Published on May 31st, 2019
Harvard offers a variety of open learning opportunities, including online courses and modules. At Harvard Extension School, free and open learning is hardly a new concept. Explore Harvard Free Online courses below:
1. Introduction To Digital Humanities
Develop skills in digital research and visualization techniques across subjects and fields within the humanities.
- Duration: 7 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 2-4 hours per week
- Subject: Humanities
- Course Language: English
- Difficulty: Introductory
- Credit: Verified Certificate
What You’ll Learn
- What the term “digital humanities” means in different disciplines.
- How common digital tools work and examples of projects using them.
- How various file types can be used to create, gather, and organize data.
- How to use command-line functions to analyze text.
- How to use free tools to create visual text analysis.
2. Data Science: Machine Learning
- Duration: 8 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 2-4 hours per week
- Subject: Computer Science
- Course Language: English
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
- Credit: Verified Certificate
What You’ll Learn
- The basics of machine learning
- How to perform cross-validation to avoid overtraining
- Several popular machine learning algorithms
- How to build a recommendation system
- What is regularization and why it is useful
3. Entrepreneurship In Emerging Economies
- Duration: 6 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-5 hours per week
- Subject: Business
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- An awareness of the opportunities for entrepreneurship in fast-growing emerging markets
- An understanding of a conceptual framework for evaluating such opportunities
- An appreciation of the types of problems that lend themselves to entrepreneurial solutions
4. The Architectural Imagination
- Duration: 10 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-5 hours per week
- Subject: Art & Design
- Course Language: English
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
- Credit: Verified Certificate
What You’ll Learn
- How to read, analyze, and understand different forms of architectural representation
- Social and historical contexts behind major works of architecture
- Basic principles to produce your own architectural drawings and models
- Pertinent content for academic study or a professional career as an architect
5. Fundamentals of Neuroscience, Part 1: The Electrical Properties Of The Neuron
- Duration: 5 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-5 hours per week
- Subject: Science
- Collection: Fundamentals of Neuroscience
- Course Language: English
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- Fundamentals of bioelectricity
- The importance of resting potential
- The properties of passive membranes
- Action potentials, their currents, and their role in the nervous system
- How you can do neuroscience in your home
6. CS50’s Web Programming With Python And JavaScript
- Duration: 12 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 6-9 hours per week
- Subject: Programming
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Collection: Fundamentals of Neuroscience
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Intermediate
What You’ll Learn
- Git
- HTML, CSS
- Flask
- SQL
- APIs
- JavaScript
7. CS50’s Introduction To Game Development
- Duration: 12 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 6-9 hours per week
- Subject: Programming
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Intermediate
What You’ll Learn
- Principles of 2D and 3D graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection
- Unity and LÖVE 2D
- Lua, C#
- Basics of game design and development
8. Leaders Of Learning
- Duration: 10 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 2-4 hours per week
- Subject: Education & Teaching
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- How to define your personal theory of learning
- What leadership looks like in different learning environments
- How an organization’s structure reflects its theories of learning
- How physical and digital design shape learning
- How neuroscience will affect the future of learning
9. Data Science: R Basics
- Duration: 8 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 1-2 hours per week
- Subject: Data Science
- Collection: Professional Certificate in Data Science
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- Basic R syntax
- Foundational R programming concepts such as data types, vectors arithmetic, and indexing
- How to perform operations in R including sorting, data wrangling using dplyr, and making plots
10. Contract Law: From Trust To Promise To Contract
- Duration: 8 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-6 hours per week
- Subject: Social Science
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Intermediate
What You’ll Learn
- A theoretical background of contracts, trust, and promise
- How to form contracts through valid offer and acceptance
- Limits to enforcing contracts
- Issues excusing contractual performance
- Available remedies for contractual breaches
- Third parties’ ability to enforce contracts
11. Justice
- Duration: 12 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-6 hours per week
- Subject: Humanities
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- The fundamentals of political philosophy
- An understanding of social justice and criminal justice, and the roles they play in the modern justice system
- A deeper sense of the philosophy that underlies modern issues such as affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and equality
- The ability to better articulate and evaluate philosophical arguments and ask philosophical questions
12. Nonprofit Financial Stewardship Webinar: Introduction To Accounting And Financial Statements
- Subject: Business
- Platform: Executive Education
- Difficulty: Introductory
Course Description
- The Introduction to Nonprofit Accounting and Financial Statements webinar series is designed to introduce basic
- nonprofit accounting concepts and financial statements to individuals who have had little or no experience with finance or accounting.
13. Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs
- Duration: 6 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 2-4 hours per week
- Subject: Health & Medicine
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- Core concepts in community health as part of primary health systems
- Key components in the design and optimization of community health worker programs as exemplified through country case studies
- How to advocate for community health worker programs with key stakeholders
- The evidence demonstrating the impact and returns of community health workers
- How to build coalitions to support government-led programs
- How to break down silos and reduce duplicative efforts in the wider community health ecosystem
14. Launching Breakthrough Technologies
- Duration: 6 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-5 hours per week
- Subject: Business
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
A systematic approach to the technology commercialization process
- How to match customer needs with promising technologies
- How to access technologies for commercialization and generate new use scenarios
- How to evaluate the readiness of a technology based on market and team readiness
- How to align business plans and operating models to markets and technology
- How to rate and rank ideas based on feedback from customers and experts
15. The Health Effects Of Climate Change
- Duration: 7 Weeks
- Time Commitment: 3-5 hours per week
- Subject: Health & Medicine
- Credit: Verified Certificate
- Platform: edX
- Difficulty: Introductory
What You’ll Learn
- Climate change’s impacts on nutrition, migration, and infectious diseases
- The research methods used in this field
- Strategies to mitigate and adapt to the health impacts of climate change
- How changes in Earth’s atmosphere affect health outcomes
- How to assess the various ways of addressing the health effects of global warming
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