Courses tagged with "Digital governance" (52)

Level Up! covers the complete Advanced Placement* Computer Science A course in unique and engaging ways. It's a significant change of pace from other online introductory programming courses. While you will rigorously learn the art of programming in Java, you will spend much of your time designing and writing games and simulations.  This course has no textbook because all the materials are online.  You’ll be reading; checking your understanding with self-tests; analyzing, modifying, and debugging code as well as writing it; and working with your fellow students to come to common understandings.  You’ll work with sounds and pictures (what do you sound like speaking backwards?), write adventure games and “smart” board games, and spend time trying to understand whole programs rather than just little pieces.
 
We’ve designed this course to help high-school students prepare for the Advanced Placement Computer Science test, and we’ll cover everything you need to know. It has been successfully used in classrooms for several years, and now its available for anyone, in school or not, through EdX. If you are an adult or a student who isn’t going to take the AP test, you are more than welcome to join!  We go beyond the minimum required by the AP committee, introducing graphics, mouse commands, and other tools for real programmers.
 
We based this course on the principles of “lab-centric” instruction, in which lectures are replaced by hands-on activities.  We won’t include long, fact-filled videos, and the webpages in this course will be your “textbook”.

Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

* Advanced Placement and AP are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these offerings.

Quantum computation is a remarkable subject building on the great computational discovery that computers based on quantum mechanics are exponentially powerful. This course aims to make this cutting-edge material broadly accessible to undergraduate students, including computer science majors who do not have any prior exposure to quantum mechanics. The course starts with a simple introduction to the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics using the concepts of qubits (or quantum bits) and quantum gates. This treatment emphasizes the paradoxical nature of the subject, including entanglement, non-local correlations, the no-cloning theorem and quantum teleportation. The course covers the fundamentals of quantum algorithms, including the quantum fourier transform, period finding, Shor's quantum algorithm for factoring integers, as well as the prospects for quantum algorithms for NP-complete problems. It also discusses the basic ideas behind the experimental realization of quantum computers, including the prospects for adiabatic quantum optimization and the D-Wave controversy.

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

Do I need a textbook for this class?
No. Notes will be posted each week. If you wish to consult other references, a list of related textbooks and online resources will be provided.

What is the estimated effort for course?
About 5-12 hrs/week.

Why is the work load range so wide?
How long you spend on the course depends upon your background and on the depth to which you wish to understand the material. The topics in this course are quite open ended, and will be presented so you can understand them at a high level or can try to follow it at a sophisticated level with the help of the posted notes.

How much does it cost to take the course?
Nothing! The course is free.

Will the text of the lectures be available?
Yes. All of our lectures will have transcripts synced to the videos.

Do I need to watch the lectures live?
No. You can watch the lectures at your leisure.

Science plays a crucial role in your decisions as you go about your daily life. The representatives you elect and the legislation you vote on influences science legislation, limits and funding. This class will teach you fundamentals of modern biology to help you make more informed voting decisions.

As you learn the fundamentals of Biology, we'll explore the scientific issues sparking political debate: 

• Evolution vs. creationism
• Reactions to pandemic disease
• The risks and benefits of vaccination 
• How extinctions impact the planet
• Space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life
• Sexual behavior

We look forward to engaging course discussions about how each vote in a democracy affects the way biology functions in your everyday life.

Science plays a crucial role in your decisions as you go about your daily life. The representatives you elect and the legislation you vote on influences science legislation, limits and funding. This class will teach you fundamentals of modern biology to help you make more informed voting decisions.

As you learn the fundamentals of Biology, we'll explore the scientific issues sparking political debate:

• Genetically modified food and genetically modified crops
• Genetically modified organisms
• Obesity and health care costs 
• Cancer research funding
• Aging

We look forward to engaging course discussions about how each vote in a democracy affects the way biology functions in your everyday life.

Interested in public policy thinking? This course will equip you to utilize a powerful, eight-step method for analyzing public policy problems and formulating recommendations for addressing them.

To help you learn the “eightfold path” to problem solving, you will review and enjoy lectures and presentations by faculty from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, the top-ranked graduate academy in this field. You will examine specific policy examples and learn to apply this method to the social challenges you wish to concentrate upon in your own  work.

And this course is just the beginning! Consider exploring graduate training in public policy. Earn a Masters in Public Affairs (MPA) degree from the Goldman School.

Discover the big ideas and thinking practices in computer science plus learn how to code using one of the friendliest programming languages, Snap! (based on Scratch)

Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society. This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

“I am so grateful to have experienced BJC (Beauty and Joy of Computing). I took this course during my freshmen year at UC Berkeley, and it has actually changed my life. Because of it, I have switched to the computer science major and have even developed a passion for computer science education! This course showed me that computer science is creative, and it gave me the confidence to continue taking computer science courses. BJC's philosophy of inclusion, diversity, and collaboration is tangible and sets it apart from all other computer science courses that I have experienced. It is truly empowering!” -- Yifat Amir

Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a computer science principles course developed at the University of California, Berkeley, intended to broaden participation in computing to non-traditional groups. Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society. This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

Learn more about our High School and AP Courses

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a computer science principles course developed at the University of California, Berkeley, intended to broaden participation in computing to non-traditional groups. Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society. This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a computer science principles course developed at the University of California, Berkeley, intended to broaden participation in computing to non-traditional groups. Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society. This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

Discover the big ideas and thinking practices in computer science plus learn how to code using one of the friendliest programming languages, Snap! (based on Scratch).

Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society.

Topics include:

• Abstraction
• Programming Paradigms Algorithms
• Global Implications of Computing
• Lab-Based Topics: Snap! Programming, Conditionals and Abstraction, Lists and the Internet

This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

Discover the big ideas and thinking practices in computer science plus learn how to code using one of the friendliest programming languages, Snap! (based on Scratch).

Computing has profoundly changed the world, opening up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code.

This course teaches students how to do exactly that, using Snap! (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks. But this course is far more than just learning to program. We focus on seven big ideas (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact), and six computational thinking practices (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). Throughout the course, relevance is emphasized: relevance to the student and to society.

Topics include:

• Data and Information
• Complexity Theory
• Recursion, Lambda and Higher Order Functions
• Artificial Intelligence
• Human Computer Interaction
• Lab-based Topics: Algorithms and Data, Trees and Fractals, Recursion and Higher Order Functions

This fun, introductory course is not just for computer science majors, it’s for everyone… join us!

"A free eight-week Science of Happiness course that will offer practical, research-backed tips on living a happy and meaningful life."  - The Huffington Post

We all want to be happy, and there are countless ideas about what happiness is and how we can get some. But not many of those ideas are based on science. That’s where this course comes in.

“The Science of Happiness” is the first MOOC to teach the ground-breaking science of positive psychology, which explores the roots of a happy and meaningful life. Students will engage with some of the most provocative and practical lessons from this science, discovering how cutting-edge research can be applied to their own lives. Created by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, the course will zero in on a fundamental finding from positive psychology: that happiness is inextricably linked to having strong social connections and contributing to something bigger than yourself—the greater good. Students will learn about the cross-disciplinary research supporting this view, spanning the fields of psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and beyond.

What’s more, “The Science of Happiness” offers students practical strategies for tapping into and nurturing their own happiness, including trying several research-backed activities that foster social and emotional well-being, and exploring how their own happiness changes along the way.

The course’s co-instructors, Dacher Keltner and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, are not only leading authorities on positive psychology but also gifted teachers skilled at making science fun and personal. They’ll be joined by world-renowned experts discussing themes like empathy, mindfulness, and gratitude—experts including Barbara Fredrickson, Paul Ekman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. Health professionals who register can earn continuing education units for their participation.

Consider signing up for this course with a friend or group - tweet about your registration, share it on Facebook, and use the buddy system to stay on track. Join the conversation on The Greater Good Science Center Facebook page, or in the BerkeleyX: GG101x The Science of Happiness Facebook group.