For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world. At the core of our wide range of academic inquiry is the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries and service to society.
How has technology changed the world of education? This course will examine the meaningful integration of technology into classrooms through a design-based process. This design framework will help teachers develop authentic projects that use technology as thinking tools for students. The course will also explore relevant learning theories and their practical applications for technology-infused classrooms.
Please note that you have the option to enroll in each individual course either as an auditor (free of charge) or with a verified certificate, by going to the course page and selecting the “Enroll Now” button. A list of the 4 courses in this series is available below.Without women’s history we have only a partial and incomplete knowledge of our past. The Women Have Always Worked four-part series will explore women’s participation in the economy, politics, and social life of the nation, from Colonial America to the present day. We will challenge old truisms about the past and learn to view American history from a new and rich historical perspective. These four MOOCs investigate the practice of women’s history; they explore how and why we write women’s history, and why it is important that we do so.Together we will learn how women began to ask for equality and what the word equality meant and still means for different women. But we'll also ask you to consider a more difficult set of questions that revolve around whether equality for some women might limit the freedom of others. Will women demand benefits for themselves that provide a few with equality with men while fomenting inequality with each other? What about sisterhood? Will some of us move forward while others are left behind? These are questions that haunt us today.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course focuses on the detection of features and boundaries in images. Feature and boundary detection is a critical preprocessing step for a variety of vision tasks including object detection, object recognition and metrology – the measurement of the physical dimensions and other properties of objects. The course presents a variety of methods for detecting features and boundaries and shows how features extracted from an image can be used to solve important vision tasks.We begin with the detection of simple but important features such as edges and corners. We show that such features can be reliably detected using operators that are based on the first and second derivatives of images. Next, we explore the concept of an “interest point” – a unique and hence useful local appearance in an image. We describe how interest points can be robustly detected using the SIFT detector. Using this detector, we describe an end-to-end solution to the problem of stitching overlapping images of a scene to obtain a wide-angle panorama. Finally, we describe the important problem of finding faces in images and show several applications of face detection.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course will focus on capturing the evolution of interest rates and providing deep insight into credit derivatives. In the first module we discuss the term structure lattice models and cash account, and then analyze fixed income derivatives, such as Options, Futures, Caplets and Floorlets, Swaps and Swaptions. In the second module, we will examine model calibration in the context of fixed income securities and extend it to other asset classes and instruments. Learners will operate model calibration using Excel and apply it to price a payer swaption in a Black-Derman-Toy (BDT) model. The third module introduces credit derivatives and subsequently focuses on modeling and pricing the Credit Default Swaps. In the fourth module, learners would be introduced to the concept of securitization, specifically asset backed securities(ABS). The discussion progresses to Mortgage Backed Securities(MBS) and the associated mortgage mathematics. The final module delves into introducing and pricing Collateralized Mortgage Obligations(CMOs).
The Internet of Things is rapidly growing. It is predicted that more than 25 billion devices will be connected by 2020.In this data science course, you will learn about the major components of the Internet of Things and how data is acquired from sensors. You will also examine ways of analyzing event data, sentiment analysis, facial recognition software and how data generated from devices can be used to make decisions.
As we see American women coming into positions of unprecedented economic and political power, we start to wonder: why now? The Women Have Always Worked MOOC, offered in two parts, explores the history of women in America and introduces students to historians’ work to uncover the place of women and gender in America’s past.Part Two of the course will focus on women and their work in the 20th century through the present. Participants will examine how ideas about men, women, and family have shaped the meaning and practice of citizenship for Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants will also learn about the implications of race, gender, and class for modern American economic, political, and social life. This course tells the story of overall achievement and growth for women, but also discusses expanding democracy, social justice and new definitions of liberty and equality.The Women Have Always Worked course is the first full-length MOOC on the history of women in America.Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
Indigenous Peoples, numbering more than 476 million in some 90 countries and about 5000 groups and representing a great part of the world’s human diversity and cultural heritage, continue to raise major controversies and to face threats to their physical and cultural existence.We will analyze the achievements, challenges, and potential of the dynamic interface between the Indigenous People’s movement—one of the strongest social movements of our time—and the international community, especially the UN system. Centered on the themes laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the course will examine how Indigenous Peoples have been contesting and reshaping norms, institutions and global debates in the past 50 years, re-shaping and gradually decolonizing international institutions and how they have contributed to some of the most important contemporary debates, including human rights, development, law—specifically the concepts of self-determination, governance, group rights, inter-culturality and pluriculturality, and cultural rights.
How do airlines decide when to increase ticket prices? Should a hotel charge less per night for a long stay than a short one? Why do some software companies bundle very different products together? How should a fashion retailer decide when do start discounting clothes? Why do so many discounted rates end in ".99"? How should a company balance the risk of holding too much inventory on hand and the risk of turning away customers? Does it ever make sense for retailers to lie to suppliers about how much they will need to order? Should retailers with multiple locations hold most of their inventory in a central warehouse or at the individual locations?These are only a small sample of the operational and pricing challenges all businesses regularly face. These challenges are often addressed individually and in isolation but, in reality, all of these decisions interact with each other. This class looks at the demand and supply management challenges faced by companies in various industries and provides an introduction to the tools that can be used to address these challenges.
Sam Sternberg explains the breakthrough technology CRISPR that allows scientists to rewrite genetic code and, in doing so, erase the mutations that cause disease and enhance plants and animals with new traits.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course introduces the types of cost estimation from the conceptual design phase through the more detailed design phase of a construction project. In addition, the course highlights the importance of controlling costs and how to monitor project cash flow. Students will work on a break-even analysis of construction tasks in a project.Construction Cost Estimating and Cost Control OverviewProfessor Odeh describes the course and provides an overview of what will be covered. Also covered is an introduction to Construction Cost Estimating and Cost Controls. Understanding Design in the Construction IndustryIan Taylor, project manager for Turner and Townsend, introduces the stages of design in a construction project. Introduction to the Types of Cost EstimatesProfessor Odeh describes the types of cost estimates in a construction project. Also covered in this module are the tools and methods used to create estimates. Quantity Take-Off and MeasurementJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management for Turner and Townsend, and Ian Taylor, Project Manager for Turner and Townsend, discuss Quantity Take Off and Measurement. Estimating cut and fill costs is taught along with a detailed example of using cut and fill software. Also covered in this module is the topic of deep foundations, concrete foundations and structural steel, measurement, masonry, glass curtain wall, facade and wall finishes.PricingJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management for Turner and Townsend, discusses pricing, labor costs and equipment costs. Topics include, cost materials, formwork, reinforcing steel and concrete. Money component and productivity component is discussed in labor costs, as well as estimating equipment costs.Building the EstimateJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management at Turner and Townsend, Inc., illustrates how to build an estimate. Sneath does a deep dive into a schematic design project. ProcurementJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management for Turner and Townsend, discussed the procurement stage of a construction projects and they typical involvement of a cost manager or cost estimator. Post Contract and Cost Estimation within a ProjectJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management for Turner and Townsend Construction, discusses post contract and cost estimation with a construction project. Also covered in this module are cost reporting, change orders and communication and meetings.Construction Cost Control MethodsProfessor Odeh introduces construction cost control and the work segments contained in a project. Earned Value Method (EVM)In this module, Professor Odeh goes deeper into the Earned Value Method of Cost Control. Close Out PeriodIan Taylor, Project Manager at Turner and Townsend, Inc., introduces cost management close out and punch-list review. Cost Estimation in PracticeJames Sneath, Associate Director of Cost Management at Turner and Townsend, Inc., talks about cost estimation in general practice. The unit starts with tips in cost estimating and cost management and ends with a discussion of the international roles of cost managers. Project Cash FlowBen Miller, Project Manager at Gilbane Building Company, discusses contracts and cash flows.Revenues, expenses and how they impact projects as a whole will be covered.Technology Trends in Cost Estimating and Cost ControlKevin Labrecque, Senior Vice President at Harper Limbach LLC discusses technology trends in cost estimating and cost control. Topics include 5D Estimating Systems (BIM), estimating software, technology workflows, and implementation.Program Cost EstimatingChristopher Toomey, Senior Vice President at AECOM Global Programs, discusses cost control for large programs. Lean in Cost ControlSam Spata, Owner of Method Lean, presents this module on Lean In Cost Control.
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was promulgated, defining freedom of expression as the right “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The technology revolution of the last two decades has given the world the means to realize this commitment. Technology has shaped, reshaped, and radically transformed the production and distribution of information, profoundly impacting whole societies and greatly influencing, if not defining, information and communication. However, as the course will demonstrate, the foundation of a global protection of freedom of protection and information largely predates the IT revolution of the last decade. This course will present and analyse the global norms that have emerged over time to enshrine the protection of freedom of expression and information, across and above national and regional differences. The course is comprised of recorded lectures. Dr. Agnes Callamard, the Director of Columbia Global Freedom of Expression and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, who led the human rights investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, will deliver the lectures. Supplementary lectures by international experts will provide additional information on topics addressed by the main lectures or additional issues which could not be included in the core course. Students will be actively invited to consult the supplementary videos to strengthen their knowledge. Weekly readings will be assigned from classic philosophical works on the concept of freedom of expression, key texts of international human rights law, significant decisions of international and national courts, as well as relevant news stories and video clips. The course will provide access to case analyses from Columbia University's Global Case Law Database to illustrate the issues as well as for course assignments. Most readings will be freely available on the Internet.This Foundational Course is to be followed by an Advanced Course which will focus on the complex, and often awkward, interplay of global information flows with national jurisdiction and state sovereignty, and what it means for the realization of a borderless vision for the right to freedom of expression.
Marketers want to understand and forecast how customers purchase products and services and how they respond to marketing initiatives.Learn how analytics help businesses drive marketing to maximize its effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).In this course, part of the Business Analytics MicroMasters program, discover how to develop quantitative models that leverage business data, statistical computation, and machine learning to forecast sales and marketing impact for:customer relationship management;market segmentation;value creation;communication;monetization.You will learn how to use probabilistic models and optimization tools to model customer demand forecasts, pricing sensitivity, Lifetime Value and how to leverage such data to make optimal decisions on designing new products, marketing segmentation and strategy.
Are you interested in understanding freedom of expression and information? Do you want to learn how it is defined under international law, who abuses it and how it is protected on or off-line?Adopting a global standpoint, this course will present the international human rights norms and laws that define free speech and the global jurisprudence that has developed to safeguard it. It will explore political expression, press freedom and freedom of expression on the Internet. It will outline the legitimate restrictions to freedom of expression, and discuss its most pressing challenges and violations globally.Taught with the support of journalists, human rights defenders and press freedom activists from around the world, this course is a formidable introduction to a complex fundamental right, at the heart of today’s many global challenges, from the Internet to national security, freedom of religion and privacy.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeIn the U.S., social policy accounts for two-thirds of government spending. Knowing how policies are constructed, what values underlie them, and how they succeed or fail makes everyone more effective at work or in their civic role. This specialization includes an HONORS track in which learners will complete a professional social policy analysis.Teachers, health care workers, police, and social workers interact with policy daily, but all of us should care about the impact and effectiveness of these programs. Health and mental health programs, education, housing and income supports, pensions, criminal justice services, veterans’ programs, child protective services, and immigration services create a support system all Americans will draw upon. They also reveal Americans' ethics and values, indicating how we regard and care for our most vulnerable.This specialization will explore the size, structure, and outcomes of U.S. social policy by-comparing it with the approaches of other developed nations.-examining the history of our efforts and probing population effects that shape policy.-looking deeply into support for families in general, poor families, people with disabilities, and the elderly.-mapping out existing policies for housing, education, healthcare, immigration and child welfare.-addressing issues of power, oppression, and white supremacy.By the end of the course the learner will be at home working in, utilizing, and voting in the U.S. welfare system.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe last three or four decades have seen a remarkable evolution in the institutions that comprise the modern monetary system. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is a wakeup call that we need a similar evolution in the analytical apparatus and theories that we use to understand that system. Produced and sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, this course is an attempt to begin the process of new economic thinking by reviving and updating some forgotten traditions in monetary thought that have become newly relevant.Three features of the new system are central.Most important, the intertwining of previously separate capital markets and money markets has produced a system with new dynamics as well as new vulnerabilities. The financial crisis revealed those vulnerabilities for all to see. The result was two years of desperate innovation by central banking authorities as they tried first this, and then that, in an effort to stem the collapse. Second, the global character of the crisis has revealed the global character of the system, which is something new in postwar history but not at all new from a longer time perspective. Central bank cooperation was key to stemming the collapse, and the details of that cooperation hint at the outlines of an emerging new international monetary order. Third, absolutely central to the crisis was the operation of key derivative contracts, most importantly credit default swaps and foreign exchange swaps. Modern money cannot be understood separately from modern finance, nor can modern monetary theory be constructed separately from modern financial theory. That's the reason this course places dealers, in both capital markets and money markets, at the very center of the picture, as profit-seeking suppliers of market liquidity to the new system of market-based credit.