Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $30 billion as of September 2012. Its history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world
Matrix Algebra underlies many of the current tools for experimental design and the analysis of high-dimensional data. In this introductory online course in data analysis, we will use matrix algebra to represent the linear models that commonly used to model differences between experimental units. We perform statistical inference on these differences. Throughout the course we will use the R programming language to perform matrix operations.Given the diversity in educational background of our students we have divided the series into seven parts. You can take the entire series or individual courses that interest you. If you are a statistician you should consider skipping the first two or three courses, similarly, if you are biologists you should consider skipping some of the introductory biology lectures. Note that the statistics and programming aspects of the class ramp up in difficulty relatively quickly across the first three courses. You will need to know some basic stats for this course. By the third course will be teaching advanced statistical concepts such as hierarchical models and by the fourth advanced software engineering skills, such as parallel computing and reproducible research concepts.These courses make up two Professional Certificates and are self-paced:Data Analysis for Life Sciences:PH525.1x: Statistics and R for the Life SciencesPH525.2x: Introduction to Linear Models and Matrix AlgebraPH525.3x: Statistical Inference and Modeling for High-throughput ExperimentsPH525.4x: High-Dimensional Data AnalysisGenomics Data Analysis:PH525.5x: Introduction to BioconductorPH525.6x: Case Studies in Functional GenomicsPH525.7x: Advanced BioconductorThis class was supported in part by NIH grant R25GM114818.
For over two millennia, Jews throughout the entire world have been committed to reading, interpreting, and living their scriptures. But what are the Jewish scriptures? When were they written? And why are they relevant in the 21st century?This religion course introduces students to the diversity of the ever-expanding Jewish canon and the equally diverse ways of reading it. It will examine how Jews, ancient and modern, drew inspiration and guidance from the traditional texts while simultaneously reinterpreting their contents in light of new circumstances. The religion we call “Judaism” emerges at the nexus of text, interpretation, and lived tradition.Whether you are a long-time student of the Jewish scriptures or a complete newcomer, this course will give you a new understanding of the fascinating roles that sacred texts have played in the rich history of Judaism.
Super-Earths And Life is a course about life on Earth, alien life, how we search for life outside of Earth, and what this teaches us about our place in the universe.In the past decade astronomers have made incredible advances in the discovery of planets outside our solar system. Thirty years ago, we knew only of the planets in our own solar system. Now we know of thousands circling nearby stars.Meanwhile, biologists have gained a strong understanding of how life evolved on our own planet, all the way back to the earliest cells. We can describe how simple molecules can assemble themselves into the building blocks of life, and how those building blocks might have become the cells that make up our bodies today.Super-Earths And Life is all about how these fields, astronomy and biology, together with geology, can help answer one of our most powerful and primal questions: are we alone in the universe?HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code: https://www.edx.org/edx-terms-service. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement: http://harvardx.harvard.edu/research-statement to learn more.Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form: https://www.edx.org/contact-us.
Ever wondered about the sacred scriptures that have sustained for millennia one of the oldest and most diverse religions of the world - Hinduism? Want to discover the lessons this history may offer mankind in the 21st century?This religion course introduces the rich and diverse textual sources from which millions of Hindus have drawn religious inspiration for millennia. The Bhagavad Gita has offered philosophical insights to a number of modern thinkers. This course will introduce important passages from important Hindu sacred texts, their interpretations by moderns and will give you an opportunity to engage with them.
Join us for an exploration of Shakespeare’s Outsiders: the disturbing and uncanny “others” whose presence at the margins of society is both celebrated and contested. From lectures filmed on-location in Venice, London, and Stratford-upon-Avon to conversations with artists, academics, and librarians at Harvard, you will have unprecedented access to a range of resources for unlocking Shakespeare's classic plays. You will also be invited to share your own theatrical interpretations and to consider how the meaning of a work of art changes depending on the time, context, and culture.In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ghost of the dead King of Denmark appears to his son, setting off a chain of events that culminates in the play’s notoriously bloody finale. But how would this mysterious figure have been understood in Shakespeare’s world? You’ll learn the narrative sources of Hamlet, the religious convictions that shaped how people in Renaissance England understood the afterlife, and the ways that Shakespeare’s Ghost would have thrilled and challenged its original audience.In William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the Jewish moneylender Shylock proposes a “merry sport” to the merchant Antonio: he will lend Antonio the money he needs if Antonio agrees to let Shylock take a pound of his flesh should he default. But what does Shylock want from the bond, and how merry does the play ultimately prove? In this section, you’ll be introduced to Jewish history in Venice and in England, to the ways in which Shakespeare’s own audience might have responded to the play and its genre, and to the history of the play’s production through the twenty-first century.In William Shakespeare’s Othello, the Venetian general Othello represents himself to Desdemona and to the Venetian Senate through fantastic tales. Othello’s stories — about himself, to himself, and to others — sets in motion a tragic romance. You’ll learn the ways in which Shakespeare's characters tell stories within the play; how actors, directors, composers, and other artists tell stories through Othello in performance; and how the play grapples with larger issues including power, identity, and the boundary between fact and fiction.
The crises of our time generate enormous adaptive challenges for our families, organizations, communities, and societies. The need for leadership that can mobilize people to meet these challenges and improve life is critical.In this introductory course, you will explore strategies for leading in a changing world where adaptive pressures will continue to challenge all of us. You will discover new ways to approach complex organizational systems and take thoughtful action on the work we all face ahead. Most importantly, you will reflect on how to move forward on the leadership challenges you care about most.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony premiered in Vienna in 1824, and continues to be one of the most popular symphonies in the repertoire. The monumental symphony’s size and complexity stretches traditional instrumental forms to the breaking point, and its famous choral finale changed our view of orchestral music forever.Harvard’s Thomas Forrest Kelly (Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music) guides learners through all four movements of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, highlighting aspects of symphonic form, describing Beethoven’s composition process, the rehearsals and premiere performance, and the work’s continued relevance today.You will learn the basics of musical form and analysis, the genres and styles used and the circumstances of this symphony’s first performance and subsequent history. Learners in this course need not have any prior musical experience.Additional First Nights Modules:Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and the Birth of OperaHandel’s Messiah and Baroque OratorioBeethoven's "Ninth Symphony"Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Program Music in the 19th CenturyIgor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring: Modernism, Ballet, and RiotsHarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form.
While the United States is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it is far from the healthiest. Our nation’s burden of disease affects businesses every day, from sick employees and families reducing productivity and increasing costs, to product recalls and failures, to environmental scandals such as toxic chemical emissions harming communities and reputations. Named Runner Up for Best Online Program of 2018 by ProEd, this HarvardX course is presented by leading faculty from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Business School and will provide businesses with strategies, tactics, and tools to gain a competitive advantage by implementing a Culture of Health to address these issues and stay ahead. Embracing a Culture of Health can improve your employees’ well-being as well as the health of your consumers, your communities, and the environment. A Culture of Health can help you to reduce costs, increase revenues and profits, and enhance your company’s reputation. For example, employees who work in a healthy and safe environment spend less time away from work for health reasons, decreasing interruptions, while increasing output and employee retention. When employees and customers spend less on health care, they have more disposable income to spend on non–health care needs, boosting the economy, and benefiting your business. Strengthening your business using the Culture of Health approach will enhance the greater good by promoting well-being—benefitting society, your business and employees, your customers and communities, and you.
This course, the first in a comprehensive series on China, introduces you to the history, geography, and culture of the country. Time, space, and identity — enduring issues in Chinese history — are explored. You’ll study China’s early dynasties to understand how physical geography impacted its inhabitants and how the many ethnicities within the country affected Chinese identity. You’ll learn about China’s origins as told in ancient texts and through modern archeology. You’ll explore the first dynasties during the Chinese bronze age, the many facets of Confucianism and his Analects, and the competing schools of thought that followed. New political and moral ideas appear in Chinese culture in this period — ideas that make up the country’s intellectual foundations and still resonate today. Join us to learn about China’s origins and how early concepts in Chinese culture still matter in the 21st century.
Leonard Muellner (Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at Brandeis University) and Belisi Gillespie present all the content covered in two semesters of a college-level Introduction to Ancient Greek course.
How did the Communists conquer China? What role does culture play? What are the successes and failures of the Chinese Communist Party after seizing power in 1949? What constitutes liberation? This course will help you answer these important questions as you explore the profound cultural, intellectual, political and economic changes of this period. You’ll learn how Communist China fits in with a larger socialist world order and how historical interpretations of this period reinforce or challenge the official narrative in China today. Join us to develop your own approach and gain a critical understanding of the rise of the Communist Party, Sino-Soviet relations, the Cultural Revolution, and, ultimately, the reopening of China.
Africa has complex and unique business opportunities. This entrepreneurship course takes an interdisciplinary approach to building scalable businesses designed to solve core problems or fill institutional voids. Unlike other business courses, this one focuses on identifying points of opportunity for smart entrepreneurial efforts through “live” online lectures, peer-to-peer learning, and real-life lessons incorporated into your own business plan.Taught by Harvard Business School Professors Tarun Khanna, Caroline Elkins, and Karim Lakhani, you will learn how Africa-specific trends impact the opportunities and challenges in undertaking entrepreneurship ventures on the continent. This course will examine the nuances that render Africa unique in today’s emerging market landscape, and the similarities that can be drawn from the world’s other fast-moving emerging economies. Developing your own business plan with peer-to-peer feedback is the capstone learning experience of this course.The course will provide a series of time-tested lecture content and active reading assignments. Each week students will engage with course content and readings, and the week will end with a live webinar section that includes HBS faculty and leaders from the African business community. In addition, each student has the option to participate in the course’s week-by-week business plan development process. Business plan development will culminate with such students having an opportunity to submit a business plan. The best plans will be judged by a highly qualified African business jury. In so doing, the course will expose students to an unparalleled network of business academics at Harvard Business School, as well as Africa’s top business leaders.Course content draws upon HBS cases and student tested and reviewed courses. They include the world-renowned Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets course that has reached over half a million learners in 200 countries, and HBS’s four-day intensive MBA course, Africa Rising: Understanding Business, Entrepreneurship, and the Complexities of a Continent.Students who complete the course will get a verified certificate from HarvardX, Harvard University's online learning platform.
The demand for expertise in AI and machine learning is growing rapidly. By enabling new technologies like self-driving cars and recommendation systems or improving old ones like medical diagnostics and search engines, AI is transforming how we live, work, and play. This series will enable you to take the first steps toward understanding programming fundamentals so you can solve important real-world problems and future-proof your career.This professional certificate series combines CS50’s legendary Introduction to Computer Science course with a new program that takes a deep dive into the concepts and algorithms at the foundation of modern artificial intelligence. This series will lead you through the most popular undergraduate course at Harvard, where you’ll learn the common programming languages, then carries that foundation through CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python. Through hands-on projects, you’ll gain exposure to the theory behind graph search algorithms, classification, optimization, reinforcement learning, and other topics in artificial intelligence.By course’s end, students emerge with experience in libraries for machine learning as well as knowledge of artificial intelligence principles that enable them to design intelligent systems of their own. Enroll now to gain expertise in one of the fastest-growing domains of computer science from the creators of one of the most popular computer science courses ever.
Nature is driven by spontaneity — processes that move forward without external intervention. In this course, Entropy and Equilibria , you will explore the Second Law of Thermodynamics and get an introduction to the concepts of entropy and equilibrium states.Entropy stands as one of the most fascinating concepts in thermodynamics, showcasing the degree of disorder or randomness in nature and controlling a vast range of processes that we observe every day. You will learn how energy and entropy in combination determine how these processes operate spontaneously, without the intervention of human influence. Applying your understanding of entropy to various thermodynamic systems, you will gain insight into equilibrium states and how entropy changes based on different settings.Finally, you will explore the concept of Gibbs Free Energy, identifying the total amount of energy available in a system or environment and combining the concepts of entropy and enthalpy. By the end of the course, you will be able to associate these concepts with the generation of energy and its impact on the environment by the burning of fossil fuels.
Fundamental changes in government, the economy, and broader society took place between the 8th and 11th centuries in China. The state aristocracy gave way to new literati elite: educated men who sought to enter government through competitive examinations. A new kind of Confucianism also took shape, which prized the moral autonomy of individuals. With this, the later imperial period of China’s history begins. From our series on Chinese history and culture, this course focuses on the changes brought by the Tang-Song transition, including the reconfiguration of power, urbanization, Neo-Confucianism, and the shared values as expressed in the state examination system. Join us to learn how a shifting social and political elite ultimately brings unity to China, ushering in an age of global empire.