10 online courses to expand horizons
Text: Ida Golubeva
We have already established that it is never too late to learn, whether you are 20 or 50, and also made up a clear instruction on how to survive in the new academic year. Continuing a given line, we talk about a variety of free online courses, many of which do not necessarily join from the first lesson, from Science of Happiness to Oceanography and the Study of Antarctica.
Science of happiness
University of California, Berkeley
Everyone has an initial stock of knowledge on how to become happy: a set of tests from teen magazines and a Soviet cartoon version of Carnegie’s theory, understandable to a hedgehog (and even a small snail). Another issue is that not everyone is familiar with research in the field of neurobiology, psychology and sociology on this topic. A short course of happy life at the University of California is the results of research in the most accessible practical arrangement. Students will also be invited to take part in provocative experiments - it’s true that this is a provocation, the creators don’t give out. But they guarantee that after completing the course you will not only gain happiness, but finally understand what empathy, awareness and gratitude are.
Course start: September 2014
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The history of the universe
University of Copenhagen
Ideal course for those who want to advance in their knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics a little further replicas from "The Big Bang Theory". Attracts in the program potentially high efficiency: 5 billion years of the history of the universe must be learned in 8 weeks. In addition to online lectures, the authors of the course offer a video guide on the Danish Museum of Natural Sciences to illustrate key points in the development of the Solar System and the planet Earth with the help of local exhibits. The exhibits include a meteorite slightly more youthful than the Sun (4.4 billion years old), fossils on which dinosaur footprints are preserved, and the imprints of the teeth of the most ancient fish with legs, our distant ancestors. In general, if you want to make a "journey to the origins of all things" and instead of Adam and Eve to find there oceanic centipedes (meter models of which are stored in the same museum), you are here.
Course start: October 2014
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Comics and graphic novels
University of Colorado Boulder
To become a master of gycology, after studying the history of the Universe, it is imperative to take up the history of comics. A question like "Who is stronger: Superman or Batman?" course authors do not promise to answer. But they promise to tell you why comics are not exclusively for teenagers, but a serious literary genre, in the history of which there were golden and silver centuries and even a couple of avant-garde movements. In addition, explain how comics have influenced the modern perception of the text. The author of the course in the FAQ warns that the lectures are not designed for a child’s audience, because comics are created by adults and are devoted to non-childish and sometimes painful topics. So it is better to turn on the "Ninja Turtles" to your children and younger nephews, while you yourself sit down to study.
Course start: September 22nd
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Playing the guitar: an introduction
Berkeley College of Music
Maybe this is the time to put the laptop down and pick up the guitar. Forget everything that you learned from Phoebe Buffer's method: now you’ll have to learn the real names of the chords instead of “chicken paw” and “old woman’s hand”. However, it is not difficult - the course was created specifically for beginners, so even those who previously took the guitar in their hands just because a friend asked for it will do. For 6 weeks, they promise to teach you how to properly hold an instrument (“in order not to harm yourself”), tune it, play scales and even make “wah-wah” (if you have an electric guitar, of course). When you beat all the records in "Guitar Hero", you can tell fans that you learned to play guitar in Berkeley with a friend of the reggae queen - Sister Carol.
Course start: October 13
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Philosophy Studies in Cinema
Boston University
The Boston University online course is a good way to combine evening cinema viewing with the study of philosophy. Strange, at first glance, the mix, in fact, is very effective. The course is devoted to three key questions of philosophy: the theory of knowledge, ethics and the issue of self-identification. This and many other things will be told in the Sinefilian vein with an emphasis on the development of the questions posed in the history of cinema. Since the history of cinema is about 25 centuries shorter than the history of philosophy, we have a pleasant way to learn the basics of philosophical knowledge in less time and playfully. These courses, however, are for the most stubborn ones: to get to the Boston online university, you need not only to fill in a complex form, but also to write a motivation letter.
Course start: 28 of October
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Relationship Fiction
Brown University
Another option to combine business with pleasure - instead of a film club, you can organize literary evenings at home. In the end, the world fund of literature is filled with instructive motives - why not try to listen to them. The course at Brown University is devoted to analyzing the topic of relationships in fiction, and, judging by the reading list, conceptual and with a swing to encyclopedic. Three centuries, ten authors, seven countries and, of course, a look from both sides of the barricades: both male and female. Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf and Tony Morrison are called to answer for women.
Course start: September 2014
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The main themes of Indian pop culture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Western viewers usually bypass Bollywood and Indian pop culture - the creators of the course believe that this is completely undeserved. If your knowledge of Indian popular subjects is limited to a couple of shots from Zita and Gita, as well as the parodies of ex-boyfriend Natalie Portman, it's time to deepen them. The course involves a review of the central themes of Indian art over the past twenty years on the material of television programs, music videos, analytical articles and even "politicized cartoons." All this proves that in addition to the endless variations on the theme of Romeo and Juliet in Indian mass culture there is a whole set of serious plots that does not involve either songs or dancing.
Course start: free schedule
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Shakespeare and his world
Warwick University
Another interesting collaboration between university and museum funds is the lecture course "Shakespeare and His World." This is an online journey through the real life story of a playwright, to the best of disposable facts, and through the fictional world of his literary heroes. Each week, the lecturer will focus on one of the key plays of Shakespeare, as well as an episode from his life, studied on the valuable exhibits of the house-museum. Today you can find a number of online courses on the works of Shakespeare, but this one is unique in that it restores the historical context in which the famous plays were created. Before us is "a dialogue between the material culture of time and the peculiarities of artistic technique".
Course start: September 29
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Oceanography and study of the Antarctic
University of Tasmania
In dank autumn weather, an Australian university course is ideal for two reasons: first, you can dream about the ocean and the heat under the video from the Great Barrier Reef; secondly, to calm down, that somewhere is even worse and colder - for archival records from the Antarctic expedition. The lectures promise to give basic knowledge about the oceans and their inhabitants, show beautiful shots with schools of fish and tell them what their lives are at risk for because of a person — much more significant than most people think. In general, if you do not give a damn about the fate of the world's oceans, you are not averse to learn a couple of dozen names of exotic fish and love Australian English - welcome to the course.
Course start: September 15th
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Computer Graphics Basics
University of California, Berkeley
An excellent opportunity to learn computer graphics from scratch, if, of course, to consider the zero of the basics of school linear algebra. As soon as you remember them, you can safely take up the course. A wonderful bonus is that your teacher will be a teacher with Indian roots and intonation of Boris Burda, who promises to teach 3D modeling in 6 weeks. You can listen to a lecture course just like that, or you can get a certificate (then you have to do homework and take tests); but access to materials is in any case open to all.
Course start: October 6
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Photo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 via Shutterstock