Author Archives: Dara

OpenLearning launches courses

Posted on October 26, 2012

OpenLearning, a new Australian startup, recently announced its first roster of 4 free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): UNSW Computing 1, Observing and Analysing Performance in Sport, and two marketing courses. UNSW Computing 1, an introductory computer science programming taught … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers, Courses, MOOC | Tagged , | 1 Comment

U.S. social history

Posted on October 17, 2012

For an illuminating view of life in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, check out Richard Candida-Smith’s Fall 2012 UC Berkeley course History 124A: The United States from the Late 19th Century to the Eve … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic podcasts, History, Knowledge tidbit | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Still time to enroll in ModPo

Posted on October 2, 2012

Coursera’s new course on Modern Poetry (a.k.a. ModPo) is one of the most delightful courses I’ve listened to in a long time. Most of the credit is due to the professor, Al Filreis of the University of Pennsylvania, who is … Continue reading →

Posted in Coursera, Courses, Literature, MOOC | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

When is a course not a course?

Posted on September 24, 2012

You may have noticed that iTunesU has a new section on its front page entitled New Courses. And you may also have noticed that some of these courses are not really true university courses, but are instead collections of lectures … Continue reading →

Posted in Courses, iTunesU | Leave a comment

Adventures in MOOC-land

Posted on August 6, 2012

To hear Sebastian Thrun tell it, some folks like a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) even better than a real world lecture class. Thrun, the founder of Udacity, discovered that some of his Stanford University students liked the online version … Continue reading →

Posted in Courses, Fantasy, Five-star professors, Literature, MOOC, Writing | Tagged , | 10 Comments

New courses from Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley

Posted on July 24, 2012

More news from the fast moving world of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): University of California at Berkeley has joined the edX consortium of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the consortium’s first roster of courses is now online. … Continue reading →

Posted in Courses, edX, MOOC | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Posted on July 23, 2012

In a traditional literature class, students read, discuss and write about their interpretations of literary texts. But can a literature class work as a MOOC — a Massive Open Online Course with thousands of students? Fantasy and Science Fiction, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Literature, MOOC | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The MOOCs have landed!

Posted on July 18, 2012

“What is a MOOC,” you ask. It’s the newly trendy acronym for Massive Open Online Course – the kind of free online course on offer at startups Coursera and Udacity, and by the non-profit Harvard-MIT-UC Berkeley consortium edX. MOOCs differ … Continue reading →

Posted in Courses, MOOC | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Power Searching with Google

Posted on July 11, 2012

It’s happened to all of us. You open your browser for a quick Google search, but but you find yourself sorting through dozens of useless pages. So, the folks at Google have a solution: a short online course entitled Power … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers, Courses, Tools & Tips, Videos | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Guide to MIT Open Courseware

Posted on July 6, 2012

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been in the free online course business longer than just about everyone else. Its website is chock full of exciting riches, but navigating the site can be a challenge. While MIT groups the courses by … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic podcasts, Courses, edX, Math, MOOC, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment