Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tenn., is a private research university and medical center offering a full-range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThiscourse is intended to help you improve your ability to manage creativity,innovation and change in business, education, healthcare, government, and inany other complex organization or institution by diagnosing potentialinnovation failures before they can occur. Using an “innovation constraints” framework that draws on modern socialscience research and on insights from business practice, participants willlearn how to best manage people (be they co-workers, bosses, customers,clients, friends or any other stakeholders) when innovation is the goal. While we see several examples of technological innovation, we are not focusedon the management of technology. Instead, we focus on something much more powerful: understanding and managing the people engagedin creation, innovation and positive change, regardless of the context. The course isdesigned to help you answer the following types of questions:What are the conditions for successful innovation?What causes innovation to fail?What makes creative people creative?How should I manage an innovative team?How do I lead an effective brainstorm process?What is an innovation portfolio and how can I manage one?Why do so many great ideas get killed?The approach in thisclass will be to treat innovation as the process of generating, assessing,and then implementing useful and valuable ideas. As we willdiscuss, generating ideas is relatively easy; what can be hard is getting thoseideas listened to, accepted, and implemented in organizations. Inaddition to learning how to lead creative people and creative teams, participantswill also learn techniques for improving their own creativity. During thecourse you will engage numerous activities and exercises intended to bringcurrent habits of thought and behavior to the surface for examination andchange.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe Business Essentials for Managers Specialization will close for enrollment on 10/8/2019. If you are interested in earning a Specialization Certificate, please upgrade or apply for Financial Aid in each course of the specialization by 10/7/2019, if you have not already done so. After 10/8/2019 students will no longer have access to courses they have not paid for.In order to earn a Specialization Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 10/8/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.If you are a Coursera for Business learner, you can continue to use your sponsored credit. In order to earn a Course Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 4/5/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.Are you looking for a deeper understanding of business strategy, from design through execution? Do you want to lead impactful operational changes in your organization and team? Do you need to respond strategically to global economic trends and industry disruption? This course will give you the confidence to make smarter business decisions and lead strategic change using time-tested processes and tools. We’ll cover the fundamentals of designing and executing a business strategy, measuring results, managing operations and improving processes, and running successful projects that support your business goals. When you complete this course, you’ll understand how to plan and implement a business strategy from start to finish, analyze both the external and internal context of your firm using established analytical frameworks, identify sources of competitive advantage, align functional strategies with corporate strategies, analyze and improve manufacturing and service processes, design and lead successful projects that support your organizational strategy, and use time-tested tools such as process flow diagrams, queuing theory, and Gantt charts to ultimately close your project effectively.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis 4 week MOOC builds upon the core Android app components and concurrency frameworks covered in Course 2 by focusing on started and bound services, local inter-process communication (IPC), and content providers. Case study apps will be examined from multiple perspectives to learn how to program these app components using Android's material design paradigm. Students will work incrementally on a hands-on project involving a material design-based RSS reader app. Each week you will add additional capabilities to the project, based on material covered in the lecture videos. You'll spend roughly 4 hours per week watching video lectures, taking quizzes, and programming assignments with Java and Android.MOOC OverviewThis module provides an introduction to the contents of the MOOC and summarizes effective learning strategies. Learning objectives are presented in the Module Introduction video lecture.Android Started and Bound ServicesLearning objectives are presented in the Module Introduction video lecture.Android Local Inter-Process Communication (IPC)Learning objectives are presented in the Module Introduction video lecture.Android Content ProvidersLearning objectives are presented in the Module Introduction video lecture.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis is a 4 week MOOC that teaches learners how to create an app from scratch using Android Studio, as well as learning how to use various Android Studio tools, such as the debugger, resource editor, logging mechanisms, etc.This MOOC also covers basic concepts and APIs related to Android’s Material Design paradigm. Students will work incrementally on a hands-on project involving a simple Material Design-based music streaming app throughout the MOOC, i.e., each week they will add additional capabilities to it, based on the material covered in that week’s lecture videos.There will be roughly 3-4 hours of student engagement time per week, including video lectures, quizzes, and programming assignments. The ordering of the modules below is designed to be flexible.In particular, students can watch the videos in whatever order suits their experience and needs, e.g., they may want to watch theMaterial Design videos prior to the advanced Android Studio videos if they prefer to learn about Material Design first.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe confluence of multi-core and distributed-core processors, inexpensive mass storage, ubiquitous wireless connectivity, and commodity software platforms is driving the need for software engineers and programmers who understand how to develop concurrent and networked software for mobile devices that connect to cloud computing platforms. Despite many improvements in processors, storage, and networks, however, developing quality software on-time and on-budget remains hard. Moreover, developing high quality reusable concurrent and networked software apps and services is even harder. The principles, methods, and skills required to develop such software are best learned by attaining mastery of patterns, pattern languages, and frameworks.A pattern describes a reusable solution to a common problem that arises within a particular context. When related patterns are woven together they form a pattern language that defines a vocabulary and a process for the orderly resolution of software development problems. A framework is an integrated set of components that collaborate to provide a reusable architecture for a family of related apps or services. Frameworks can also be viewed as concrete realizations of pattern languages that facilitate direct reuse of detailed design and source code.This MOOC describes by example how to apply patterns, pattern languages, and frameworks to alleviate the complexity of developing concurrent and networked software for mobile devices via the use of object-oriented design techniques, Javaprogramming language features, and Android middleware. An extended case study project will be used throughout the MOOC to showcase pattern-oriented software design and programming techniques for concurrent and networked mobile devices and clouds.Note: This course is part of a trans-institution sequence of MOOCs entitled Mobile Cloud Computing with AndroidThis MOOC and two others, taught by Dr. Adam Porter from the University of Maryland and Dr. Jules White from Vanderbilt University, have been designed to complement each other as part of the first trans-institution sequence of MOOCs taught on the Coursera platform, structured as follows: The University of Maryland MOOC, Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems, will run from January 21st - April 28th. It focuses on the design and programming of user-facing applications. The first Vanderbilt MOOC in the sequence, Programming Mobile Services for Android Handheld Systems, will run from May 12th - July 6th. It focuses on middleware systems programming topics, such as synchronous and asynchronous concurrency models, background service processing, structured data management, local inter-process communication and networking, and integration with cloud-based services. The second Vanderbilt MOOC in the sequence, Programming Cloud Services for Android Handheld Systems, will be run from July 21st - September 29th. It focuses on how to connect Android mobile devices to cloud computing and data storage resources, essentially turning a device into an extension of powerful cloud-based services on popular cloud computing platforms, such as Google App Engine and Amazon EC2. The final Capstone project MOOC in the sequence will run from October 1st - November 3rd. For this first offering of the Mobile Cloud Computing with Android (MoCCA) Specialization only students in the Signature Track who receive a "Verified Certificate with Distinction" are eligible to enroll in the Capstone project course. Some of the programming assignments and the iRemember integrative project for these MOOCs will be coordinated. If you just want to take some of the MOOCs in this sequence or take them all in different order you’re certainly welcome to do so, and you’ll still learn a lot. However, if you take all the MOOCs in this sequence in the order presented you’ll gain a deeper, end-to-end understanding of handheld systems, their applications and services, as well as their integration into the cloud.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe Capstone project integrates material from throughout the Android App Development Specialization to exercise and assess the ability of learners to create an interesting Android app. Learners will apply knowledge and skills learned in previous MOOCs in this Specialization, including Java programming features; Android activity, broadcast receiver, service, and content provider (plus SQLite) components; and unit, integration, and user interface testing. The project itself is similar in scope to previous assignments in the earlier MOOCs in the Specialization.However, it is intentionally designed to enable learners to create a customized app that demonstrates their creativity and mastery of the Specialization topics.Capstone OverviewThis module provides an introduction to the contents of the MOOC and summarizes effective learning strategies. In particular, it explains the specification and evaluation rubrics for the Android app that will be implemented by learners in the CapstoneWeek 2 MilestoneWeek 3 MilestoneCapstone Final Submission
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe Business Essentials for Managers Specialization will close for enrollment on 10/8/2019. If you are interested in earning a Specialization Certificate, please upgrade or apply for Financial Aid in each course of the specialization by 10/7/2019, if you have not already done so. After 10/8/2019 students will no longer have access to courses they have not paid for.In order to earn a Specialization Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 10/8/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.If you are a Coursera for Business learner, you can continue to use your sponsored credit. In order to earn a Course Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 4/5/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.This course gives you a firm grounding in both the theory and practical application of finance and accounting for general management, corporate planning, sales, and other functional areas, as well as broad exposure to some of the most important principles of financial decision-making. We’ll cover topics such as asset value, financial performance evaluation, financial theory, and financial accounting, all with a focus on helping you make smarter financial choices for your organization. You’ll learn how to determine the value of an asset by the level and the riskiness of its expected after-tax cash flows.We’ll also cover techniques used to discount cash flows and determine the value implications of investment decisions, as well as the guidelines used to construct after-tax cash flow forecasts. Additionally, you’ll learn to estimate risk in the context of modern portfolio theory and talk about the impact of capital structure (your firm’s mix of debt and equity) on the riskiness of financial instruments issued by your firm. In the accounting portion of the course, we’ll give you a basic introduction to financial accounting, including overviews of financial statements, income statements, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows. You’ll learn about LIFO vs. FIFO accounting, accounting for inventory, and the valuation of long-term assets. When you complete this course, you’ll understand how to utilize financial concepts to make better-informed financial decisions, apply finance principles to valuing capital investments, apply decision-making criteria for multi-period cash flows, and learn how to construct cash flow forecasts.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis MOOC describes by example how to connect Android mobile devices to clouds via the use of object-oriented design techniques, Java programming language features, Jetty middleware, Java Servlets, the Java Spring Framework, and cloud computing platforms, such as Google App Engine. Although there will be 10 weeks of lecture material, the required core of the course is six weeks long and can be completed flexibly within the ten week schedule to provide flexibility for students during the summer.An extended case study project will be used throughout the required core of the MOOC to showcase architectures for communicating with the cloud using HTTP, server-side processing of mobile data using servlets and the Java Spring Framework, and scalable storage of data using no-SQL databases and other platforms. Due to the importance of building secure and scalable mobile/cloud platforms, this MOOC will not only show you how to program handheld systems that talk to the cloud, but how to do so securely, scalably, and efficiently. Security and scalability topics will be woven into discussions of cloud service creation so that students learn, from the start, how to create robust cloud services for mobile devices.Four weeks of optional lecture material will also be provided for students who would like to gain a deeper understanding of the patterns and frameworks for building cloud infrastructure building. This material will be presented in the context of the open-source JAWS web server, which is implemented in C++ as part of the ACE open-source object-oriented concurrent and networked programming toolkit.Although the cloud service topics in this course will be taught in the context of connecting mobile devices to the cloud, the concepts are broader and will give students the ability to create the cloud services to support large-scale web applications, such as social networking applications; cloud services for embedded systems, such as the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet; and wearable computing devices, such as Google Glass. Note: This course is part of a trans-institution sequence of MOOCs entitled Mobile Cloud Computing with AndroidThis MOOC and two others, taught by Dr. Adam Porter from the University of Maryland and Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt from Vanderbilt University, have been designed to complement one another as part of the first trans-institution Specialization taught on the Coursera platform. Some of the programming assignments and the course project for these MOOCs will be coordinated. Dr. Porter's MOOC, Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems, will be taught first; it focuses on the design and programming of user-facing application components. Dr. Schmidt's MOOC, Programming Mobile Services for Android Handheld Systems, will be taught next; it focuses on middleware systems programming topics, such as synchronous and asynchronous concurrency models, background service processing, structured data management, local inter-process communication and networking. This MOOC introduces the concepts and knowledge needed to connect the user-facing and service-based components, built in the first two courses, to the cloud. If you just want to take some of the MOOCs in this sequence or take them all in different order you’re certainly welcome to do so, and you’ll still learn a lot. If you take all the MOOCs in this sequence in the order presented, however, you’ll gain a deeper, end-to-end understanding of handheld systems, their applications and services, as well as their integration into the cloud.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course teaches computer programming to those with little to no previous experience. It uses the programming system and language called MATLAB to do so because it is easy to learn, versatile and very useful for engineers and other professionals. MATLAB is a special-purpose language that is an excellent choice for writing moderate-size programs that solve problems involving the manipulation of numbers. The design of the language makes it possible to write a powerful program in a few lines. The problems may be relatively complex, while the MATLAB programs that solve them are relatively simple: relative, that is, to the equivalent program written in a general-purpose language, such as C++ or Java. As a result, MATLAB is being used in a wide variety of domains from the natural sciences, through all disciplines of engineering, to finance, and beyond, and it is heavily used in industry. Hence, a solid background in MATLAB is an indispensable skill in today’s job market.Nevertheless, this course is not a MATLAB tutorial. It is an introductory programming course that uses MATLAB to illustrate general concepts in computer science and programming. Students who successfully complete this course will become familiar with general concepts in computer science, gain an understanding of the general concepts of programming, and obtain a solid foundation in the use of MATLAB.Students taking the course will get a MATLAB Online license free of charge for the duration of the course. The students are encouraged to consult the eBook that this course is based on. More information about these resources can be found on the Resources menu on the right.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe Business Essentials for Managers Specialization will close for enrollment on 10/8/2019. If you are interested in earning a Specialization Certificate, please upgrade or apply for Financial Aid in each course of the specialization by 10/7/2019, if you have not already done so. After 10/8/2019 students will no longer have access to courses they have not paid for.In order to earn a Specialization Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 10/8/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.If you are a Coursera for Business learner, you can continue to use your sponsored credit. In order to earn a Course Certificate, you will need to complete all graded assignments, including peer reviews, by 4/5/2020. After that point, no new assignment submissions will be accepted for Certificate credit.Does your business culture nurture innovation, or stifle it? Are you looking for ways to build your business creatively but find daunting constraints at every turn? This course is designed to help you understand the forces that limit innovation, identify those barriers in your own business culture, and break free of them to realize the full value of your imagination. You’ll learn new skills and strategies that you can immediately apply to drive innovation in your group or organization, and you’ll build an understanding of the six most common constraints on innovation in both individual and group settings—that is, the six ways that creative thinking is often sabotaged before it can produce results. You’ll also learn to recognize stakeholders who are actively invested in stopping your ideas in their tracks. Finally, you’ll examine societal and technical constraints that you’ll need to overcome to foster a forward-thinking culture. Through case studies and interactive exercises, you’ll learn how to generate and implement great ideas in your organization, build your organization’s capacity for innovation, create an innovative culture, lead innovation projects and teams, recognize big issues lurking on the horizon before they become constraints, drive adoption of great ideas, develop and manage an innovation portfolio, and innovate to stay relevant and competitive in a fast-changing landscape.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course presents critical concepts and practical methods to support planning, collection, storage, and dissemination of data in clinical research.Understanding and implementing solid data management principles is critical for any scientific domain. Regardless of your current (or anticipated) role in the research enterprise, a strong working knowledge and skill set in data management principles and practice will increase your productivity and improve your science. Our goal is to use these modules to help you learn and practice this skill set. This course assumes very little current knowledge of technology other than how to operate a web browser. We will focus on practical lessons, short quizzes, and hands-on exercises as we explore together best practices for data management.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis Specialization enables learners to successfully apply core Java programming languages features & software patterns needed to develop maintainable mobile apps comprised of core Android components, as well as fundamental Java I/O & persistence mechanisms.The Capstone project will integrate the material from throughout the Specialization to exercise and assess the ability of learners to create an interesting Android app by applying knowledge and skills learned in previous MOOCs, including Java programming features, Android Studio tools, Android Activity components, Material Design, file I/O and data persistence, unit testing, and software patterns. The project itself will be similar in design goals to previous assignments, however it will provide less of the skeleton code than earlier MOOCs provide to enable more creativity to learners and greater opportunity for learners to customize the app.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis MOOC teaches you how to program core features and classes from the Java programming language that are used in Android, which is the dominant platform for developing and deploying mobile device apps. In particular, this MOOC covers key Java programming language features that control the flow of execution through an app (such as Java’s various looping constructs and conditional statements), enable access to structured data (such as Java's built-in arrays and common classes in the Java Collections Framework, such as ArrayList and HashMap), group related operations and data into classes and interfaces (such as Java's primitive and user-defined types, fields, methods, generic parameters, and exceptions), customize the behavior of existing classes via inheritance and polymorphism (such as subclassing and overriding virtual methods). Learners will apply these Java features in the context of core Android components (such as Activities and basic UI elements) by applying common tools (such as Android Studio) needed to develop Java programs and useful Android apps.Learners will work on several hands-on projects throughout the MOOC, i.e., each week will require learners to write solutions to programming assignments that reinforce the material covered in the lecture videos. There will be roughly 4-6 hours of student engagement time per week, including video lectures, quizzes, and programming assignments.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course aims to teach people how to enhance the recruitment of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials.Key topics include the importance of diversity in clinical trials, barriers and facilitators to participation in clinical research, community engagement, effective communication, educating about clinical trials, provider outreach, effective prescreening and enrollment, person-centered consent, and retention.Anyone with the potential to recruit can benefit from this course, whether working in a clinical setting or in the community.The course is split into 8 weeks.You may work at your own pace and finish the course faster, if you would like.We encourage you to take the quizzes to help you learn the material.The course is free to enroll and take. You will be offered the option of purchasing a certificate of completion, which you will receive if you successfully complete the course requirements. This can be an excellent way of staying motivated!Financial aid is also available. Acknowledgments:We would like to acknowledge the following members from the Center for Knowledge Management at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for their expertise and ongoing insightful contribution in the development and implementation of the course:Sheila Kusnoor, PhD, Elizabeth Frakes, MSIS, Helen Naylor, MS, Mallory Blasingame, MA, Taneya Koonce, MSLS, MPH, and Nunzia Bettinsoli Giuse, MD, MLS.We would also like to acknowledge ArtMagic Labs, particularly Casey Culver,John Martinez, and Robert Eva, for their outstanding work in filming and editing the videos for the course.The Recruitment Innovation Center and members of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance lead the efforts behind the Faster Together project. Together they have led the development of this training.This work is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, under the award number U24TR001579.
Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeIntended for both newcomers who are curious about video games and experienced gamers who want to reflect on their passion, this course will explore what happens to stories, paintings, and films when they become the basis of massively multiplayer online games.The Lord of the Rings trilogy—the novels, films, and video game—are our central example of how “remediation” transforms familiar stories as they move across media. The course is designed as a university-level English literature class—a multi-genre, multimedia tour of how literature, film, and games engage in the basic human activity of storytelling.Our journey will enable us to learn something about narrative theory, introduce us to some key topics in media studies and cover some of the history and theory of video games.It will also take us to some landmarks of romance literature, the neverending story that lies behind most fantasy games: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, a bit of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and poems by Keats, Tennyson, Browning, and others.Drawing on centuries of romance narrative conventions, the twenty-first century gaming industry has become a creative and economic powerhouse.It engages the talents of some of our brightest writers, artists, composers, computer engineers, game theorists, video producers, and marketing professionals, and in 2012, it generated an estimated $64 billion in revenue.Anyone interested in today’s culture needs to be conversant with the ways this new medium is altering our understanding of stories.Join me as we set out on an intellectual adventure, the quest to discover the cultural heritage of online games.