Courses tagged with "Taking derivatives" (68)

This course will introduce you to the field of computer science and the fundamentals of computer programming. Introduction to Computer Science I is specifically designed for students with no prior programming experience, and taking this course does not require a background in Computer Science. This course will touch upon a variety of fundamental topics within the field of Computer Science and will use Java, a high-level, portable, and well-constructed computer programming language developed by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), to demonstrate those principles. We will begin with an overview of the course topics as well as a brief history of software development. We will cover basic object-oriented programming terminology and concepts such as objects, classes, inheritance, and polymorphism, as well as the fundamentals of Java, its primitive data types, relational operators, control statements, exception handling, and file input /output. By the end of the course, you should have a strong understanding of the fundam…

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 will introduce you to the history of the world’s major civilizations from medieval times to the early modern era.  You will learn about the pivotal political, economic, and social changes that took place in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe during this period.  The course will be structured chronologically, with each unit focusing on the expansion or decline of a particular civilization or the interactions and exchanges between civilizations.  The units will include representative secondary and primary source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the transformation of western Europe during the Renaissance, the emergence of a more inclusive world economy, and the impact of early European exploration and colonization.  By the end of the course, you will understand how many different civilizations evolved from isolated societies into expansive, interconnected empires capable of exerting global influence.

This course will present a comparative overview of world history from the 17th century to the present era.  You will examine the origins of major economic, political, social, cultural, and technological trends of the past 400 years and explore the impact of these trends on world societies.  This course will be structured chronologically and thematically, with each unit focusing on a significant historical subject.  The units will include representative primary-source documents and images that illustrate important overarching themes, such as the emergence of modern nation-states, the economic and technological interactions between Western and non-Western peoples, the changing social and cultural perceptions about religion and the state, and the development of physical and virtual networks of information exchange. This course is designed to align with Thomas Edison State College TECEP examination. Visit the TECEP website [1], and click on “World History from 1600 to Present (HIS-126-TE)” to download t…

Personality psychology is the study of the development of personality, the effects of personality on important outcomes, and attempts to make beneficial changes to maladaptive personality characteristics.

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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…

This course will introduce you to the history of Latin and South America from the year in which European explorers first discovered and began to colonize the region to the early 19th century, when many Latin and South American colonies declared their independence from European rule.  You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place throughout Latin and South America during this 400-year 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 conquest of native peoples by European explorers, colonial settlement patterns and trade networks, social and cultural exchanges between native peoples and Europeans, and the emergence of independence movements across Latin and South America at the end of the 18th century.  By the end of the course, you will understand how the interaction between native peoples and European settl…

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.

This course will introduce you to the concepts and ideas in the area of social psychology. Social Psychology aims to discover the different ways in which people interact with other individuals, groups, and the larger society as a whole, as well as why people act in certain ways. As with an anthropology or sociology course, social psychology looks at the inner workings of groups of people. However, it differs from these courses in terms of its focus; social psychology focuses primarily on the single individual’s psychology as part of the group or society, rather than the culture or group interaction (though both of these areas have some relevance in social psychology). This may seem to be quite a broad subject area and it is. Humans are social creatures (in other words, they have evolved to be able to interact and communicate at high levels with individuals of their own species) and almost invariably exist in a social context (even a situation in which society is absent could be studied by social psychologi…

Cultural Psychology reviews the cultural, community, and ecological factors that play a role in how people perceive their environment.  It is the integration of the nature and nurture phenomenas, whereby an individual’s psyche is determined, or at least influenced, by both that individual’s culture and those other cultures to which the individual is exposed.  This may include many layers and levels, such as those discussed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, including the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. For example: On a small scale, it is easy to see how an individual living in New York City would encounter different psychosocial stressors than a person living on a farm in Iowa might.  On a much larger scale, a person living in the United States may differ greatly, in cultural terms, from an individual living in China.  It may be easy to tell that two cultures are different from one another, but identifying exactly what we meanand all that is encompas…

Psychotherapy refers to the practices clinical psychologists use to treat mental disorders. While “therapy” can denote any intervention undertaken with the goal of healing someone (including medicinal treatments for physical problems), psychotherapy is specific in that it uses certain cognitive, behavioral, and emotional regulation techniques. Based on pop culture portrayals of psychotherapy, you may be imagining a patient lying on a couch, talking freely about whatever is on his or her mind, while a doctor scribbles notes. While there is some truth to this portrait, it is an obvious oversimplification. Psychotherapy often involves a pre-defined set of techniques that a counselor will use in order to solve the problems that his patient is encountering. These techniques often vary from therapist to therapist and depend on which school of thought the therapist subscribes to, that is, which perspectives he or she has adopted in order to explain the causes of and appropriate treatments for various disorders.

In this course, we will study the history of Western art, beginning with the first objects created by prehistoric humans around 20,000 years ago and ending with the art and architecture of the High Gothic period in fourteenth-century Europe.  The information presented in this course will provide you with the tools to recognize important works of art and historical styles, as well as to understand the historical context and cultural developments of Western art history through the end of the medieval period.  Introductory readings paired with detailed lectures will provide you with a well-rounded sense of the history, art, and culture of the West up through the medieval period. At the end of this course, you will be able to identify key works of art and artistic periods in Western history.  You will also be able to discuss the development of stylistic movements and relate those developments to important historical events.  Completion of this course will prepare you for ARTH111, which surveys the history o…

In this course, we will study the architecture of Ancient Rome, beginning with its origins in the eighth century BC, and continuing through the fourth century AD with the move of the Roman capital to Constantinople.  The course of lectures and readings outlined below will familiarize you with the major building methods and styles used in Roman architecture.  In addition, interior decoration (including the very important topic of Roman wall painting) will be addressed.  By the end of the course, you will be able to identify some of the most important works of Roman architecture and discuss the historical and cultural conditions that informed their production. An important theme throughout the first half of the course is the relationship between Ancient Rome and Greek and Etruscan cultures, which were highly influential in the formation of a distinctive Roman architecture.  Understanding the role that Roman architecture played in the eastern and western Roman provinces is also significant to this course,…

In the 1960’s, H. Marshall McLuhan, media theorist, critic, and visionary, asserted that societies are changed by the advances of technology, especially communication technologies.  He is well known for his prophecy that communication technology would one day make us one great “global village.”  In the end, the processes and theories regarding communication in our daily lives to exchange information, create meaning, and share understanding remain a critical component of human relationships.  Whether we are chatting with a stranger while waiting for a bus, solving a problem with a group of coworkers, or sharing our dreams and goals with our best friend, principles and practices of human communication are at the foundation of each of these human transactions. This course provides an introduction to the human communication concentration in the communications major.  This course will introduce you to communication principles, common communication practices, and a selection of theories to better unders…

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…

The purpose of this course, as governed by the textbook at its core, Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, is to complete a fairly comprehensive examination of the evolution and impact of the media, primarily in the United States.  Each of the major media (newspapers, magazines, books, radio, movies, music, and television), as well as new media (electronic entertainment, social media, and the Internet), are examined from their conception to the present and future possibilities.  Emphasis is placed on how each media industry has evolved over time, responding to changes in society, technology, politics, and economics.  The course also explores the cultural impact of the media, from individual media products to entire industries, with particular emphasis on the cultural and ethical factors that influence production, consumption, and also, due to the advent of new media, participation.  Upon completing this course, you should be more conscious of how your viewpoints are shape…

We live in an increasingly globalized world.  Technology enables us to do business just as easily with our neighbors as with a businessperson thousands of miles away from us.  Knowing how to navigate cultural differences is an increasingly valuable skill that will make you a more valuable employee.  Encounters among members of different cultures frequently fail simply because of basic cultural differences, such as the importance of time, proper greetings, or even the use of eye contact.  This course is designed to help you identify how to become a better communicator in these sorts of cross-cultural situations.  You will learn about barriers to successful communication that involve cultural differences.  You will also learn more about your own communication style and how it can be developed to facilitate more successful intercultural encounters. Though some of this course addresses a Western/U.S. perspective, much of the course focuses on characteristics of specific cultures and how generally one cultur…

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…