Rock out with Coursera on demand
Taught by the University of Rochester’s John Covach, The History of Rock Parts One and Two, along with the Music of the Beatles and the Music of the Rolling Stones, have enrolled hundreds of thousands of students worldwide in the last two years. Now you can enroll for all four of these courses on-demand, allowing for the greatest access and the flexibility in learning.
Taken together, these four courses provide both a broad survey of rock’s history and focused and in-depth studies of two of its most significant bands.
Course Spotlight: Data Science Specialization
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Course Spotlight Series: The Data Science Specialization starts on June 1, led by Professor Roger Peng, Brian Caffo, and Jeff Leek of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This article, based on an interview with the instructor, was written by Charlie Chung of Class Central. |
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With technology an integral part of our lives, we are generating data at an astounding rate: hundreds of terabytes of data are posted on Facebook each day and a Boeing 787 airplane is said to generate half a terabyte of data per flight. Data science is becoming relevant to many different jobs, and ‘Data scientist’ has been been called the sexiest job of the 21st Century. So how do you become one? A great way is by taking the Data Science Specialization, consisting of nine four-week courses, and a capstone course. In addition to a solid understanding of the fundamentals, it is focused on real-world practice, using real tools on real data, and results in tangible data products that can be seen by others. Prof. Peng describes the sequence of topics in the Specialization in this video: The Capstone course is an applied project that you work on from beginning to end, using a publicly available data set. The instructors partnered with popular app developer SwiftKey to help design the capstone project, so that you know you are practicing skills that are relevant in the workplace (other partnerships are also being planned). Through this Specialization, you will learn to use a variety of tools and have tangible results that you can put online, including your analysis code, documentation, and data products. Prof. Peng believes that this is a great way to demonstrate your skills to potential employers: “One of the best ways for companies to find the right people is to see what they’ve done and see how they work. The outputs from this Specialization allows them to see this kind of statistical and data science thinking.” Read the full version of this article on Class Central’s blog. |
Getting Beyond the Business Case: Unlocking the Full talents of Women in Leadership
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This guest post is written by Diana Bilimoria, PhD, professor at Case Western Reserve University of introducing the course Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change starting today, May 15th. |
 Prof. Diana Bilimoria, PhD
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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt recently came into the media spotlight when he repeatedly interrupted US CTO Megan Smith during a South by Southwest panel on how to create more innovation in technology. It was in fact Google’s own Global Diversity and Talent Programs manager who directly addressed this unconscious gender bias that she was witnessing amidst a discussion around the need for more women and diversity in the technology workforce to increase innovation. |
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Diversity in leadership can enhance innovation and creativity, improve collective intelligence, and create a more collaborative and inclusive workforce. The business case for diversity is quite clear; however, collectively, we continue to be challenged to support women in overcoming systemic barriers and challenges in their career advancement. Simply knowing that there are benefits from diversity is not enough, and increasingly, the unintentional actions that reinforce gender inequities and cumulatively accrue disadvantage are getting called out. What can be done to address these subtle yet systemic challenges that face women in their advancement? Making implicit biases explicit when they occur is certainly one way. Additionally, I suggest that self-reflection about our leadership strengths and gaps, connecting with experiences of others, developing interpersonal skills to effectively navigate workplace biases and barriers, and enacting an inclusive leadership vision can transform who we are and our contributions to others. In my course, Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change, we will engage in this self-reflection, have exercises to connect to the experiences of others, receive practical guidance and tools to effectively lead through organizational and cultural roadblocks, and create a leadership vision founded on values that are authentic to you. We will also explore the systemic issues, unconscious biases, and socializations that inhibit women’s positive leadership impact and what to do about them. Whether you’re looking to improve your own leadership abilities or to better support the women in your organization, my goal is to empower you to lead positive change for yourself and for others. Let’s come together to inspire our organizations, communities, and the world to unlock the full diverse talents of our generation as well as future generations to come |
How to Help the Victims of the Nepal Earthquakes
In the wake of the Nepalese earthquakes, our university professors who teach disaster relief and humanitarian aid on Coursera have tips on how to extend support:
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Instructors from the Foundations for Global Health Responders course from the University of Colorado System provide a few key steps for support, raising awareness, and aligning with an organization in a time of need. |
Financial support is the most important way to help, through a monetary donation. Sending food, clothing, or other supplies are generally not helpful as the expense and logistical challenge exceed the benefits of getting these materials to the people who actually need them. It’s much easier and cheaper for relief agencies to procure goods and services nearby to the relief effort.
If you can’t donate, then use your social capital to raise awareness for the humanitarian need—tweet, post, blog, and promote the need for resources for the relief effort, and understand that although most of the media attention will soon fade, the need will remain for months and possibly years.
Finally, if you are hoping to help, remember to never just “show up”. Coordinate yourself with an established relief organization that can keep you safe and put you in a position to help. The first rule of medicine is to “do no harm” and this is the first rule of humanitarianism as well.
Visit the course to learn more about humanitarian response and how to keep yourself safe and savvy when engaging in global health work.
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Instructors of Psychological First Aid and Disaster Preparedness from Johns Hopkins University highlight the importance of physical first aid during a traumatic event and preparing yourself for the unexpected. |
We all know about the importance of rendering physical first aid in the wake of a traumatic event, but we also know that these events can cause psychological damage as well. Psychological first aid is a compassionate and supportive presence designed to mitigate acute distress and assess the need for continued mental health care. In the course, you’ll see a disaster response worker rendering psychological first aid by using the Johns Hopkins RAPID model. You can learn more by signing up for the whole course.
Finally, it’s important to remember that any response to a disaster should consider the full life cycle of a disaster such as: preparedness and planning, mitigation, response, recovery, and evaluation. You can start by using a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment to begin working on an emergency operations plan. Join the full course to learn how your organization can utilize effective strategies like this to maximize communication, collaboration, and coordination to ensure you are fully-prepared for all potential hazards that may result in a disaster event.
The First Online Portuguese Courses Launch on Coursera
The first Portuguese courses from Brazil’s top educational institutions launch today on Coursera. Our Portuguese-speaking learners now have access to free, career-relevant courses from USP, UNICAMP, and the Lemann Foundation. Five courses taught natively in Portuguese focus on subject areas like engineering, accounting, and teaching.
“Portuguese-language content will address the needs of those with limited access to high quality education and offer anyone with an internet connection the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to advance their careers,” said Rick Levin, CEO of Coursera.
Daphne Koller: Announcing the first MBA on Coursera from the University of Illinois
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Today, we are proud to announce an entirely new way to earn a graduate degree in business. The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign College of Business is developing the first open online MBA offered in part through Coursera. This “iMBA” program opens a number of pathways towards gaining a high quality education from a top business school. Launching for admissions later this year, the iMBA consists of a set of Specializations (series of courses) in different areas of business expertise. Learners can take one course, one Specialization, or go on to take a set of Specializations in order to earn an MBA degree from the University of Illinois. This new model for a graduate degree is extraordinary for the following reasons:
• Learners can choose to augment the Specializations with additional, high-engagement interactions with peers and faculty at the University of Illinois. Those learners who enroll in these supplementary companion courses will be able to earn University of Illinois credit. • Learners who complete six Specializations along with their high engagement extensions will be eligible to apply for admission (at any stage) and earn a degree from the University of Illinois’ College of Business. This incredibly affordable, fully online MBA will cost less than a third of the cost of MBAs from institutions with similar stature. • The iMBA will be the first graduate program constructed as a set of stand-alone building blocks that can be combined to comprise a full MBA degree. Each Specialization is a “stackable credential” offered in topics like digital marketing, accounting, or finance, which have significant market value in their own right. • The iMBA will open doors to learners with non-traditional backgrounds. Learners can try out courses with no commitment and apply for the MBA later if they feel confident in their success. Performance in the Specializations will be considered for student admittance, not just test scores and past transcripts, allowing a much larger pool of prospective students the chance to enroll. People of all backgrounds and life histories deserve a chance to earn the education they need to succeed in their lives. This model is unique in offering enormous flexibility and unprecedented affordability, while maintaining the academic standards and rigor of a top degree program. It’s not unlikely that, over the next five years, we will see many graduate degree programs offered in a similar way, putting learners first. We are excited to pioneer this model with the University of Illinois, and look forward to working with many of the world’s top universities to create new education pathways that serve every kind of learner.  Daphne Koller Enroll in the Digital Marketing Specialization » |
Aous “Alex” Abdo: New Career as a Lead Data Scientist
With a PhD in physics, Aous “Alex” Abdo was actively looking to strengthen his analytical skills in data science. For the past 12 years, he was working as a scientist and researcher for various stressful roles in the Department of Energy, NASA, Department of Defense and several universities across the US.
He was searching for a solution online and came across a tweet from Coursera for the Data Science Specialization. He immediately enrolled. Throughout the courses, he was able to sharpen knowledge he previously had but also got exposed to a variety of new techniques and skills such as: best practices of obtaining and cleaning data in preparation for exploratory data analysis, understanding trends in the data through statistical inferences, and other tricks to better utilize the open source statistical language R.
After completing the Specialization, he listed his credentials on his online profiles and was contacted by a number of recruiters for interviews in data science. With the content from the Specialization fresh on his mind, he was able to tackle challenging questions directed at him head on. Alex now has a new job as a Lead Data Scientist at HP. He is using skills from the Specialization on a daily basis in his new role. You can connect with him @aousabdo.
Build Knowledge and Situational Awareness on Global Health
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This guest post is written by Dr. Jay Lemery, M.D., professor of University of Colorado and Cathy Beuten, introducing the new course “Foundations for Global Health Responders starting May 4th. |
In 2010, a devastating earthquake hit the Haitian capital of Port au Prince—one of the most vulnerable cities on Earth. More than 200,000 Haitians were killed and many more severely injured and left homeless. Thousands of well-meaning humanitarian responders flooded the country trying to pitch in, yet many of them were unprepared and were more of a hindrance than a help.
Haiti’s proximity to the North American mainland made it easy for samaritans to arrive quickly and in large numbers. Unfortunately, these good intentions often impeded relief efforts. For example a valuable US helicopter spent 18 percent of its flight operations searching for lost humanitarian responders who were ill-prepared to take care of themselves rather than medavac’ing earthquake victims or delivering food and medical supplies.
Global health workers and volunteers, such as those in Haiti, are often exposed to unfamiliar situations for which they are unprepared. What should have been a net positive to a precarious relief effort in Haiti was in fact a drain on already precious and desperately needed resources. To provide participants from all walks of life with competencies in global health care, Dr. Jay Lemery, of the University of Colorado, is helping learners around the world better contextualize experiences, optimize self-reliance and situational awareness.
His course, the Foundations for Global Health Responders, is not about disaster response. Instead, we discuss responsible engagement and provide foundational knowledge to be a meaningful participant in the world of global health. Lemery and his colleagues are also offering follow-up in-person hands-on workshops offered at locations around the world for learners wishing to be certified as Global Health Responders through the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
