Real-life case studies and examples from companies will be used to help participants better prepare for actual situations.

This course is part of the "Managing Technology & Innovation: How to deal with disruptive change" MicroMasters program designed to teach the critical skills needed to be successful in this exciting field. In order to qualify for the MicroMasters Credential, you will need to earn a Verified Certificate in each of the six courses of the RWTHx MicroMasters program.

This health course focuses on the stories of people with intellectual disabilities around the world, as well as their families and supporters.

You will learn about the challenges and aid received in healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities, including their experience of specific syndromes and communication difficulties, and how they stay healthy.

Learners will also hear from family members as they discuss complex care, rare syndromes, early death, and planning for independence. The end of the course will focus on the history of treatment, the impact of rights’ movements on healthcare delivery, common health conditions, and health promotion.

This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of advanced medical, allied health, and disability. This course can also be used as workforce education for medical professionals in this field.

This test preparation course, developed by the experts who create, administer and score the TOEFL test, will help English language learners improve their skills.

The TOEFL test is the world’s most trusted and widely accepted English-language assessment. It has helped millions of people achieve their dreams to study, work or live abroad. More than 10,000 institutions of higher education, government agencies and organizations worldwide accept TOEFL scores for making important decisions.

This course will help you understand what you can do to achieve your best TOEFL test score. Instructors will guide you through each section (Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing) and, using archived past test questions, will explain the kinds of questions you can expect. You will receive valuable advice, including how to register for the test, how it is scored and how to prepare for test day.

This course is highly interactive, using videos, sample questions with explanations, short quizzes and collaborative discussion boards. You will also have access to real test materials from past tests. During the weeks covering Speaking and Writing, all course participants can receive scores for their practice-test responses.

In addition, there will be free resources and discounted test prep offers throughout the course. Finally, you will receive valuable insider tips to help you do your best on the TOEFL test so you can apply to the university or job of your dreams.

Who takes the TOEFL test? More than 30 million people from all over the world have taken the TOEFL test to demonstrate their English-language proficiency.

• Students planning to study at an institution or university
• Candidates for scholarships and professional certification
• English-language learners who want to track their progress
• Students and workers applying for visas in certain countries

Be part of the national conversation in the first 100 days of the new Presidential Administration and Congress.

On January 20, 2017, the United States will inaugurate Donald Trump as its 45th President and open a new Congress. For the next four years, he will work with Congress to pass new laws and to implement social policies that will impact all of us. The beginning of a new presidential administration is a crucial time to talk about issues that are of concern and impact our lives and community.

In this MOOC, you will tap into the knowledge and ideas of the renowned University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) faculty to examine the most pressing social justice and policy issues facing the United States. You will connect with fellow learners to collaborate on other issues that may be impacting your life, your community, or the nation as a whole. Together, we will create a list of priorities for the newly elected President and Congress.

Along the way, our faculty will continually update the materials and make sure you know, in real time, what is unfolding on the national level on the issues presented here. We will post pertinent articles and thoughtful commentaries.

The course is self-paced and will start on Inauguration Day (January 20, 2017) and run for the first 100 days (ending May 1). There is no straight path through the course; you will create your own learning plan. We offer our faculty and their research for your consideration and discussion, but it is you who has to decide to engage. This MOOC will only be successful with your participation, your voice and your critical thinking on how to make sense of—and transform! —our world.

Join us, be part of the national conversation.

Special Opportunity for Verified Certificate Learners: The first 300 verified learners will receive a copy of the recently published volume Social Policy and Social Justice featuring essays by course faculty and published in November 2016 by the University of Pennsylvania Press; there will be no additional cost beyond the fee for the verified certificate.

The idea behind topological systems is simple: if there exists a quantity, which cannot change in an insulating system where all the particles are localized, then the system must become conducting and obtain propagating particles when the quantity (called a "topological invariant") finally changes.

The practical applications of this principle are quite profound, and already within the last eight years they have lead to prediction and discovery of a vast range of new materials with exotic properties that were considered to be impossible before.

What will you gain from this course?

• Learn about the variety of subtopics in topological materials, their relation to each other and to the general principles.
• Learn to follow active research on topology, and critically understand it on your own.
• Acquire skills required to engage in research on your own, and to minimize confusion that often arises even among experienced researchers.

What is the focus of this course?

• Applications of topology in condensed matter based on bulk-edge correspondence.
• Special attention to the most active research topics in topological condensed matter: theory of topological insulators and Majorana fermions, topological classification of "grand ten” symmetry classes, and topological quantum computation
• Extensions of topology to further areas of condensed matter, such as photonic and mechanical systems, topological quantum walks, topology in fractionalized systems, driven or dissipative systems.

What tools does this course use?

• Simple thought experiments that rely on considerations of symmetry or continuity under adiabatic deformations
• Computer simulations similar to those used in actual research will give a more detailed and visual understanding of the involved concepts
• Dissecting research papers that teaches you to simply understand the idea even in the rather involved ones.

This course is a joint effort of Delft University of Technology, QuTech, NanoFront, University of Maryland, and Joint Quantum Institute.

FAQs

Are there any books that are required for the course?

No, the course will only rely on materials and software freely available online.

Is it possible to get credit for this course at my university?

Not by default, but we invite anyone to use the course materials as a basis for a graduate course, with course materials studied as preparation and followed by a classroom discussion. Such courses are planned at universities of Copenhagen, Delft, Leiden, and University of Maryland. Following such a course will obviously give you credit points.

Would it not be better to take a more formal approach, and to describe the math in a more rigorous and systematic way?

While advanced math is certainly relevant for some researchers, in our experience it is the simple things that are the most confusing. We aim for the course to stay accessible and relevant to advanced undergraduate/beginner graduate students, both the theorists and experimentalists.

I do not know enough about condensed matter physics, but I have attended an exciting talk/read a cool article, and I'd like to learn more. Would the course be useful for me?

We are not sure. On the one hand, we will aim the course at people familiar with basic condensed matter physics and the necessary math, hence we will always assume that we don't need to explain e.g. band structures from scratch. However, a good share of the course materials are just discussions which would give you some sort of overview and understanding what this is all about.

Why didn't you discuss my favorite topic, which is certainly relevant and exciting?

Hey, that's a great idea! We aim to start from covering the basic questions, and then let the course evolve together with the field. So if you want, please help us by preparing the materials that would be helpful for the course, and they will become a bonus topic. By the way, same holds if you spot an error, or know how to improve the course: everything about this course is open, so don't hesitate to contribute.

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

Getting a grip on complex, uncertain multi actor problems.

This course is about the Laplace Transform, a single very powerful tool for understanding the behavior of a wide range of mechanical and electrical systems: from helicopters to skyscrapers, from light bulbs to cell phones. This tool captures the behavior of the system and displays it in highly graphical form that is used every day by engineers to design complex systems.

This course is centered on the concept of the transfer function of a system. Also called the system function, the transfer function completely describes the response of a system to any input signal in a highly conceptual manner. This visualization occurs not in the time domain, where we normally observe behavior of systems, but rather in the “frequency domain.” We need a device for moving from the time domain to the frequency domain; this is the Laplace transform.

We will illustrate these principles using concrete mechanical and electrical systems such as tuned mass dampers and RLC circuits.

We live in a time of disruptive change, one that requires a new collective leadership capacity. In this groundbreaking course, we invite you on a journey to see the world in new ways and practice a method that allows leaders, entire organizations, and larger social systems to connect with and actualize their highest future possibility.

In January 2015, 30,000 people from 190 countries enrolled in U.Lab. In an exit survey, 52% said it was “eye-opening”, while another 36% called it “life-changing”. U.Lab has inspired the first-known use of a MOOC by a government as a platform for citizens to shape the issues that matter to them, it has been used in management teams of the world’s leading NGOs, and it is now being used in 42 Impact Hubs worldwide – by locally-rooted, globally connected communities of change makers to catalyze systemic change.

In the U.Lab you will learn Theory U, an approach to leading profound change that has been developed by action researchers at MIT, and practiced by leaders around the world, for over 20 years.

You will apply this method to a challenge, issue, or system that matters to you.

And you will have the opportunity to form self-organized Hubs and peer coaching circles with other U.Lab participants; in order to co-sense and co-shape the future that you feel is wanting to emerge in your work, and life, right now.

You will be joining a community that includes national government leaders from Scotland, founders and members of 42 Impact Hubs around the world, business leaders in the U.S, Brazil, and China, and many other inspired change makers from over 190 countries worldwide who are interested in creating more aware, inclusive, sustainable societies.

Is your organization planning to upgrade to Microsoft Exchange 2016? If so, you will experience a period of coexistence when parts of the organization still use legacy Exchange functionality while other parts have completed the upgrade to Exchange 2016.

In this computer science course, you will learn how to plan coexistence with Exchange 2010 or 2013 and Exchange 2016; implement coexistence with previous versions of Exchange; and finally, decommission previous versions of Exchange Server.

This course is part of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 XSeries. By completing this course, you will gain a better understanding of the message coexistence of Exchange Server 2016.

Este curso se imparte en español con subtítulos en inglés, y tanto el material adicional como los ejercicios del curso se ofrecerán en español e inglés. / This course will be taught in Spanish with English subtitles; the required readings as well as the quizzes and other evaluation materials will be provided in both languages.

Desde que en 1954 se realizara el primer trasplante exitoso de un órgano, la cirugía de trasplantes se ha desarrollado espectacularmente brindando esperanza y calidad de vida a muchos enfermos. Mientras esas técnicas y posibilidades terapéuticas avanzan, persisten sin embargo muchos interrogantes sobre el modo en el que los órganos pueden obtenerse lícitamente. Algunos de esos dilemas nos acompañan desde siempre, otros son suscitados por la aparición de fenómenos novedosos como el turismo de trasplantes, las posibilidades que ofrece la donación tras la muerte cardiocirculatoria o los descubrimientos sobre las funciones fisiológicas remanentes en los pacientes diagnosticados en muerte cerebral. En la inmensa mayoría de los países no se pueden comprar y vender órganos. ¿Por qué? A pesar de que muchas personas siguen muriendo a la espera de recibir un órgano, en ningún país se confiscan los órganos de las personas fallecidas. ¿Por qué? ¿Pueden donar los menores? ¿Debemos prescindir de la conocida como “regla del donante cadáver” y permitir la eutanasia para la donación? ¿Con qué límites? ¿De qué manera influye la potencial condición de donante de un órgano en los cuidados que se proporcionan al final de la vida? ¿Cómo evitar el conflicto de intereses entre quienes velan por la vida de los futuros receptores de un órgano y quienes aún se afanan por cuidar a quien va a fallecer de manera irremisible e inminente?

En este curso nos adentraremos en el análisis de ésas y otras cuestiones, pero también introduciremos los nuevos desafíos que para la ética y el Derecho plantean trasplantes novedosos así como la discusión en torno a los criterios de justa distribución de los órganos
 
The first successful organ transplantation was performed in 1954. Since then, the technique has evolved tremendously, giving hope and increased quality of life to many patients around the world. While the technology and drugs advance, several controversies persist regarding the way in which organs may be obtained. Some of these dilemmas arose on the very first day in which organs’ transplantation originated; others have emerged as a result of new phenomena such as transplantation tourism, the new possibilities brought by donation after cardio-circulatory death, or increasing knowledge about the remaining physiological functions detected in patients pronounced as brain dead. Almost all countries in the world forbid the selling of organs. Why? Although many people die while on the waiting lists, in no country does the Government confiscate cadaveric organs. Why? May minors be organ donors? Should we abandon the so-called “dead donor rule” and allow “organ-donation euthanasia”? How does the potential condition of becoming a donor influence the administration of end-of-life care? How should we avoid the eventual conflict of interests between those who care for the life of future recipients of organs and those who are in charge of the dying patient-eventual-donor? In this course we will explore the answers to these questions, and we will also engage in the assessment of the more recent challenges posed by novel transplantation techniques, and, albeit briefly, in the discussion regarding the fair distribution of organs. 

This course explores a variety of electronic applications used in the promotion of healthy behavior, focusing on cases relating to physical health (electronic cigarettes), mental health (apps and wearables), and social health (e-mediation). In each of these areas, experts will share cutting-edge scientific knowledge and demonstrate some of the latest e-applications to boost healthy behavior. The course consists of 3 modules:

1. e-Cigarette: Promoting physical health. In this module, you will learn about the potential implications of e-cigarettes as a Tobacco Harm Reduction Strategy. You will gain contemporary scientific knowledge about the safety, efficacy, and potential health threats of using e-cigarettes.
2. e-Mental Health: Promoting mental health. In this module, you will learn about innovations in online, mobile and wearable tools used in mental healthcare (a rapidly expanding field), as well as their potential advantages and disadvantages.
3. e-Mediation: Promoting social health. In this module, you will learn about the core principles of mediation, and how you can use electronic communication to prevent escalation and promote conflict resolution during the mediation process.

This MOOC consists of knowledge clips, demonstration movies, exercises, discussion, and homework (reading) assignments.