This course is part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP). To enroll in the MicroMasters track or to learn more about this program and how it integrates with MIT’s Master’s Program in DEDP , please visit the MicroMasters portal. The DEDP MicroMasters is part of edX’s free Online Campus program. Participating university affiliates can take DEDP MicroMasters courses free if you register before June 30th. If you are from a university participating in this edX opportunity, click here to redeem your coupon . The DEDP MicroMasters is also part of the Workforce Recovery Acceleration Program. To apply for this program please click here . In this course, we will study the different facets of human development in topics such as education, health, gender, the family, land relations, risk, informal and formal norms, public policy, and institutions. While studying each of these topics, we will delve into the following questions: What determines the decisions of poor households in developing countries? What constraints are poor households subject to? What is the scope for policy interventions (implemented by the government, international organizations, or NGOs)? What policies have been tried out? Have they been successful? At the same time, you will discover modern empirical methods in economics, in particular Randomized Control Trials (RCTs). Throughout the course, we will expose you to all facets of empirical projects, from experimental design and ethical issues, to data collection and data analysis.You will have the chance to gain experience working with real data using software for statistical analysis during weekly assignments. Course Previews: Our course previews are meant to give prospective learners the opportunity to get a taste of the content and exercises that will be covered in each course. If you are new to these subjects, or eager to refresh your memory, each course preview also includes some available resources. These resources may also be useful to refer to over the course of the semester. A score of 60% or above in the course previews indicates that you are ready to take the course, while a score below 60% indicates that you should further review the concepts covered before beginning the course. Please use the this link to access the course preview .

This course is set to Open-Archived mode. You may register for this course and peruse the content at your own pace, but at this time you may not pursue a certificate. How can Iran be stopped from getting a nuclear bomb—negotiations, sanctions, or military action? As a participant in this course, you will advise the president in deciding whether, and how, the U.S. should act. Once you’ve made your assessment, you will move on to wrestle with other scenarios preoccupying policy makers. Between the Assad regime and ISIS, civilians in Syria and Iraq face unimaginable atrocities. Should the U.S. intervene? China’s rise is rattling capitalist economies and a half-century of Pacific peace. What counterbalancing actions should Washington take? Leaks are a fact of life — but why do they happen? Who gets them, and why? Should journalists publish or withhold them? Does legal accountability lie with the leaker—or the journalist? This six-week course casts you as advisors on the hardest decisions any president has to make. We will go behind the veil to see the dynamic between the press and the U.S. government, to explore these dilemmas. We will also have to contend with the reality that government secrets rarely stay that way. Participants will learn to navigate the political landscape of an era in which private remarks become viral tweets, and mistakes by intelligence agencies become front-page stories. Weekly assignments require strategic thinking: Analyzing dynamics of challenges and developing strategies for addressing them. Students will learn to summarize their analyses in a succinct “Strategic Options Memo,” combining careful analysis and strategic imagination with the necessity to communicate to major constituencies in order to sustain public support. They will also examine how policymaking is affected by constant, public analysis of government deliberations. Ways to take this course From this page, you may register to view the content for the Open version of this course. It has also been offered in the past as an intensive online course (limited enrollment, by application only). Admitted participants took the course on a private platform, read approximately 75 pages per week, completed and received individual feedback on assignments including four short policy memos, participated in sections led by the course Teaching Fellows, and engaged with fellow learners in moderated discussion forums. Information on any plan to offer future Limited Enrollment versions will be posted to this page. HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code : https://www.edx.org/edx-terms-service . HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs. HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement : http://harvardx.harvard.edu/research-statement to learn more. Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact [email protected] and/or report your experience through the edX contact form : https://www.edx.org/contact-us .

How can poor societies become prosperous and overcome obstacles to do so? Professor Sir Paul Collier is one of the world's leading scholars on this question, and in this economics course you will have the opportunity to learn from him directly. This course will discuss and examine the following topics: The role of government and the key political, social and economic processes that affect development; Why societies need polities that are both centralised and inclusive, and the process by which these polities develop; The social factors that are necessary for development, including the importance of identities, norms, and narratives; The impact of economic processes on development, including discussion about how government policies can either promote or inhibit the exploitation of scale and specialisation; The external conditions for development, including trade flows, capital flows, labour flows and international rules for governance. Enrol in this course to understand the factors that influence economic development and the different development paths that countries across the world have taken.

Over the past few years, advancements in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have significantly challenged the traditionally stable landscape of urban infrastructure services. The result is an increasing interest in the transitioning of cities towards so-called “smart cities” – an interest expressed both by technology vendors and public authorities. Although such “smart technologies” can provide immense opportunities for citizens and for service providers alike, the ICTs often act as disruptive innovators of urban infrastructure service provision. In this MOOC, you will gain a thorough understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with “smart urban infrastructures” as well as how these infrastructures can be managed in order to deliver desirable performance in cities. More precisely, throughout this 5-week MOOC you will learn about the most important principles for the management of smart urban infrastructures as well as about the application of these principles to two specific sectors, namely urban transportation and urban energy systems.

Psychology is the academic and applied study of the human mind and behavior. Perhaps there are no more salient topics in the information age and the global economy than a comprehensive understanding of how learning takes place and what predicts and determines human behavior. The course is a primer, meant to provide substantive content through which to understand the human condition and to inspire students to continue their learning and growth. Students interested in the study of psychology are interested in why people do, say and think what they do. They have questions about how learning takes place, how genetics dictate certain traits but not others, how memories are formed, where to draw the line between normality and disorder, whether a damaged brain can regain function and the predictors of addiction. Through this introductory course, students will have the opportunity to understand the science of psychology and how psychologists measure mental function and behavior and how the results are reported. They will better understand perception and consciousness and the mysteries of sleep and dreams. Through child development, they will understand how the brain is ready for learning and pre-wired for language. Motivation, cognition and personality will be analyzed through the lens of past and current psychological thought. Students will understand the statistical reality of the normal distribution and how that is relevant to most traits. They will review new research on the plasticity of the brain and consider whether intelligence is fixed or flexible. Lastly, the array of disorders and dysfunction will be analyzed and discussed and the line between normal and abnormal will be considered. Learn more about our High School and AP* Exam Preparation Courses

The freedom to call for change, and to amplify that call through mass mobilization, is vital for open and rights-respecting societies. Protests enable people to air grievances, express opinions, petition for remedies for wrongdoing, and to publicly demand accountability. Through protest, those who have been silenced, disempowered or disenfranchised can claim their voice, their strength and their political power. Yet protests around the world are being met with obstruction, repression, punishment, and other forms of restrictions. Many people sense that these restrictions are often wrong. But do you know why they're wrong, and what alternatives you can rightfully demand? You will know this and more after taking this introductory course on the right to protest. You will be able to outline the human rights standards and principles that provide protection, and you will be able to identify which infringements on the freedom to protest are human rights violations. Most importantly, you will be able to defend the right to protest by taking action based on what you learn in this course. Be prepared for active learning, connecting with course participants from around the world, and becoming part of a global community dedicated to defending human rights!

Urban design, inequality and segregation are strongly connected. Cities around the world, from the Global South to the Global North, are facing a rise in inequality and socio-economic segregation. The wealthy are increasingly concentrating in the most attractive urban areas and poverty is spreading to the suburbs. Rising levels of segregation have major consequences for the social sustainability of cities and leads to unequal life opportunities depending on where in the city you live. In this course, aimed at a broad range of professionals, from urban planners and architects to geographers, you will learn what the main drivers and indicators of urban inequality and segregation are, using examples from cities from all over the world. You will learn how segregation is measured, how to interpret the results of the analyses of segregation and how to relate these insights to urban design. With this knowledge, you will be able to analyze how these issues may be affecting your local environment. Additionally, we will present some historical examples of how urban design has played a role shaping spatial inequality and segregation in a selection of case study cities. This will help you to get a better understanding of how urban design can reduce spatial inequality and segregation. The course is taught by the editors of the new SpringerOpen book “Urban socio-economic segregation and income inequality. A global perspective” and senior experts from the Urban Design section of TU Delft, which is ranked number 2 in the QS World University Rankings in the field of Architecture.

This psychology course will show you how the brain works. You will learn the basics of neuroscience, genetics and evolutionary psychology. We will also cover the visual system and other sensory systems. The course concludes with coverage of the variety of states of consciousness. This course includes video-based lectures and demonstrations, interviews with real research psychologists and a plethora of practice questions to help prepare you for that AP® Psychology exam. This is the second in a six-course AP® Psychology sequence designed to prepare you for the AP® Psychology exam. Additional Courses: AP® Psychology - Course 1: What is Psychology AP® Psychology - Course 3: How the Mind Works AP® Psychology - Course 4: How Behavior Works AP® Psychology - Course 5: Health and Behavior AP® Psychology - Course 6: Exam Preparation & Review

While the advances in genomics promise to usher a new era in medical practice and create a major paradigm shift in patient care, the ethical, legal and social impact of genomic medicine will be equally significant. The information and potential use of genomic discoveries are no longer issues left for scientists and medical professionals to handle, but have become ones for the public at large. Rarely a day passes without a genomics-related story reported in the media. By the end of this course, students will be able to better understand the field of genomics; be familiar with various online databases and resources; and understand and appreciate the medical, social, ethical, and legal issues associated with the availability of personal genomic information. Given the diversity of the topics and the specific expertise required to cover each, this is a unique cross-disciplinary course where faculty from different disciplines including genetics, computational sciences, bioinformatics, genetic counseling, bioethics, law, and business will participate in lecturing. We have assembled a team of experts from various departments at Georgetown University and other institutions, to teach this comprehensive online genomics course. For a detailed description of the weekly topics, see the course outline .

This course includes Burmese translations of most of the videos, case studies and quizzes. Around the globe, there are public servants and civic leaders who want to create a better future for their fellow citizens. The challenge is how to deliver—how to create new practices, build new institutions, implement new policies, and transform incentives to sustain transformation. This course is about the “hows” of generating institutional change in hard places. Each week we focus on a different kind of challenge. You will read a case study, examine a problem in detail, help create a “solutions" toolkit, and then apply these insights to a second case. The course introduces concepts and insights from applied political economy and the science of delivery. Topics include: Reducing delay, error, and diversion of funds in citizen services Using citizen monitoring and community-driven projects to improve services in rural areas Preventing conflicts of interest or self-dealing from blocking institutional reform; building trust and community and changing public expectations Overcoming capacity traps (what to do when brain drain, political turbulence, or other problems de-skill government) Facilitating coordination at the cabinet level Developing a strategy and the incentives to sustain change. Drawn from actual experience around the world, each case starts with the problems a reform leader faced and traces the steps taken to address these. You will have a chance to assess the process and decide whether the solutions might work in your own context, as well as offer new proposals. Through quizzes and open response assignments, you will be able to share ideas with others and practice what you have learned. No certificates or other credentials will be awarded in connection with this course.