Coursera Experience - July 2014

Following the general schedule of the brick and mortar universities that offer courses through Coursera, there were a lot of new starts in June. It made for a grand total of 5 courses on my ‘to do’ list by the end of the month:

The Diversity of Exoplanets (University of Geneva) - The course has provided a good framework for me to understand the news items on the topic….and there are quite a lot of them these days!

Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota) - The Systems Biology course I finished last month prepared me for the most technical module of this course!  Since I don’t have chronic pain at this point in my life, I am truly focused on the ‘preventing’ aspect of the curse. The biggest action I’ve taken so far is to broaden the amount and kind of stretching I am doing.

Paradoxes of War (Princeton University) - This course has been thought provoking both from a historical and more general societal context. Since there has been some time sequence to it - we are now in the years of my life and I am appreciating the different perspectives of what happened in the 60s and 70s.

An Introduction to Global Health (University of Copenhagen) - There is so much to be done and, while there have been strides, there are set backs too. The people that are the most vulnerable are in the least healthy situation and their pliant is often impacted by disasters (floods, earthquakes, wars). At the same time, we are facing the reality that many in the developed world had chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are sapping medical resources too (and now the NCDs are increasing in the developing world too).

Globalization and You (University of Washington) - The course divides Globalization (political) from globalization (interconnectedness) and encourages students to research how each impacts them directly. I am already behind in the reading and the participation! Strangely enough - a lot of what I’ve been learning in some of my other classes seems feed into this one (the ones that come immediately to mind are Global Health, US Food System, How to change the world).

By the end of the month I should begin to recover. Several courses will end and the only one that will start in July is:

Social Psychology (Wesleyan University) - The course is advertised to focus on ‘research findings that are easy to apply in daily life.’ What a great course to enjoy with air conditioning in August!