Program overview
The Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) supports excellence and innovation in transition programming for current and former members of the armed forces.
As a service member in transition, you may face barriers reaching your potential in accessing higher education and beginning meaningful careers, despite the many effective programs offered to this population by the Department of Labor, Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program, and other programs offered by the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. With this in mind, the CVTI is dedicated to creating free courses that will help to break down those barriers to your successful transition. Currently we are offering three courses to meet these demands, with more courses on the way. While these courses are created for veterans and active duty service members, they are free and available for all.
Attaining Higher Education is a course designed to facilitate the successful transition of active duty service members and veterans to postsecondary education, whether at a two- or four-year college for an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or even graduate school.
University Studies for Student Veterans helps orient veterans to the norms and expectations of the college classroom, along with offering strategies to ease the transition, to help achieve academic goals, and to allow students to optimize their college education.
Find Your Calling: Transition Principles for Returning Veterans will focus on the development of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and intellectual character strengths as they relate to making a successful career transition from military service to the civilian workforce. The course content is meant to provide you with a framework for an iterative process of self-reflection and the development of practical skills that enables you to make career choices that better align with your values, ambitions, and continued service. Ultimately, this course helps you answer the question: What should I do next?
What will you learn
- General and detailed information about colleges and universities.
- Foundational academic and study skills for achieving academic success in college.
- Strategies for more effective reading, writing, test preparation, and time management.
- Practical tips and strategies for making a successful military-to-civilian career transition.
- A framework for how to begin thinking about and exploring new career opportunities.
Program Class List
1Attaining Higher Education
Course Details
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Prepare to transition to college using intentional decision-making. Aimed at active duty service members and veterans, with this course you will learn about the college admission process, including financial aid, to help you choose a right-fit college.
2University Studies for Student Veterans
Course Details
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This course helps veterans transition smoothly from military service to college, and helps them maximize their success once they arrive.
3Find Your Calling: Career Transition Principles for Returning Veterans
Course Details
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This course provides military veterans with a useful roadmap to transition more smoothly from military service to a new and meaningful civilian career.
Meet Your Instructors
Beth E. Morgan
Director of Higher Education Transition and Partnerships at Columbia University
Born in Quantico, Virginia, Beth grew up in a Marine Corps family and was raised around the world, living for periods of time in Hawaii, Germany, and Korea. Professionally, Beth has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, for several non-profits, as a consultant, and on staff at major universities throughout the United States, including Colgate University, Princeton University, and the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration at Columbia University, Beth worked most recently with the non-profit Service to School as Executive Director and previously directed the Marine Corps Leadership Scholar Program (LSP), both of which assisted transitioning service members and veterans with admission to undergraduate and graduate programs. Beth has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts degree from Stanford University.
R.J. Jenkins
Curriculum Designer at Columbia University
Before joining the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration as a Curriculum Designer in 2016, R.J. served as an Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies where he directed the Academic Resource Center and served as the lead instructor for University Studies, a transition course for first-year, non-traditional students. An award-winning teacher, R.J. has advised college students at Columbia, Cambridge, and Harvard Universities, and has taught courses in English and American literature, literary history, close reading, academic skill-building, and English for Speakers of Other Languages. R.J. holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and anthropology from Columbia University (2003), a Master of Letters in English literature from the University of Cambridge (2005), and is currently pursuing doctoral work in English literature.
Skip Bailey
Senior Advisor to the Director of Educational Financing at Columbia University
William ”Skip” Bailey has been a financial aid administrator for more than 34 years. He has been managing financial aid for non-traditional students at the School of General Studies (GS) for over 20 years. Previously he administered financial aid at multiple colleges including the University of San Diego and the University of Michigan. A degree in education from Michigan State University and lots of experience has provided Skip with the tools he uses every day to assist students at GS with the myriad issues involved with college financial aid.
Tanya Ang
Vice President of Veterans Education Success at Columbia University
Tanya is the Vice President of Veterans Education Success and has more than 17 years of experience in higher education. She has worked at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and also served as the Director of Veterans Programs at the American Council on Education. Prior to joining ACE, Tanya worked at two universities including working as an Administrative Analyst for the Vice President of Student Affairs Office at California State University - Fullerton and as Associate Registrar at Vanguard University where most her work focused on the non-traditional student including military and student veterans. She was the certifying official at her institution for student veteran GI Bill benefits and worked hand-in-hand with the various offices on-campus to ensure students received the benefits and the support they needed to successfully navigate their academic career. In her current role, she works to ensure military-connected students have access to high-quality education to achieve their long term career goals. Tanya is the first in her family to graduate from college, and earned her BA in Communications at Biola University and an MA in Organizational Leadership at Vanguard University.
Sara Remedios
Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University
Sara is Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies where she directs the Academic Resource Center and oversees all academic and learning initiatives. Before coming to Columbia, she worked to restructure the CUNY Pipeline Honors Program, a program dedicated to assisting exceptional undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds in gaining admission to doctoral programs. She is also an accomplished teacher. Dean Remedios holds a B.A. in English and political science from Washington University in St. Louis (2009), an M.Phil. in English literature from the City University of New York (2014), and a Ph.D. in English literature from the City University of New York (2016).
Josh Edwin
Senior Assistant Dean of Students at Columbia University
Josh is Senior Assistant Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. His teaching experience at Columbia includes University Studies, academic writing classes, one-on-one writing support, and creative writing workshops for veterans. He has also taught at a public high school in Atlanta and an English language school in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to teaching, he has published widely as a poet, translator, and reviewer. He holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Emory University and an M.F.A. in poetry and literary translation from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Michael Abrams
Executive Director - Center for Veteran Transition and Integration, Marine Corps Veteran at Columbia University
Michael Abrams joined the Marine Corps shortly following the September 11, 2001 attacks and served on active duty for eight years, which included a deployment to Afghanistan with an infantry company as the artillery forward observer. After leaving active duty, Michael attended New York University’s Stern School of Business graduating with an M.B.A. in Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. While attending business school, he founded FourBlock to help bridge the gap between returning service members and the business community. The program is a university accredited, semester-long course that educates and prepares transitioning veterans for meaningful careers in corporate America. FourBlock is in nearly twenty cities across the country, educating and serving hundreds of transitioning veterans each semester. Michael is now serving as the executive director of the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration. The newly established center of excellence is dedicated to creating and supporting evidence-based programming that enables returning service members with reaching their academic and career potential.
William Deresiewicz
Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Essayist at Columbia University
William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent speaker at colleges and other venues, and the best-selling author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. He taught English at Yale and Columbia before becoming a full-time writer in 2008. Bill has published over 250 essays and reviews. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, The New Republic, The American Scholar, and many other publications. He has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award; he is also a three-time National Magazine Award nominee. His work has been translated into 17 languages and anthologized in more than 30 college readers. He has spoken at over 80 colleges, high schools, and educational groups and has held visiting positions at Bard, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna Colleges. Bill’s previous book is A Jane Austen Education. He is working on a book about how artists are making a living in the new economy.
Sheena Iyengar
World-Renowned Expert on Choice, S. T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia University
Professor Iyengar has taught courses in leadership and entrepreneurial creativity. Her research addresses the implications of offering people, whether they be employees or consumers, choices. She has examined choice in a multitude of contexts ranging from employee motivation and performance in a global organization, Citigroup, to chocolate displays at Godiva, to the magazine aisles of supermarkets, and to mutual fund options in retirement benefit plans. Professor Iyengar received the Presidential Early Career Award for her ongoing work in examining cultural, individual, and situational factors that influence people's choice-making preferences and behaviors.
Sebastian Junger
NYT Best-Selling Author, Documentary Filmmaker at Columbia University
Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR and TRIBE. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world, and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film "Restrepo", a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
What you will learn
- Map significant milestones in the emergence of social media
- Identify how different users are impacted by digital in/accessibility
- Extrapolate current social trends online and map possible directions in social media
- Understand how people interpret robots and bots as communicating, social, even emotional, others
Program Overview
Online communication and digital technologies dominate our everyday lives, extend our abilities, and change the way we communicate with each other. This series brings together three Internet Studies MOOCS:
- NET1x will increase learners’ understandings of social media by looking at the ways networked connectivity let users become ‘social’
- NET2x further explores the way digital technologies and social media channels impact our daily routines and transform how we live, using people with disability as a case study. Learners will be introduced to the social model of disability and the ways negative attitudes affect digital accessibility and representation.
- Continuing the theme of human reliance on technologies, NET3x explores how people communicate with robots and bots in everyday life, both now and into the future.
Courses in this program
1Social Media: How Media Got Social
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Discover where social media came from, how it became integral to our everyday lives, and how that has changed the way we communicate.
2Disability and Digital Media: Accessibility, Representation and Inclusion
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In Disability and Digital Media: Accessibility, Representation and Inclusion , we will explore the relationship between digital technologies and disability in the Internet age.
3Communicating with Robots and Bots
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Robots and bots are being developed to populate our homes, workplaces and social spaces, as well as the online spaces we frequent. How do people communicate with robots and bots? What does the future hold for human-robot communication and collaboration
Meet your instructors
Gwyneth Peaty
Gwyneth is a sessional academic in Internet Studies at Curtin University. She completed a PhD exploring the grotesque in popular culture, and her wider research interests include monstrosity, post-humanism, horror and the Gothic.
Eleanor Sandry
Eleanor is a Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University. Her first degree was in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Communication Studies followed by a PhD in Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her research uses a range of communication theories and philosophies of technology to drive analyses of human-technology interactions and relations. She is particularly interested in the ways human-robot communication, where robots need not be humanlike in form, behaviour or intelligence, can support collaboration between humans and robots to complete joint tasks in the home, at work or in social spaces.
Tama Leaver
Tama Leaver is an Associate Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia and a frequent expert media commentator. His research interests include online identity, social media, digital death, infancy online, mobile gaming and the changing landscape of media distribution. He has published in a number of journals including Popular Communication, Media International Australia, First Monday, Comparative Literature Studies, Social Media and Society, Communication Research and Practice and the Fibreculture journal. He is also the author of 'Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology and Bodies' (Routledge, 2012); co-editor of 'An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World’s Largest Social Network' (Routledge, 2014) with Mike Kent; and 'Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) with Michele Willson. Tama has received teaching awards from the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and in 2012 received a national Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities and the Arts.
Katie Ellis
Mike Kent
What you will learn
- Understand that food security depends on food availability, food access, food utilization and stability
- How we can produce enough food for everyone
- How sustainable different food production systems are
- How to assure access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food for everyone
- About actors and activities to achieve food security at international, national, local, household, and individual level
Program Overview
Get involved: let’s find a way to feed 9 billion people in 2050
What are the biggest environmental issues we face? Pollution? Climate change? True. But among these environmental topics, feeding the growing population, 9 billion in 2050, is one of the most pressing issues we have to find a solution for.
To solve this problem, we need people to gain knowledge, do research, and explore the options. You can be a piece of the puzzle, help find a solution, and start now by gaining knowledge about food production systems, food security, sustainable development in agriculture and livestock, and systems thinking.
XSeries sustainable food security
How is it possible that the world currently produces enough food for everyone, but still people suffer from hunger and nutrient deficiencies? How can we produce sufficient food in an environmentally sustainable way to feed the increased world population in the future?
This Environmental Studies XSeries, developed by Wageningen University, consists of 3 courses:
The value of systems thinking
Learn about systems thinking and its application to improve the environmental sustainability of food production systems. The main topics are:
- Complexity and diversity of food production systems
- Principles of system analysis
- Evaluation methods for the environmental impact of food production systems
- Strong and weak points of different food production systems
Crop production
Learn the basics of crop production to feed the world and preserve our planet’s resources. The main topics are:
- Basic concept of plant production
- Issues related to global food production and consumption
- Influences of water (scarcity and availability) and other measures on crop production
- Processes that cause major problems for the environment
- Measures to solve and prevent those problems
Food Access
Learn about the basics of food access decision-making from a multilevel perspective. The main topics are:
- The basic principles of food access
- Choices influencing food access
- Dilemmas at household, local, national and international levels
About Wageningen University & Research
At Wageningen University and Research, we are dedicated to exploring the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. Studies and courses train (future) professionals from all over the world in sustainable food systems and help consumers make informed choices about what they eat, how it is produced and the impact of their decisions on the environment and society.
Course structures and certificates
The duration of each course (or MOOC: Massive Open Online Course) is flexible: study any time and place you want. You decide how to spend your time during a course. Gain the knowledge offered in each course free of charge through dynamic modules filled with video, syllabus, and assignments for practice and grading. Obtain your verified certificate for $ 49,- each. After successful completion of all 3 courses, you can obtain an overall certificate.
About course dates
EdX keeps courses available, even if the recent course date has expired. Enroll nonetheless, and allow yourself to explore content and continue learning. However, not all features and materials may be available. Check back often to see when new start dates are announced.
Scroll down to find more information about each separate course and join the Wageningen University XSeries about sustainable food security.
Courses in this program
1Sustainable Food Security: Crop Production
Course Details
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Learn the basics of crop production and find out how to feed the future world population without depleting our planet’s resources!
2Sustainable Food Security: The value of systems thinking
Course Details
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Learn how to solve the 'Rubik's cube' of systems thinking and how it's applied to improve the environmental sustainability of food production systems!
3Sustainable Food Security: Food Access
Course Details
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Learn the basics of food access decision-making. In other words, who decides what ends up on your plate. Spoiler alert: it’s not just you!
Meet your instructors
Eddie Bokkers
Eddie Bokkers holds a PhD in Animal Sciences from Wageningen University. He is an associate professor at the Animal Production Systems group of Professor Imke de Boer. Eddie Bokkers teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students including the course ‘Systems Approach in Animal Sciences’. That is why we could not find a more suitable person for explaining the systems approach in this MOOC. Eddie Bokkers manages several research projects contributing to our knowledge of sustainable development of animal production systems. He is especially interested in trade-offs and synergies between animal welfare, environmental impact and economics.
Martin van Ittersum
Martin van Ittersum holds a PhD in Agricultural and Environmental Science from Wageningen University. He is a professor at the Plant Production Systems group of the same university. His research and teaching focus on research concepts and methods for the analysis, design and integrated assessment of agricultural systems from field to farm, at regional and global levels. He applies these concepts to investigate opportunities for sustainable intensification of local and global food production. He (co-)developed and applied several of the concepts taught in this MOOC. He is currently co-leading the Global Yield Gap Atlas project that aims to map where and how much food production can be increased on existing agricultural land. He is also involved in research on resource use efficiency and environmental effects of different agricultural systems.
Ken Giller
Prof. Dr. Ken Giller is an outstanding expert in the field of Plant Production Systems. He leads a group of scientists with profound experience in farming systems analysis to explore future scenarios for land use with a focus on food production at Wageningen University. Ken’s research has focused on smallholder farming systems in tropical regions with special attention for sub-Saharan Africa. In particular problems of soil fertility, the role of nitrogen fixation in tropical legumes, and the temporal and spatial dynamics of resources use within crop/livestock farming systems have this interest. He leads a number of large initiatives such as N2Africa (Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder Farmers in Africa), NUANCES(Nutrient Use in Animal and Cropping Systems: Efficiencies and Scales) and Competing Claims on Natural Resources.
Harrie Lovenstein
Harrie Lovenstein holds an MSc in tropical agronomy. He has specialized in arid land agriculture and gained hands on experience in o.a. runoff farming, agroforestry systems, and tree propagation techniques. All with common goal: "more crop per drop."
He is presently affiliated to the Centre for Sustainable Development and Food Security at WageningenUR and involved in distance learning projects.
Gerrie van de Ven
Gerrie van de Ven holds a PhD in Agricultural Science from Wageningen University. She is employed at the Plant Production Systems Group. Gerrie van de Ven combines teaching and research with a focus on farming systems analysis and optimisation of land use systems. Nutrient cycling, environmental impacts and the interaction between crops and livestock, both in the western world and in Africa, have her special attention. Her scientific work has built on systems analysis and modelling approaches, mainly at the farm and regional level, as taught in this MOOC. She teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students on these subjects.
Marrit van den Berg
Marrit van den Berg is associate professor at the Development Economics group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She studied tropical land use and development economics and obtained her PhD from Wageningen University in 2001.Her research concentrates on the livelihood of rural households in developing countries with special attention for food and nutrition security, (off-farm) diversification, technology adoption, and microfinance. She is involved in several projects assessing the impact of development interventions as project leader and senior researcher. Her teaching concentrates on methods, techniques and data analysis for field research. Her own toolbox includes mainly quantitative methods, such as econometric analysis of large scale surveys, behavioural experiments, and randomized controlled trials . She predominantly works with primary data and has research experience in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Hilde Bras
Hilde Bras (1968) is full professor and chair of the Sociology of Consumption and Households Group (SCH) at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Utrecht University/ICS. She has published extensively on demographic and life course outcomes, including marriage, fertility, migration and status attainment, on social changes in families and households, and on sibling differences and effects. She received prestigious grants for her work on siblings (VENI, Medium Investment) and for her research on family influences on fertility (VIDI, ASPASIA). She is co-editor-in-chief of The History of the Family: An International Quarterly. Her current research focuses on inequalities in food and nutrition security within and across households, and particularly on the causes and effects of inadequate food access in the life courses of women, children and adolescents.
Jeroen Candel
Jeroen Candel finished a bachelor in Public Administration and Organisational Science and a master in Public Governance (cum laude) at Utrecht University before completing his PhD research entitled 'Putting food on the table: the European Union governance of the wicked problem of food security' at the Public Administration and Policy Group (PAP), Wageningen University, the Netherlands, in April 2016. He currently works as assistant professor at the PAP group. He is interested in emerging forms of food policy and governance and studies these by applying public policy and governance theories. By doing so, he both contributes to theoretical debates and provides concrete suggestions for policymakers and stakeholders. Beside his research, Jeroen coordinates and teaches introductory courses on Public Policy and Governance and European Union politics.
Jessica Duncan
Jessica Duncan is an Assistant Professor in the Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University. She holds a PhD in Food Policy from City University London and is the author of the book Global Food Security Governance: Civil society engagement in the reformed Committee on World Food Security (Routledge, 2015). She is an Associate Editor of the journal Food Security and the co-chair of the ECPR Food Policy and Governance Research Network. Her research focuses on the social-political dynamics of global norm setting for food security and the ways in which non-state actors participate in policy making processes. She is motivated by transformative governance mechanisms that support pathways to just and sustainable food systems.
Ewout Frankema
Ewout Frankema is professor and chair of Rural and Environmental History at Wageningen University and elected member of the Young Academy of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on a deeper understanding of the long-term economic history of developing regions (Africa, Latin America, Asia). His work is based on a holistic conception of historical evolutionary processes in which he aims to link the distinctive fields of economic and social history, colonial history, rural history, neo-institutional economics, political economy and environmental history. Frankema is a board member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, the African Economic History Network (AEHN) and the Center for Global Economic History (CGEH), research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and editorial board member of the Economic History of Developing Regions (EHDR).
Peter Oosterveer
Peter Oosterveer received his PhD in 2005 at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His research and teaching is in the field of globalization and sustainability of food production and consumption. His interests are in particular on global public and private governance of food towards sustainability, including labeling and certification of food. Increasing globalisation of food raises difficult challenges in promoting sustainability as distances between producers and consumers are increasing and supply chains are becoming more complex. Conventional national government-based regulation is no longer sufficient and therefore the roles of private and civil society based actors are becoming more important. His research is focusing on these shifts and their consequences for the organisation of the supply chain and the roles of different social actors therein.
Maja Slingerland
Maja Slingerland holds a PhD degree in farming systems (2000), at Wageningen University. She worked for 10 years in research and development in west Africa. She initiated and coordinated large interdisciplinary research programmes: micronutrients (China, Benin, Burkina Faso); competing claims on natural resources (southern Africa, Brazil) and sustainable oil palm (Indonesia, Thailand). She is member of the steering committee of WU strategic funded interdisciplinary programmes "Scaling and Governance" and "Smart and Sustainable Food production" and of two interdisciplinary research programmes on conflict and climate change of the Dutch Science Foundation. She supervises PhD and Master studies, participates in public debates and published over 100 articles and book chapters in scientific and popular journals. She teaches a global food security course.
Sietze Vellema
Sietze Vellema is associate professor at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation group, Wageningen University, and senior researcher at the Partnerships Resource Centre, Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands. Sietze’s interest is to understand why and how different actors collaborate in solving organisational, managerial, and technical problems related to inclusive development and sustainable food provision. He studies partnerships, certification, and institutional arrangements in agri-food chains and supervises PhD candidates in different fields: collective action in oil palm, shea, and sesame in West Africa; trading practices in East and West Africa; food safety and consumer practices in Southeast Asia; labels, governance and service delivery in global commodity trade; coordination and diversity in banana production in Asia. He leads action research focusing on value chains, partnerships, poverty, and food security in Africa.
I.J.M. de Boer
Professor Imke de Boer holds a PhD in Animal Sciences from Wageningen University. Since 2011, she leads the Animal Production Systems (APS) group at Wageningen University. This chair group uses system analysis to scientifically underpin sustainable development of animal production systems. They focus on exploring the multi-dimensional, and sometimes conflicting, consequences of innovations in livestock systems across the world, with special focus on their impact on the environment, animal welfare and livelihood of people. Imke de Boer teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and supervises many PhD students in this knowledge domain.
Carolien Kroeze
Professor Carolien Kroeze is personal professor in the Environmental Systems Analysis Group at Wageningen University, specialized in pollution management. She has also been professor at the Open University of the Netherlands. Her research includes scenario analyses and evaluation of environmental policies aiming at reducing multiple environmental problems simultaneously. Carolien Kroeze co-developed environmental models studying environmental problems caused by food production, and options to reduce these problems. These models typically integrated information from the natural and social sciences.
About this course
This course explores how anyone can be a successful startup entrepreneur or corporate innovator by thoughtfully examining themselves and the business opportunity. By harnessing these insights and cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit, you can create and transform an entrepreneurial idea into a new startup company or corporate venture.
Over 800,000 people have used The Opportunity Analysis Canvas that is the basis of this course. Designed by Dr. James V. Green, the lead faculty for this course, this unique model equips you to identify and analyze a new business opportunity that aligns with your startup entrepreneurship or corporate innovation interests.
The Opportunity Analysis Canvas distills vast amounts of research in psychology, sociology, and business into a practical how-to guide for aspiring and active entrepreneurs and innovators. The course presents a whole new understanding of entrepreneurial mindset and action. The course is structured as a nine-step experience segmented into thinking entrepreneurially, seeing entrepreneurially, and acting entrepreneurially.
What you’ll learn
- Develop the skills for identifying and analyzing entrepreneurial ideas;
- Foster thinking entrepreneurially with an awareness of entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial motivation, and entrepreneurial behavior;
- Cultivate seeing entrepreneurially with attention to industry conditions, industry status, macroeconomic change, and competition; and
- Champion acting entrepreneurially with an understanding of value innovation and opportunity identification.
Courses in this program
1Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities
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Learn today’s newest skills and tools for identifying and acting on entrepreneurial opportunities for startup companies and corporate innovations
2Creating Innovative Business Models
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Build your capabilities to create a value proposition, team strategy, market strategy, and financial strategy to transform your ideas into a startup company or innovative corporate venture
3Marketing Innovative Products and Services
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Learn essential marketing concepts and practical commercialization strategies to bring your new venture to market
4Financing Innovative Ventures
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Demystify key financial concepts for creating a financial plan for your new venture to raise the right funding from the right partners at the right time
Meet your instructors
Michael Pratt
Michael Pratt teaches and mentors students in the University of Maryland's Master’s in Technology Entrepreneurship and undergraduate programs. His career spans over 35 years in management and finance, in both domestic and international organizations.
In two decades with startups and venture capital, he’s raised over $100 million for eleven different startup. Michael is the co-founder and Managing Partner in Select Venture Partners LLC, an early stage, post-seed/pre-Series A investment management firm. Prior to co-founding Select, he was co-founder and CEO of SpydrSafe Mobile Security, Inc., a mobile application security management platform that safeguarded enterprise data by controlling apps on smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android). SpydrSafe was acquired in February 2014. Prior to SpydrSafe, he was COO of CardStar, Inc., a mobile loyalty company sold to Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT). From 2006 to 2010, Michael was the CFO/COO of Trust Digital, Inc., a venture-backed Mobile Device Management company sold to McAfee (NYSE: MFE). Prior to Trust, he was CFO of Galt Associates, Inc., a venture-backed software company sold to Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN) in July 2006. His earlier professional experience includes CEO of CrossMedia Networks Corp.; CEO of Point of Care Technologies (sold to Siemens Healthcare in 1999); various senior finance and operating roles with Mobil Corporation, including President and General Manager of three Mobil subsidiaries. Michael began his professional career with Arthur Andersen & Co.
Michael holds a BS in Finance from East Carolina University, an MBA from Massey University in New Zealand, and an MS in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University.
Lola Koiki
Lola Koiki is a senior product manager at Capital One with responsibility for leading the development, launch, and commercialization of Emerging Payments, which encompasses U.S. Real-Time Payments, Payment Infrastructure Modernization, and Payments Innovation. She is currently leading Capital One’s effort to join the first new payments clearing system in the United States in over 40 years, while developing an enterprise-wide consistent strategy for faster payment capabilities across the company.
In addition to her work at Capital One, she is a partner at PoyntFour, a Product Management and Delivery Consultancy based in the DC area, with a focus on pre-seed to series startups and mid-size government agencies looking to build high efficiency teams. She is also a Lecturer with the University of Maryland’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. In her time at University of Maryland, she has taught over 500 undergraduate students, many of which have gone on to launch new ventures or work in start-ups.
She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with a Masters in Information Systems Management. She holds a BS in Marketing and Supply Chain Management from the University of Maryland. She currently lives in Washington DC and volunteers with organizations in the area, such as The Neighborhood Well, a non-profit focused on helping the unstably housed in the DC Area, and Acts1038, a non-profit focused on education and career development for immigrants to the United States.
James Green
Dr. James V. Green leads the education activities of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute as the Director of Entrepreneurship Education. He is responsible for designing and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, leading seed funding programs, and managing residential entrepreneurship programs for students. He directs the Master of Professional Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship, an innovative online degree program enrolling students worldwide. In 2011, he earned first prize in the 3E Learning Innovative Entrepreneurship Education Competition presented at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) annual conference to recognize college educators who have created new and challenging learning activities that actively involve students in the entrepreneurial experience.
Dr. Green's research interests include entrepreneurship education and the psychology of entrepreneurship. He is a national presenter on entrepreneurship education with refereed papers and presentations at conferences for the Academy of Management (AOM), the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). Dr. Green serves as the Editor for the ASEE Entrepreneurship Division and as an evaluator for annual conference submissions.
Prior to the University of Maryland, Dr. Green held founder, executive, and operational roles with multiple startups to include WaveCrest Laboratories (an innovator in next-generation electric and hybrid-electric propulsion and drive systems), Cyveillance (a software startup and world leader in cyber intelligence and intelligence-led security), and NetMentors.Org (the first national online career development eMentoring community). Dr. Green earned a Doctor of Management and an MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland University College, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Connect with Dr. Green on LinkedIn.
What you will learn
- Describe what networking is and how it can help you reach your professional goals.
- Identify your goals for networking.
- Introduce yourself in English, keep a conversation going, and leave the conversation.
- Write professional emails to make new contacts and follow up with people in your network.
- Identify your network and your unique characteristics and skills.
- Use LinkedIn and business cards to make and maintain connections with your network.
- Use informational interviews to expand your network.
Courses in this program
1Conducting an Informational Interview
Course Details
1
This is the capstone networking course. Put all the skills that you have learned into practice. You’ll introduce yourself, write effective email, highlight your best qualities, and conduct an informational interview with a person of your choice.
2Preparing to Network in English
Course Details
2
Learn the basics of networking while you grow your social network and professional connections. Practice speaking to improve your English language skills for increased success in job hunting.
3Using Email for Networking in English
Course Details
3
Improve your writing skills. Write effective emails including great subject lines, greetings, and closings. You’ll be more confident as you communicate for business, send messages, expand your network, and search for jobs in English.
4Attending a Networking Event
Course Details
4
Improve your ability to meet new people. Learn to give an “elevator pitch” (speech) to introduce yourself to new people and to highlight your key qualities. Make connections with people and use your skills to attend a networking event.
Meet your instructors
Daphne Mackey
Daphne Mackey is an ESL teacher and the author of sixteen ESL textbooks. Daphne received her M.Ed. and MBA at Boston University, where she taught in the Center for English Language Programs (CELOP) for nine years. For the past thirty years, she has been working in the English Language Programs at the University of Washington. She has also taught in the MBA program at Pacific Lutheran University and done training in multicultural/global team management at northwest companies. In her free time, Daphne enjoys sailing and hiking with her family.
Joel Ozretich
Joel Ozretich has over 15 years of experience teaching English in both in the US and abroad in South Korea and Japan. Since 2006, he has been teaching at the University of Washington where he specializes in teaching Business English courses such as Marketing for International Professionals, Writing for Business, and Business Communications. Prior to teaching, he worked as a reporter at the Puget Sound Business Journal in Seattle. He holds a Master’s in Teaching ESOL and Bachelor’s undergraduate degrees in Broadcast Journalism and International Studies from the University of Washington.
Richard Moore
Richard Moore is a lecturer in the International and English Language Programs at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has been a teacher for over 20 years. He is originally from England just outside of London, and has taught English in the U.K., Australia, and Korea. Richard decided to become a teacher of English because he loves languages, traveling and working with different groups of people from around the world.
Program endorsements
In today’s global arena, the ability to collaborate effectively with others is an essential competency for professionals. Mastering the listening and communication skills involved requires an investment in learning and practice. The benefits include building a rich personal network to support your personal and professional objectives, leveraging the resources and talent of teams, and establishing understanding and trust that translates into productive working relationships. Our mission at Fluency Group is empowering people and organizations to communicate, collaborate and perform on the global stage to achieve their goals, and we’re happy to support this valuable program by the University of Washington which supports this endeavor.
Heidi Schumann , CEO, Fluency Group
In today’s global arena, the ability to collaborate effectively with others is an essential competency for professionals. Mastering the listening and communication skills involved requires an investment in learning and practice. The benefits include building a rich personal network to support your personal and professional objectives, leveraging the resources and talent of teams, and establishing understanding and trust that translates into productive working relationships. Our mission at Fluency Group is empowering people and organizations to communicate, collaborate and perform on the global stage to achieve their goals, and we’re happy to support this valuable program by the University of Washington which supports this endeavor.
Heidi Schumann , CEO, Fluency Group
Program Overview
This XSeries Program has been designed to influence, empower and educate a wider population to improve the health and healthcare of people with intellectual disability.
Worldwide, 60+ million people with intellectual disability experience poor health, die prematurely and receive inadequate healthcare. You will gain an understanding of the barriers and enablers for people with intellectual disability, their families, and their healthcare providers.
In our courses, you will learn about best practice in the field of intellectual disability healthcare and gain knowledge to improve health outcomes for this disadvantaged group.
What you will learn
- What is the experience of people with intellectual disability around the world, what barriers do they face, and how do they overcome these?
- What are their healthcare needs and how can good health be promoted?
- What health conditions do they commonly experience and how can these be assessed and managed?
- What influence do other factors such as ageing and epilepsy have on their health?
- What mental health issues do they have and how can these be recognised and managed?
- What are some of the ethical and legal issues that are of particular relevance to them?
Program class list
1Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World
Course Details
1
Learn, from personal stories, the daily life and challenges faced by those with intellectual disabilities.
2Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
2
Learn how to help those with intellectual disability achieve better health.
3Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
3
Gain an understanding of mental health issues and ethical decision-making for people with intellectual disability.
Meet your instructors
Miriam Taylor
Miriam is the former Education Coordinator at the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. She has a wealth of educational design experience for multi-users including people with intellectual disability, their families, disability organisations and health practitioners. Miriam has established an ongoing international collaboration with and is an invited contributor to the first World Disability Report for the World Health Organisation.
Nicholas Lennox
Nick is the former Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Queensland. He is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician and has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He is trained in general practice, and has developed interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability.
What you will learn
- Develop and debug code in the C programming language
- Discover the foundations of computer programming and Linux, manipulate the command line, manage processes, files and memory, and compile C code with Linux
- Interpret, analyze, and implement important computer algorithms
- Observe, manipulate, and optimize computer memory using pointers in the C programming language
Program Overview
In this C Programming with Linux Professional Certificate program of seven short courses, you will learn how to write, read and debug computer programs in the C programming language while also becoming familiar with the Linux operating system.
Beginners, even those without any programming experience, will be able to immediately start coding in C through our new coding tools within the web browser. No need to install anything!
Why learn C and not another programming language? Did you know that smartphones, your car’s navigation system, robots, drones, trains, and almost all electronic devices have some C-code running under the hood? C is used in any circumstance where speed and flexibility are important, such as in embedded systems or high-performance computing.
C is a foundational programming language taught at engineering schools around the world, and represents one of the building blocks of modern computer information technology. Invented in the 1970’s. It is still one of the most stable and popular programming languages in the world.
Along with the C programming language comes Linux, an essential operating system used by most computer scientists and developers. Linux powers almost all supercomputers and most of the servers worldwide as well as all android devices and most internet of things devices. This Professional Certificate Program will introduce the Linux command line and Linux tools for C programmers; both of which are must-have skills in today’s tech industries.
You will practice through guided exercises and short coding demonstrations, as well as more elaborate assignments.
Our dedicated international course team is excited to introduce you to the world of coding and guide you along your path to becoming a skilled C programmer and help you pursue a career in computer engineering.
This course has received financial support from the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation.
Courses
1C Programming: Getting Started
Course Details
1
Start learning one of the most powerful and widely used programming languages: C.
2C Programming: Language Foundations
Course Details
2
Master foundational concepts in the C programming language such as logical statements and arrays.
3C Programming: Modular Programming and Memory Management
Course Details
3
Enhance your coding skills along your path to becoming a proficient C programmer with the essential concepts of functions and pointers. Receive instant feedback on your code right within your browser.
4C Programming: Pointers and Memory Management
Course Details
4
Continue building your coding skills along your path to becoming a proficient C programmer by mastering the concept of pointers and memory management. Receive instant feedback on your code right within your browser.
5C Programming: Advanced Data Types
Course Details
5
Master effective ways to store your data in the C programming language using advanced data types such as structures and linked lists. Receive instant feedback on your code right within your browser.
6Linux Basics: The Command Line Interface
Course Details
6
Learn the Linux Command Line interface and become a skilled user of this powerful operating system.
7C Programming: Using Linux Tools and Libraries
Course Details
7
Learn how to use professional tools and libraries to write and build C programs within the Linux operating system. Receive instant feedback on your code right within your browser.
Meet your instructors
Petra Bonfert-Taylor
Petra Bonfert-Taylor is a Professor and an Instructional Designer at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Technical University of Berlin (Germany) in 1996 and subsequently spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan before accepting a tenure-track position in the Mathematics Department at Wesleyan University. She left Wesleyan as a tenured full professor in 2015 for her current position at Dartmouth College. Petra has published extensively and lectured widely to national and international audiences. Her work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation with numerous research grants. She is equally passionate about her teaching.The recipient of the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching at Wesleyan University, the Excellence in Teaching Award at the Thayer School of Engineering and the NH High Tech Council Tech Teacher of the Year Award, Petra has a strong interest in broadening access to high-quality higher education and pedagogical innovations that aid in providing equal opportunities to students from all backgrounds.
Rémi Sharrock
Rémi Sharrock is an associate professor at Telecom ParisTech, IMT, France. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France in 2010. Rémi’s main research focuses on large scale distributed systems and autonomic computing, as well as their applications to learning at scale. He’s passionate about innovative tools for online learning and has received the “MOOC of the year prize” for two of his french courses on C programming and Linux.
Program Endorsements
What you will learn
- Effective communication, both oral and written; analyzing your audience, preparing to communicate, tailoring messages, storytelling, and advanced communication skills.
- Core value propositions and a business model framework, competition and macro environmental tools, theories of disruption, basic accounting literacy and concludes with an integrated look at business functions.
- Market Research and its importance to strategy, brand strategy, pricing, integrated marketing communication, social media strategy, and more.
Course LIst
1Business Foundations
Course Details
1
This is business in a nutshell; learn key concepts and frameworks that underpin business.
2Business Communications
Course Details
2
Learn how to communicate effectively in a business setting: understand diverse audiences and build sound arguments.
3Introduction to Marketing
Course Details
3
Learn the fundamentals to marketing, including strategies and tools used across industries.
Meet your instructors
Elicia Salzberg
Elicia is a popular lecturer in the law and business communications group at UBC Sauder. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a lawyer at a national law firm where she worked with all types of companies, from start-ups to major international companies. Elicia’s expertise is in enabling companies to successfully navigate critical business situations, such as obtaining initial funding, negotiating strategic transactions, and raising capital in private markets. Her ability to provide practical solutions that directly tie to business objectives directly informs Elicia’s teaching practice at UBC, where she works with undergraduate and graduate students. She completed both her BComm and JD at UBC.
Marlisse Silver Sweeney
Marlisse is a lecturer in the Law and Business Communications group at the UBC Sauder School of Business. She completed her BFA and JD at UBC, followed by her MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 2012 and is a non-practicing lawyer. Marlisse is a freelance journalist, while also teaching top-rated business communication courses at UBC. Her writing has been published throughout North America, including in The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail, The Columbia Journalism Review, Ars Technica, Public Radio International, Salon, The Daily Beast and American Lawyer Magazine.
Darren Dahl
Darren is the Senior Associate Dean, Faculty and Research, and the BC Innovation Council Professor at the Sauder School of Business. He was appointed a 3M National Teaching Fellow in 2013 and is recognized globally for both is research and teaching excellence in marketing strategy, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Darren was ranked as the #1 professor worldwide for marketing research by the American Marketing Associated in 2015 and was runnier up in The Economist _magazine’s Business Professor of the Year in 2013. His research has been presented at numerous national and international conferences, and published in various texts and such journals as the _Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, _and _Journal of Consumer Psychology.
He is currently the associate editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. He has consulted and organized education programs for a number of non-profit and for-profit organizations such as Cathay Pacific, Proctoer & Gamble, Xerox, General Electric, Vancouver Public Health, Teekay Shipping, Hagensborg Foods, Lulu Lemon Athletica, Earls Restaurants, BCLC, Agent Provocateur, Daehong Advertising – Korea, and LIC India. Darren received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.
Paul Cubbon
Paul is a full-time faculty member of the Marketing and Behavioural Science Division at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. He leads the Entrepreneurship Group, in the undergraduate and graduate programs, teaching actively in both of these.
Paul is a multiple award winning educator, both for innovative design of learning experiences, and consistent high quality and was awarded the Sauder School of Business, UBC “Talking Stick” for pedagogical innovation. He engages in substantial team-teaching work, and collaboration across faculties to support effective learning in new venture start-ups and successful marketing of these, focusing on customer discovery and business model validation with STEM researchers.
Paul has consulted extensively to industry both in formal educational training, and privately. Prior to moving into education, Paul’s career in industry includes 3 years in advertising, working for J Walter Thompson, and 10 years with Unilever, the Anglo Dutch consumer goods’ multinational, where to undertook major assignments in marketing and sales. Paul holds a B.A. Honours degree from Oxford University, England, and an MBA from Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada.
What you will learn
- The history of data science, tangible illustrations of how data science and analytics are used in decision making across multiple sectors today, and expert opinion on what the future might hold
- A practical understanding of the fundamental methods used by data scientists including; statistical thinking and conditional probability, machine learning and algorithms, and effective approaches for data visualization
- The major components of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the potential of IoT to totally transform the way in which we live and work in the not-to-distant future
- How data scientists are using natural language processing (NLP), audio and video processing to extract useful information from books, scientific articles, twitter feeds, voice recordings, YouTube videos and much more
Program Class List
1Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics
Course Details
1
Learn how statistics plays a central role in the data science approach.
2Machine Learning for Data Science and Analytics
Course Details
2
Learn the principles of machine learning and the importance of algorithms.
3Enabling Technologies for Data Science and Analytics: The Internet of Things
Course Details
3
Discover the relationship between Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Meet your instructors
Tian Zheng
About Me
Tian Zheng is associate professor of Statistics at Columbia University. She obtained her PhD from Columbia in 2002. Her research is to develop novel methods and improve existing methods for exploring and analyzing interesting patterns in complex data from different application domains. Her current projects are in the fields of statistical genetics, bioinformatics and computational biology, feature selection and classification for high dimensional data, and network analysis. Especially, Dr. Zheng have been developing statistical and computational tools for high dimensional data, searching for genetic interactions associated with complex human disorders, quantifying social structure and studying hard-to-reach populations using survey questions, with more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in journals including JASA, AOAS and PNAS. Her work was recognized with the 2008 Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association, The Mitchell Prize from ISBA and a Google research award. She is on the editorial board of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining and Frontier in Genetics. She was Associate Editor for JASA from 2007 to 2013.
Kathy McKeown
About Me
A leading scholar and researcher in the field of natural language processing, McKeown focuses her research on big data; her interests include text summarization, question answering, natural language generation, multimedia explanation, digital libraries, and multilingual applications. Her research group's Columbia Newsblaster, which has been live since 2001, is an online system that automatically tracks the day's news, and demonstrates the group's new technologies for multi-document summarization, clustering, and text categorization, among others. Currently, she leads a large research project involving prediction of technology emergence from a large collection of journal articles. McKeown joined Columbia in 1982, immediately after earning her Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. In 1989, she became the first woman professor in the school to receive tenure, and later the first woman to serve as a department chair (1998-2003).
Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi
Ansaf is a Lecturer in discipline of the Computer Science Department at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. She received her her BS in Computer Science in 1996 from the University of Science and Technology (USTHB), Algeria. She earned her masters and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Orleans (France) in 1999 and 2003 respectively.
Cliff Stein
About Me
His research interests include the design and analysis of algorithms, combinatorial optimization, operations research, network algorithms, scheduling, algorithm engineering and computational biology. Professor Stein has published many influential papers in the leading conferences and journals in his field, and has occupied a variety of editorial positions including the journals ACM Transactions on Algorithms, Mathematical Programming, Journal of Algorithms, SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics and Operations Research Letters. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Sloan Foundation. He is the winner of several prestigious awards including an NSF Career Award, an Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship and the Karen Wetterhahn Award for Distinguished Creative or Scholarly Achievement. He is also the co-author of the two textbooks. Introduction to Algorithms, with T. Cormen, C. Leiserson and R. Rivest is currently the best-selling textbook in algorithms and has sold over half a million copies and been translated into 15 languages. Discrete Math for Computer Scientists , with Ken Bogart and Scot Drysdale, is a new text book which covers discrete math at an undergraduate level.
David Blei
About Me
David Blei joined Columbia in Fall 2014 as a Professor of Computer Science and Statistics. His research involves probabilistic topic models, Bayesian nonparametric methods, and approximate posterior inference. He works on a variety of applications, including text, images, music, social networks, user behavior, and scientific data. Professor Blei earned his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Brown University (1997) and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley (2004). Before arriving to Columbia, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. He has received several awards for his research, including a Sloan Fellowship (2010), Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2011), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2011), and Blavatnik Faculty Award (2013).
Itsik Peer
About Me
Itsik Pe’er is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. His laboratory develops and applies computational methods for the analysis of high-throughput data in germline human genetics. Specifically, he has a strong interest in isolated populations such as Pacific Islanders and Ashkenazi Jews. The Pe’er Lab has developed methodology to identify hidden relatives — primarily in such isolated populations — that involves inferring their past demography, detecting associations between phenotypes and genetic segments co-inherited from the joint ancestors of hidden relatives, and establishing the exceptional utility of whole-genome sequencing in population genetics. With the arrival of high-throughput sequencing methods, Pe’er has focused on characterizing genetic variation that is unique to isolated populations, including the effects of such variation on phenotype.
Mihalis Yannakakis
About Me
He studied at the National Technical University of Athens (Diploma in Electrical Engineering, 1975), and at Princeton University (PhD in Computer Science, 1979). He worked at Bell Labs Research from 1978 until 2001, as Member of Technical Staff (1978-1991) and as Head of the Computing Principles Research Department (1991-2001). He was Director of Computing Principles Research at Avaya Labs (2001-2002), and Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University (2002-2003). He joined Columbia University in 2004. His research interests include design and analysis of algorithms, complexity theory, combinatorial optimization, game theory, databases, and modeling, verification and testing of reactive systems.
Peter Orbanz
About Me
Before coming to New York, he was a Research Fellow in the Machine Learning Group of Zoubin Ghahramani at the University of Cambridge, and previously a graduate student of Joachim M. Buhmann at ETH Zurich. His main research interests are the statistics of discrete objects and structures: permutations, graphs, partitions, and binary sequences. Most of his recent work concerns representation problems and latent variable algorithms in Bayesian nonparametrics. More generally, he is interested in all mathematical aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Fred Jiang
Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia University
Fred received his B.Sc. (2004) and M.Sc. (2007) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and his Ph.D. (2010) in Computer Science, all from UC Berkeley. Before joining SEAS, he was Senior Staff Researcher and Director of Analytics and IoT Research at Intel Labs China. Fred’s research interests include cyber physical systems and data analytics, smart and sustainable buildings, mobile and wearable systems, environmental monitoring and control, and connected health & fitness. His ACme building energy platform has been widely adopted by universities and industries, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Taiwan University, and several commercial companies. His project on wearable and mobile fitness, in collaboration with University of Virginia, was featured on New Scientist and the Economist magazine. His air-quality monitoring project has been featured on China Central Television and People’s Daily, and was successfully incubated into a startup. He is actively serving on several technical and organizing committees including ACM SenSys, ACM/IEEE IPSN, and ACM BuildSys. He was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellow and a Vodafone-US Foundation Fellow.
Julia Hirschberg
Percy K. and Vida LW Hudson Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University
Julia Hirschberg does research in prosody, spoken dialogue systems, and emotional and deceptive speech. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. She worked at Bell Laboratories and AT&T Laboratories -- Research from 1985-2003 as a Member of Technical Staff and as a Department Head, creating the Human-Computer Interface Research Department at Bell Labs and moving with it to AT&T Labs. She served as editor-in-chief of Computational Linguistics from 1993-2003 and as an editor-in-chief of Speech Communication from 2003-2006. She is on the Editorial Board of Speech Communication and of the Journal of Pragmatics. She was on the Executive Board of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) from 1993-2003, have been on the Permanent Council of International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) since 1996, and served on the board of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) from 1999-2007 (as President 2005-2007). She is currently the chair of the ISCA Distinguished Lecturers selection committee. She is on the IEEE SLTC, the executive board of the North American chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the CRA Board of Directors, and the board of the CRA-W. She has been active in working for diversity at AT&T and at Columbia. She has been a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence since 1994, an ISCA Fellow since 2008, and became an ACL Fellow in the founding group in 2012. She received a Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association (CESAA) Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2009, received an honorary doctorate (hedersdoktor) from KTH in 2007, is the 2011 recipient of the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award and, also received the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement in the same year.
Michael Collins
Vikram S. Pandit Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University
Michael J. Collins is a researcher in the field of computational linguistics. His research interests are in natural language processing as well as machine learning and he has made important contributions in statistical parsing and in statistical machine learning. One notable contribution is a state-of-the-art parser for the Penn Wall Street Journal corpus. His research covers a wide range of topics such as parse re-ranking, tree kernels, semi-supervised learning, machine translation and exponentiated gradient algorithms with a general focus on discriminative models and structured prediction.
Shih-Fu Chang
Richard Dicker Chair Professor at Columbia University
Shih-Fu Chang’s research interest is focused on multimedia retrieval, computer vision, signal processing, and machine learning. He and his students have developed some of the earliest image/video search engines, such as VisualSEEk, VideoQ, and WebSEEk, contributing to the foundation of the vibrant field of content-based visual search and commercial systems for Web image search. Recognized by many best paper awards and high citation impacts, his scholarly work set trends in several important areas, such as compressed-domain video manipulation, video structure parsing, image authentication, large-scale indexing, and video content analysis. His group demonstrated the best performance in video annotation (2008) and multimedia event detection (2010) in the international video retrieval evaluation forum TRECVID. The video concept classifier library, ontology, and annotated video corpora released by his group have been used by more than 100 groups. He co-led the ADVENT university-industry research consortium with the participation of more than 25 industry sponsors. He has received IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award, ACM SIGMM Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu award, IBM Faculty award, and Service Recognition Awards from IEEE and ACM. He served as the general co-chair of ACM Multimedia conference in 2000 and 2010, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (2006-8), Chairman of Columbia Electrical Engineering Department (2007-2010), Senior Vice Dean of Columbia Engineering School (2012-date), and advisor for several companies and research institutes. His research has been broadly supported by government agencies as well as many industry sponsors. He is a Fellow of IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Zoran Kostic
About Me
Zoran Kostic completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rochester and his Dipl. Ing. degree at the University of Novi Sad. He spent most of his career in industry where he worked in research, product development and in leadership positions. Zoran's expertise spans mobile data systems, wireless communications, signal processing, multimedia, system-on-chip development and applications of parallel computing. His work comprises a mix of research, system architecture and software/hardware development, which resulted in a notable publication record, three dozen patents, and critical contributions to successful products. He has experience in Intellectual Property consulting. Dr. Kostic is an active member of the IEEE, and he has served as an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Communications and IEEE Communications Letters.
Andrew Gelman
Andrew Gelman is a professor of statistics and political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University. He has received the Outstanding Statistical Application award from the American Statistical Association, the award for best article published in the American Political Science Review, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award for outstanding contributions by a person under the age of 40. Andrew has done research on a wide range of topics, including: why it is rational to vote; why campaign polls are so variable when elections are so predictable; why redistricting is good for democracy; reversals of death sentences; police stops in New York City, the statistical challenges of estimating small effects; the probability that your vote will be decisive; seats and votes in Congress; social network structure; arsenic in Bangladesh; radon in your basement; toxicology; medical imaging; and methods in surveys, experimental design, statistical inference, computation, and graphics.
David Madigan
David Madigan received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Sciences and a Ph.D. in Statistics, both from Trinity College Dublin. He has previously worked for AT&T Inc., Soliloquy Inc., the University of Washington, Rutgers University, and SkillSoft, Inc. He has over 100 publications in such areas as Bayesian statistics, text mining, Monte Carlo methods, pharmacovigilance and probabilistic graphical models. He is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He recently completed a term as Editor-in-Chief of Statistical Science.
Lauren Hannah
Lauren Hannah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at Columbia University. Dr. Hannah received a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University, and an A.B. in Classics, again from Princeton University. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Hannah completed a postdoc at Duke in the Statistical Science Department. Her interests include machine learning, Bayesian statistics, and energy applications.
Eva Ascarza
Eva Ascarza is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Columbia Business School. She is a marketing modeler who uses tools from statistics and economics to answer marketing questions. Her main research areas are customer analytics and pricing in the context of subscription businesses. She specializes in understanding and predicting changes in customer behavior, such as customer retention and usage. Another stream of her research focuses on developing statistical methodologies to be used by marketing practitioners. She received her PhD from London Business School (UK) and a MS in Economics and Finance from Universidad de Navarra (Spain).
James Curley
About Me
Dr. Curley has very broad interests in behavioral development. He has conducted and published research at molecular, systems, organismal and evolutionary levels of analysis in both animals and humans. The focus of Dr. Curley’s lab at Columbia is on the development of social behavior. Dr. Curley is interested in how both inherited genetic variability and social experiences during development can shift individual differences in various aspects of social behavior and what the neuroendocrinological basis of these differences may be. He also researches the reliability and validity of social behavioral tests conducted in the laboratory and whether it is possible to utilize alternative statistical and methodological approaches to more appropriately assess social behavior. Dr Curley believes that it is critical to understand how the 'social brains' of humans and other animals have been differentially shaped by evolution and to acknowledge how this should better inform translational research.
Program Overview
Course Creator Series Plus provides edX partners with the training required to build an online course for the edX platform. There are no prerequisites for this series, just access to the edx.org platform and enthusiasm for online learning!
While this series is open to the public, it is designed specifically for edX partners to learn how to create courses to be run in the edX environment.
These courses cover a wide variety of interests in online learning. In edX101, you will learn the process of building a course on the edX platform. In StudioX you’ll get hands-on instruction and learn how to use the course authoring software. Studio Advanced expands on StudioX with more in-depth course design and building skills. VideoX instructs on media best practices and BlendedX shows you how to design courses that combine classroom-based and online learning instruction.
All the courses draw upon real-world examples and pedagogical principles to help ensure you will learn what it takes to develop high-quality online courses.
What you will learn
- Design, develop, and run an online course on the edX platform following best practices.
- Build an online course in Studio, edX’s course authoring software.
- Use the edX platform to support a blended learning model.
- Implement a production process to design and build media for your courses.
Program Class List
1edX101: Overview of Creating an edX Course
Course Details
1
A quick course designed to help you explore all of the different steps that go into planning and building an edX course. Perfect for instructors or institutional leadership interested in building a MOOC on edX.
2StudioX: Creating a Course with edX Studio
Course Details
2
Learn the fundamentals of creating courses on the edX platform using edX Studio.
3Studio Advanced: Expanded Course Creation Techniques
Course Details
3
Learn to build better courses in edX Studio
4VideoX: Creating Video for the edX Platform
Course Details
4
Learn the best and most efficient ways to create video content for the edX platform.
5BlendedX: Blended Learning with edX
Course Details
5
Explore ways to blend educational technology with traditional classroom learning to improve educational outcomes. Perfect for instructors or institutional leadership interested in creating blended learning experiences with edX.
Meet your instructors
Ben Piscopo
About Me
Ben is a senior learning designer at edX. He has over 10 years of experience in both academia and industry, building a diverse resume that includes lecturing at international colleges, authoring a series of innovative phonetic textbooks, and consulting for the British Council on a high-stakes English exam. Ben has an advanced degree in Learning and Knowledge Management Systems from the Rochester Institute of Technology. When he isn't dreaming up new learning experiences, he is planning his next trip to Asia, or enjoying a steaming cup of high-mountain tea.
Amy Woodgate
About Me
Amy Woodgate is an Instructional Designer and Online Learning consultant, specialising in digital strategy and learning at scale. She is Director and founder of Woodgate Consulting - an education strategy and production company, which leads design and creation of MOOCs and online courses across all leading digital platforms.
Mark Rudnick
About Me
Mark was a Director of Partner Success at edX, and has worked directly with a number of edX partner institutions and course teams to guide them in building excellent courses for the edX platform. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he spent four years working in higher education in South Korea and Australia before joining edX. He has experience as an educator, content developer, and consultant for both residential and online learning systems. Mark has been particularly interested in leveraging the global reach of edX and its partners to bring innovation to education around the world.
Ildi Morris
About Me
Ildi Morris is a Senior Manager of Training and Partner Enablement at edX. She has held various positions in learning consulting, instructional design and program management at companies including Digital Think, Education Development Center, and WGBH Boston. Ildi has an M.Ed. from Harvard University in Technology in Education, and a B.A. from Boston University in European history. When she is not at work, she is doing something outdoorsy with her husband and two daughters in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
James Donald
About Me
James Donald is a Video Producer at edX. James has produced course video content for MIT and Wellesley College, as well as course announcement videos and other pieces of edX media. James also helps to instruct edX Partners on best practices for video creation. Previous to edX, James had a 17-year career in documentary filmmaking, producing award-winning television programs for PBS, National Geographic Television and other clients. James' other passions include movies, his three children, dogs, and home-brewed ice coffee.
Erik Brown
About Me
As a Producer on the edX media team, Erik has edited, filmed, and crewed for various edX productions, from course introduction videos to labs to lectures. Erik aspires to help edX make education as inviting as it is accessible. Erik enjoys all things indie art. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from Kingston University, London.
Nina Huntemann
About Me
Nina Huntemann is Vice President of Learning at edX. In this role, Nina drives edX’s instructional and pedagogical strategy to maximize the capabilities of the edX platform to improve learner outcomes. Nina has over 15 years of college-level teaching, program administration, and faculty development experience. Prior to joining edX, she was an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Suffolk University in Boston where she taught courses and published research in digital media studies. Nina received her Ph.D. in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Outside of work, Nina enjoys cycling, baking, and hiking with her Welsh terrier, Penny.
Jeff Jorge
About Me
Jeff Jorge has worked with a number of our Open edX partners who strive to help underserved populations gain access to quality educational opportunities. He received his M.Ed. in International Education Policy and Management from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Jeff also enjoys finding pick-up soccer games around the world.
Emily Watson
About Me
Emily has worked with edX partners to help them design and produce their courses on edX. She received her Masters in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Outside of edX, Emily enjoys live music events, strong coffee, and planning her next travel adventure.
Colin Fredericks
About Me
Dr. Fredericks is a Senior Project Lead at HarvardX, specializing in instructional technology. He has helped to build multiple edX courses, including Super-Earths and Life , Energy Within Environmental Constraints , The Health Effects of Climate Change , and more. In his off time he writes roleplaying games and participates in science advocacy.
