Online courses directory (457)

This course will introduce you to the history of East Asia from the early Yellow River civilizations to the Qing Dynasty in the late eighteenth century.  You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam during this period.  The course will be structured chronologically.  Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the development of a coherent Chinese identity, Chinese imperial aspirations in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, the expansion of Western influence and trade networks, the Mongol invasions, and the role of Confucianism and Buddhism in East Asian culture.  By the end of the course, you will understand how East Asia transformed from fragmented and warring societies into consolidated imperial states that sought to separate themselves from Western religion and commerce.  The course will present a variety of resources that will d…

This course will introduce you to the history of Latin America from the early 19th century, when many Latin American colonies declared their independence from European rule (predominately Spain and Portugal), to the present day. This course fulfills one of the required six geographical concentration courses for the History major [1]. This course also fulfills one of the requirements for the History minor [2]. In this course, you will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place throughout Latin America during this crucial 200-year period of nation-state formation and engagement with the rest of the world. The units in the course are set up chronologically, but at the same time the units address the development and history of specific Latin American regions, including Mexico, Central America, and South America, and nation-states. Each unit includes representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as ef…

Sociology is the scientific study of society. As such, it closely examines human interactions and cultural phenomena, including topics like inequality and urbanization and the effects of these on groups and individuals. To do their work, sociologists rely on a philosophy of science called positivism, which you will study in Unit 1. The philosophy of positivism asserts that authentic knowledge, or truth, can only be gained through empirical observations. In other words, we need to be able to experience our observations or use scientific measurement with a form of sensory experience, as opposed to using faith-based or emotional experiences. Another central concept to sociology is that of the sociological imagination. The sociological imagination allows sociologists to make connections between personal experiences and larger social issues. For example, did you know the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world? In order to understand this trend, sociologists use scientific methods…

This course will examine literature and practice regarding community-owned enterprise as an alternative means of increasing community participation and development. The use of cooperatives, credit unions, land trusts, and limited stock ownership enterprises for increasing community participation and empowerment will be examined.

This course will introduce you to the history of Africa from 300,000 BCE to the era of European imperialism in the nineteenth century. You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Africa during this period and examine the experiences of Africans who lived during this period. You will also explore the relationships between Africans and people living in other regions of the world. The course will be structured chronologically except for units 3 and 4, which will divide the continent geographically while covering the classical period of African history. Each unit will include representative documents and other resources that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes. By the end of the course, you will understand how Africans transformed their continent beginning with human evolution and concluding with the era of global capitalism. The story then continues in HIST 252, which covers the last 120 years of African history.

The purpose of this course is to systematically examine the elements and factors which result in an effective speech.  The textbook and associated lectures present an element-by-element examination of the essentials of public speaking while also identifying traits of the individual speaker and how they impact preparation and presentation.  In addition to these resources, a comprehensive series of brief videos demonstrate specific, performance-oriented aspects of public speaking.  Tying each of these course elements together are the themes of information and ethics, emphasized in each resource because they are becoming increasingly important to all communicators.  For example, the textbook constantly returns to the discussion of society’s ever-increasing access to information and the demands on the individual to use it effectively and ethically.  The authors note that “the New York Times has more information in one week than individuals in the 1800s would encounter in a lifetime,” which illustrates…

A report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that employers want job candidates with strong communication skills. Similarly, educational success also requires the ability to articulate your thoughts clearly. In this class, we will study the principles of public speaking; critically examine our own and others’ speeches through interactive practice.

This course will introduce you to the history of Central Eurasia and the Silk Road from 4500 B.C.E to the nineteenth century.  You will learn about the culture of the nomadic peoples of Central Eurasia as well as the development of the Silk Road.  The course will be structured chronologically; each unit will focus on one aspect of the Silk Road during a specific time period.  Each unit will include representative primary- and secondary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the discovery and production of silk in China, diplomatic relations between Han China and nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe, the international scope of the Silk Road trade routes, European interest in finding a “new silk route” to China, and the “Great Game” between China, Russia, and Great Britain in Central Eurasia in the nineteenth century.  By the end of the course, you will understand how the Silk Road influenced the development of nomadic societies in Ce…

This course focuses on the Great Depression and World War II and how they led to a major reordering of American politics and society. We will examine how ordinary people experienced these crises and how those experiences changed their outlook on politics and the world around them.

This course enhances cross-cultural understanding through the discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. It includes a research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. The course is open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

From pineapples grown in Hawaii to English-speaking call centers outsourced to India, the legacy of the "Age of Imperialism" appears everywhere in our modern world. This class explores the history of European imperialism in its political, economic, and cultural dimensions from the 1840s through the 1960s.

This course will introduce you to the major events and dynamics of three distinct periods in African history, namely (1) the colonial period, (2) the era of decolonization, and (3) the post-colonial period.  We will survey African history from the “Scramble for Africa” in the late nineteenth century and the establishment of colonial rule to the challenges of independence spanning roughly the last five decades, learning about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Africa during these periods. In exploring the dominant trends and patterns in African history during these time periods, we will focus primarily on sub-Saharan Africa.  While the northern African states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt share many of the same experiences with sub-Saharan Africa, the histories between northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa (as exemplified by the strong Arab influence in northern Africa and the natural dividing line of the Sahara desert) are significantly different to…

There is no shortage of quotes in which inspirational business leaders describe the sources of their success. Their reasons are often diverse, but almost everyone comes back to the same thing: people. The people are the company; they create the success. In BUS301: Managing Human Capital, you learned how to find, train, and manage these people. Please keep in mind that there is more to successful business leadership than managing human capital. You must have a suitable structure and culture at your firm in order to achieve success. Imagine the U.S. military; it boasts some of the best-trained soldiers in human history, but that talent would be wasted without a structure designed to appropriately deploy forces. In other words, the military would not be as successful without streamlined organizational behavior. Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people interact in organizations. These interactions are governed by a number of factors, including your personal life, the personality of your boss or you…

This course provides an introduction to the history of technology for the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) major.  The course surveys major technological developments from ancient to modern times with particular attention to social, political, and cultural contexts in Europe and the United States.  You will also think critically about the theory of technological determinism, the ways in which technology has defined “progress” and “civilization”, and the major ethical considerations surrounding today’s technological decisions. This course begins with discussions of the promotion of technology in centralized states of the ancient and medieval worlds: the Roman Empire, Song and Ming China, and the Islamic Abbasid Empire.  After a period of relative decline, the states of Western Europe centralized and flourished once again, having benefited from the westward transmission of key ideas and technologies from the East. The focus of the course then shifts to the West, to the technologies of the…

Western philosophy and theoretical mathematics were born together, and the cross-fertilization of ideas in the two disciplines was continuously acknowledged throughout antiquity. In this course, we read works of ancient Greek philosophy and mathematics, and investigate the way in which ideas of definition, reason, argument and proof, rationality and irrationality, number, quality and quantity, truth, and even the idea of an idea were shaped by the interplay of philosophic and mathematical inquiry.

An analysis of historical structures is presented themed sections based around construction materials. Structures from all periods of history are analyzed. The goal of the class is to provide an understanding of the preservation of historic structures for all students.

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…

This course will introduce you to the major concepts of and debates surrounding industrial and organizational psychology. Industrial and organizational psychology is the application of psychological research and theory to human interaction (both with other humans and with human factors, or machines and computers) in the workplace. The phrase “industrial and organizational psychology” (sometimes referred to as “I/O”) may be somewhat misleading, as the field deals less with actual organizations and/or industries and more with the people in these areas. As mentioned above, “I/O” is an applied psychological science, which means that it takes research findings and theories that may have originally been used to explain a general phenomenon of human behavior and applies them to human behavior in a specific setting (here, the workplace). Consider, for example, the fact that many jobs require applicants to take a personality test. Psychologists originally developed this test to detect and diagnose abnorm…

Build your earth science vocabulary and learn about cycles of matter and types of sedimentary rocks through the Education Portal course Earth Science 101: Earth Science. Our series of video lessons and accompanying self-assessment quizzes can help you boost your scientific knowledge ahead of the Excelsior Earth Science exam . This course was designed by experienced educators and examines both science basics, like experimental design and systems of measurement, and more advanced topics, such as analysis of rock deformation and theories of continental drift.

This course will introduce you to the history of the Middle East and Southwest Asia from the pre-Islamic period to the end of World War I.  You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place.  The course will be structured chronologically.  Most units will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the formation of ancient empires in the second and first millennia BCE, the political and social influence of Islam on the region in the first millennium CE, the growth and expansion of Muslim states in the second millennium CE, and the impact of European imperialism on the region in the 18th and 19th centuries.  By the end of the course, you will understand how the Middle East and Southwest Asia developed politically, economically, and socially prior to World War One and recognize the critical role that the region played in the broader development of European and Asian societies.