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Tag Archives: The Great Courses

Fundamentals of Photography – Class 02 – Camera Equipment: What you need

The PolyBlog
April 17 2016

As I mentioned earlier, I started watching videos on Fundamentals of Photography – Class 01 – Making Great Pictures from The Great Courses company. Class 02 of the course deals with camera equipment and related accessories. While the host is a National Geographic photographer, and has been for much of his career, he basically suggests getting equipment that fits in a backpack. No more, no less.

For the bag, he recommends soft shoulder straps so that you can lug it around for the day, and room for:

  • camera body;
  • a lens or two;
  • memory cards;
  • batteries;
  • battery charger;
  • lens cloth;
  • external flash + batteries for it; and,
  • a sync cord for flash.

I confess I don’t really like my camera bag setup. I had one that came with the combo I bought, and it is a hard bulky near cube-like format. It would hold everything above, but it only has a shoulder strap, and it’s kind of blocky. The interior design isn’t the best either, and I often felt like I was trying too hard to shift things around. I had another camera bag that I had bought for astronomy stuff, and I’ve repurposed it back to its original purpose, but it’s not great either. It is very hard to get things in and out of without taking it off, setting it on its side, etc. At some point, I need something better, just not sure what that it is yet as I haven’t quite figured out where/when I will use my camera the most yet. It’s a different setup if I’m doing astrophotography vs. hanging out at the cottage vs. going on a hike. Or, as the host puts it succinctly, “What do you want to do?”.

He prefers a photography vest, as do some astronomers. Lots of little pockets to hold everything, distribute weight equally, and freeing your hands for adjustments, etc. It is also harder to steal your equipment if you’re basically wearing it.

The Chapter doesn’t spend much time on the actual camera equipment, mostly as he wants to hold that back until he gets into the various features and what he uses them for…his only real advice is that his favorite lens is a 24-70 mm lens, mostly as it is comfortable, not too heavy, allows him to mostly support the entire camera and lens in his left hand, freeing his right hand to snap and adjust easily.

He does, however, heavily recommend three things:

  1. A decent view screen, although he has a cute story that professional photographers call it a “chimping” screen (i.e. so people can look at it, and sound like a chimp, saying ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh);
  2. A solid tripod for longer exposures and to reduce any shake; and,
  3. A cable release to also eliminate shake.

The Canon T5i has a good screen, I like it. Sure, some of the new ones that come with Android built-in and that have WiFi are great, but this is a little more traditional and meets my needs. The only challenge I have is that in bright light with my transition sunglasses on, it’s hard to see the screen.

I picked up a used Manfrotto tripod from a camera store on Bank Street, and it is pretty rock solid. Not the best options for heads, etc., or quick change setups, but I haven’t used it much either to get used to it. I also have a lighter one that I had for my previous cameras, including the video camera, which would work with short lenses (i.e. not too heavy), and a monopod for hiking, although I’m not convinced it works as well as some people seem to claim. Could just be a lack of practice too.

I have two cable releases — one that supposedly works remotely, that I could never get to work, and one that is wired. I’ve toyed with the idea of adding the bluetooth attachment that would also connect to my phone or tablet, but outside of astronomy, I don’t know when I would use it that much.

What I found really interesting this week though is that he blew past the intro to equipment and covered the basics of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Those three pieces work together on your photos, and I confess that while I have read multiple explanations of them over the years, I have never really “gotten it”. I could regurgitate what the shutter speed was, mostly aperture although sometimes a little off in technical details, and on ISO, I often described it more as the speed of the “film” from our old pre-DSLR days. And how the three worked together, I really had no idea. I was constantly confused. I would get some of the pieces, I could duplicate other shots if I had the technical specs, but the real relationship between the three and how the three worked together? I really didn’t get it.

For the first time, watching this host, a light came on. The example he used was the idea of a faucet filling a sink with water. The aperture is the size of your faucet — small faucet, small amount of water; large faucet, large amount of water. The shutter speed is how long you have the faucet running — longer duration, more water; shorter duration, less water. And the ISO, although the metaphor is a bit weaker here, is how strong the water pressure is pushing through the pipe.

Translating that to the camera, the biggest piece for me is that he ignored ISO. He focused almost entirely on aperture and shutter speed. So a big aperture lets in a lot of light, while a small aperture lets in less light. Pretty straightforward. It’s the same concept for astronomy, and I think that was the hook for me. Large light buckets bring in lots of light, small light buckets bring in smaller amounts of light. If I think of it as Aperture, instead of focal length (which is how it is measured), it becomes much clearer to me. Maybe part of what was confusing to me previously is that astro stuff works heavily with focal length, and you even have some basic math to figure out magnifications, etc.

I was also confused by the focal length because as you “decrease it”, you’re increasing the opening and increasing the amount of light; because it is a ratio, the number works in reverse to the size of the opening. The focal length is on the bottom of the ratio, so as that number goes higher, and the focal length gets higher, the aperture gets smaller. So f/1.0 is the biggest aperture with the most light coming in; f/8-11 is a moderate setting; and f/22 is a small amount of light. It’s also why you frequently see wide-angle lens having the f/2.8 settings — because they are designed to give you wide shots with lots of light. Also making them good in low light too, because they are pulling as much light as possible at those settings. Most of my lens stop in the f/4.0 range and that’s pushing them to their limits.

For shutter speed, I’ve never really had any trouble understanding that…it always made sense to me in terms of longer exposure. But I didn’t think of it like I do astronomy i.e. I only thought of it as related to night photography. Longer shots to get the stars, to gather lots of light. I didn’t think of it as gathering more light for the day time too. Hence the trade-off with the aperture — if you go to a small, small, small aperture, you need to adjust to longer exposure times. If you have a large aperture, you need faster shutter speeds or you’ll get nothing but white — you’re controlling how much water is coming out of the faucet into the sink and how much light is coming into your camera.

The trade-off has never been clear to me on that. Particularly when you start with shutter speed — if I’m going with a faster shutter speed, for example to capture somebody doing sports, I also need to adjust my aperture in order to open up the “light hole” (aperture) to make sure I’m still getting lots of light in. Hence why small f # lenses, like 2.8, are called fast lenses — because they allow for the fastest shutter speeds.

I couldn’t see those two as the trade-offs as I always threw the ISO in there just enough to confuse me. I remembered that ISO 100 was considered “normal” speed film, and that ISO800 was considered “fast” film. So I figured if you were jacking your shutter speed to be super fast, you must have upgraded your ISO at the same time. Almost like they *always* went hand-in-hand, and hence could be considered almost the same.

I knew that ISO stood for the International Standards Organization, so the acronym never helped. However, once he started talking about it as the light sensitivity of the camera, kind of the reverse of how much water is being pumped into the sink, more like how hard or how much is hitting the bottom of the sink, it clicked for me. I understand sensitivity of sensors, and how important it is for their ability to register photons, just like the old plates (not that I ever used them, but I understand the physics of it). Particularly in terms of astronomy, so it suddenly became clear why jacking my ISO during the day was like flooding the camera with super sensitive light. Just like taking a photo of a bright moon with high ISO, and seeing it just completely wash out the details.

I know I’m supposed to see them as a triangle — aperture, shutter speed, and ISO — but it works better for me to see aperture and shutter speed as trade offs, and ISO more as just the sensitivity to the amount of light controlled by the other two.

After that, it was more simple note-taking:

  • shutter speed normally in the 1/60 or 1/125 range;
  • f/16 has everything in it tack sharp, f/2.8 is mainly the centre;
  • low light needs more sensitivity;
  • “aperture priority” is great for setting aperture, and the camera does the rest on “auto”; and,
  • “shutter speed priority” is great for setting fast or slow and letting the camera handle the rest on “auto”.

He concluded the intro by noting that he frequently sets up beginners in AP mode, shooting as close to 2.8 as they can get, and letting them rock out on composition after that. The assignment was basically to just to play with settings, which I’ve already done, so wasn’t part of my main focus afterwards.

I’m just ecstatic that I finally understood aperture and shutter speed trade offs, with ISO in behind. I finally “get it”. That alone is worth the price of the course (maybe not full price, but certainly with the discount that is always available).

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged 2016, development, goals, learning, personal, photography, The Great Courses | Leave a reply

Fundamentals of Photography – Class 01 – Making Great Pictures

The PolyBlog
April 8 2016

I bought a DSLR camera some time ago, a Canon T5i Digital Rebel. It came with a stock lens, plus I bundled it with a 55mm to 250mm zoom lens, and it works pretty well for me. I’ve taken some amazing shots of our cousins waterskiing, some nice group photos, a few sunsets, and even some astrophotography. But I have a big challenge. And it isn’t the equipment.

I don’t really know what I’m doing. Sure, I’ve read the manual, but I don’t know much about the difference between aperture, f-stops, shutter speeds, and ISO settings, let alone white balance, metering modes, bounce flashes or any of that stuff. I kind of naively thought if I looked at settings of photos I like (often the magazines include the specs for the shot), I could learn to recreate some of them. Not impossible, but not very illuminating either. I have wanted to take a course, but timing and expense and area of emphasis were hard to coordinate. In the meantime, I’ve been playing with my camera and reading magazines.

Fast forward to a photography course with The Great Courses company. Note that TGC has an approach to these learning courses that basically relies on identifying excellent teachers from around the world, getting them to teach a specific course they’re passionate about, and then selling the audio or video series. Think of it is as more organized TED talks, or alternatively, downloadable MOOCs without the other students, interactions online, or the paper certificate at the end. They have a couple of photography courses, and I lucked into Joel Sartore’s “Fundamentals of Photography”. Broken into 24 video lectures of about 30-35 minutes each, the course basically talks about various subject matters in photography from a non-technical perspective. Which is about where my level of expertise is at the present.

Class 1, entitled “Making Great Pictures”, is a general introduction to the course, with an overview of the “approach”. Mostly Sartore talks about teaching would-be photographers to “see well”, combining subject, light, background and space to create iconic or interesting photos, something different from everybody else.

While the lecture is more of a general intro, there were some tips I liked:

  • Sartore noted that lots of people subscribe to the classic myth that the best photos outside require you to have the sun at your back. Except he said that this means that whoever your subject is (person, dog, etc.), they are looking directly into the sun. Which means they are likely squinting, a form of torture for your subject, and it is even less important with modern cameras which can work with a lot softer light.
  • For him, Sartore noted that the true basis for a great picture was great light + great composition + something interesting to see.
  • Last but not least, he advised that you should stop to “pet the whale”, an anecdote about a specific whale watching excursion where the whales will let you pet them but many photographers are so focused on the photo, they forget to enjoy the experience. Combined with the need to think about what you are photographing, he advises putting the camera down to enjoy the experience as well as seeing it clearly, considering what you want to include or exclude, and only then consider picking up the camera.

There was one sour note in the opening lecture, and I confess it almost turned me completely off the series. Sartore was talking about how some photos require a bit of staging, although those aren’t the words he used, and he showed a photo of his wife and son, with his wife holding his son up while he was wearing a bright shirt/short set, less than 2 years old, in front of a sweeping Arizona vista. He was noting that the shot was “unique” because it showed his son in full on crying mode — beautiful image, but not your typical pose. The image itself was a bit iconic, perhaps, but Sartore noted that his son had been crying most of the time, and wasn’t very happy. And he wanted a photo, so he asked his wife to hold his son up for about 20 seconds, essentially to make him uncomfortable and give him real time to get into the cry. Did it hurt his son? Of course not. Would I do it with my son? No, cuz I don’t want to be an a**hole to him.

It really turned me off the host, and I basically took it as my “warning shot”. I stuck with the series though and it hasn’t repeated. Maybe he was being funny, maybe he was adlibbing, maybe he was careless with his words, but it didn’t sound very nice to the kid. However, I’m in it for the photography tips, not parenting tips, and I’ve stuck with it.

I liked his “homework” assignment at the end, where he suggested you find an interesting room in your house, i.e. your favorite room, and think of what you could photograph. He chose his living room, with two assistants playing with dogs. What I found interesting was to see the composition, and how much of a difference it made when he decluttered the background to remove a mirror and some pictures. It isn’t much, very subtle, but it drastically altered the composition. Quite well done.

In short, I loved it. On to Chapter 2.

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged 2016, development, goals, learning, personal, photography, The Great Courses | Leave a reply

2015 – Learning for life…

The PolyBlog
January 7 2015

One of my goals for 2015 is to think more coherently (i.e. plan) for online learning that I’m interested in. I have little interest in a formal degree at this point, nor even sitting in lecture halls. I have far more interest in online options, at least where it is not short-term or local or highly specialized (like a camera course).

For example, I basically see three main options for myself. First and foremost is the ad hoc stuff of TedX talks. I don’t take near enough advantage of the posts over there.

Secondly, iTunes and Youtube have lots of podcasts and videos where one expert or another has done the curation for me of some decent content, distilling it down to the bits I probably care about, and giving me enough of an overview that if I want to go further, I’ll have a good starting point.

Last, there is the dual-prong options of downloadable courses (such as The Great Courses) and online courses (such as are Coursera). For those who aren’t familiar with either, here’s the bumpf.

The Great Courses option is designed as a “cream of the crop” approach to lectures. Based on a variety of sources of info to identify who the best professors are around the world, they then hire them to record their lectures in audio or video format and then sell the courses to people. They have a huge catalog that they send out six times a year with massive discounts listed — for example, it is not uncommon for 75% discounts off the web-listed price. I’ve seen samples of some of the courses and they are pretty good.

Coursera takes a different approach — they offer a central repository for universities offering potentially-large enrolment online courses, usually with two options. One option is you pay, get graded, and get a certificate for finishing the course; second is free and you just audit the courses.

For me, the lists of courses are like fueling a drug habit. I ran through the Coursera listing over the last little while, and my list of courses in which I might be interested, noting that I was actually HARD in whittling out ones that sounded okay but really were a bit too off in their approach, is still quite large. 126 courses large. Of course, I could never DO that many courses, but it feels a lot like my undergrad where there were so many options and electives to initially consider. And these aren’t slouch courses — some of them are offered by Yale, Princeton, UofT, UBC, etc. My full list of possible Coursera courses is below. Unfortunately, many of them are not currently scheduled yet this year, and some of them are too long to sustain my interest, but I’m probably going to commit to at least three this year.

My interests fall into some pretty simple categories, except for the long nature of the original list:

  1. Gamification — There are lots of aspects to this including online game design, original game theory, visual design, and programming;
  2. Psychology — if this one seems odd, go back and read the first post of the year, it will all be come clear;
  3. History — including both human history as well as paleobiology;
  4. Music appreciation — classical, rock and roll, etc.;
  5. Publishing — it may not seem directly evident at first, but it is the source of the review of economic principles, different genres of writing;
  6. Astronomy — again, for obvious reasons;
  7. Writing — including forensics;
  8. Business, philanthropy, organizations, law, etc. — a few unifying themes there that all tie into governance;

Now I just have to get around to choosing my courses!

The Great Courses

  • 1 Fundamentals of Photography
  • 3 National Geographic Masters of Photography
  • Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft
  • Our Night SkySale
  • Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the UniverseSale
  • Old TestamentSale
  • Writing Creative NonfictionSale
  • The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to ProfessionalsSale
  • Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History
  • Understanding the Fundamentals of Music
  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
  • Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
  • Foundations of Western Civilization
  • How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
  • Thinking like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making
  • Stress and Your Body
  • Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
  • The Mathematics of Games and Puzzles: From Cards to SudokuSale
  • The World Was Never the Same: Events That Changed History
  • Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator
  • The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries
  • History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon
  • A Visual Guide to the Universe with the Smithsonian
  • Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
  • Forensic History: Crimes, Frauds, and Scandals
  • Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
  • How the Stock Market Works
  • Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age
  • The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
  • My Favorite Universe
  • The Entrepreneur’s ToolkitSale
  • Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon
  • Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time
  • The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit
  • How Ideas SpreadFoundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western WorldSale
  • Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity
  • 12 Essential Scientific Concepts
  • Heroes and Legends: The Most Influential Characters of Literature
  • Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method
  • Foundations of Eastern Civilization
  • Medieval World
  • From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity
  • Economics, 3rd Edition
  • Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide
  • Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe
  • Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know
  • History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective
  • Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond
  • How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
  • Turning Points in Modern History
  • Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works
  • Classical Mythology
  • Great American Music: Broadway Musicals
  • Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe
  • The Symphony
  • Story of Medieval England: From King Arthur to the Tudor ConquestSale
  • Art of Reading
  • Iliad of Homer
  • Early Middle Ages
  • Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and MuhammadSale
  • The Life and Death of Stars
  • Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders
  • Odyssey of HomerSale
  • The Art of War
  • The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation
  • Introduction to Judaism
  • Masterpieces of Short Fiction
  • 36 Books That Changed the World
  • Dante’s Divine ComedySale
  • Joyce’s Ulysses
  • Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History
  • Life Lessons from the Great Myths
  • String Quartets of BeethovenSale
  • Beginnings of Judaism
  • Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World’s Religions
  • Great World Religions: Islam
  • Great World Religions: Hinduism
  • Great World Religions: Buddhism
  • History of Ancient R ome
  • Bach and the High Baroque
  • Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas
  • A Brief History of the World
  • Late Middle Ages
  • Comparative Religion
  • Great World Religions: Judaism
  • Great World Religions: Christianity
  • Fall and Rise of China
  • Physics in Your Life
  • From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History
  • Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition
  • Black Holes Explained
  • Great Masters: Mozart-His Life and Music
  • Great Ideas of Psychology
  • Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life
  • Why Evil Exists
  • Symphonies of BeethovenSale
  • Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies
  • Life in Our Universe
  • Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature
  • Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality
  • Theories of Human Development
  • The English Novel
  • Special Collection – The Joy of Ancient HistorySale
  • Great Masters: Tchaikovsky-His Life and Music
  • Classics of American Literature
  • Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean
  • Exploring the Roots of Religion
  • Music of Richard Wagner
  • Life Lessons from the Great Books
  • Unexpected Economics
  • Concert Masterworks
  • Classics of British Literature
  • Psychology of Human Behavior
  • Great Thinkers, Great Theorems
  • A Day’s Read
  • Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages
  • Why Economies Rise or Fall
  • Turning Points in Medieval History
  • Peoples and Cultures of the World
  • Science of Self
  • Shakespeare: The Word and the Action
  • Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works
  • Machiavelli in Context
  • Great Masters: Mahler-His Life and Music
  • Masterworks of Early 20th-Century Literature
  • Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Haydn-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Shostakovich-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Stravinsky-His Life and Music
  • God and Mankind: Comparative Religions
  • Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia
  • History of World Literature
  • The Concerto
  • Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
  • Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations
  • Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition
  • Science in the 20th Century: A Social-Intellectual SurveySale
  • Philosophy and Religion in the West
  • Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World
  • Popes and the Papacy: A History
  • Philosophy, Religion, and the Meaning of Life
  • Myth in Human History
  • Origin of Civilization
  • Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
  • Natural Law and Human Nature
  • Introduction to the Study of Religion
  • Great Masters: Liszt-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann-Their Lives and Music
  • The Skeptic’s Guide to the Great Books
  • Business Law: Negligence and Torts
  • Roots of Human Behavior
  • Life and Writings of Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, 2nd Edition
  • Development of European Civilization
  • War and World History
  • Understanding Literature and Life: Drama, Poetry and Narrative
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Long 19th Century: European History from 1789 to 1917
  • From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author
  • 20th-Century American Fiction
  • History of Science: Antiquity to 1700
  • History of Science: 1700-1900
  • Modern British Drama
  • Medieval Heroines in History and Legend
  • Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World
  • Freedom: The Philosophy of Liberation
  • Representing Justice: Stories of Law and Literature

Coursera Courses

  • Active
    • Understanding Video Games
    • Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology
    • Introduction to Psychology
  • Arts
    • Ignite Your Everyday Creativity
    • Introduction to Classical Music
    • Advertising and Society
    • Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction
    • Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
    • Comic Books and Graphic Novels
  • Biology and Life Sciences:
    • Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
    • Astronomy: Exploring Time and Space
    • Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life
    • An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing
    • Introduction to Forensic Science
    • Introduction to Neuroeconomics: how the brain makes decisions
    • Childbirth: A Global Perspective
    • Abortion: Quality Care and Public Health Implications
  • Business:
    • Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship
    • New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs
    • Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace
    • Gamification
    • The Governance of Nonprofit Organizations
    • Marketing in a Digital World
    • Digital Marketing Channels: Planning
    • Essentials of Entrepreneurship: Thinking & Action
    • Social Psychology
    • Law and the Entrepreneur
    • What’s Your Big Idea?
    • A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior
    • Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination
    • Social Entrepreneurship
    • Unethical Decision Making in Organizations
    • International Organizations Management
    • The Power of Macroeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World
    • An Introduction to Marketing
    • Giving 2.0: The MOOC
    • Surviving Disruptive Technologies
  • Computers
    • Image and video processing: From Mars to Hollywood with a stop at the hospital
    • Welcome to Game Theory
    • Game Theory II: Advanced Applications
    • Fundamentals of Digital Image and Video Processing
    • Game Theory
    • General Game Playing
    • Computational Photography
  • Software
    • Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 1
    • Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 2
    • Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming
    • Beginning Game Programming with C#
    • Human-Computer Interaction Design
    • Learn to Program: The Fundamentals
    • Learn to Program: Crafting Quality Code
    • Creative, Serious and Playful Science of Android Apps
    • Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps
  • Security
    • Cryptography I
    • Cryptography II
    • Surveillance Law
    • Securing Digital Democracy
  • Economics
    • Microeconomics Principles
    • Economics of Transition and Emerging Markets
    • Making Better Group Decisions: Voting, Judgement Aggregation and Fair Division
    • Understanding Media by Understanding Google
    • Public Economics
    • Property and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics
    • The Power of Microeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World
    • Principles of Macroeconomics
    • Principles of Microeconomics
    • Principles of Economics for Scientists
    • e-Learning Ecologies
  • Education
    • Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World
    • The Age of Sustainable Development
    • Video Games and Learning
    • ICT in Primary Education: Transforming children’s learning across the curriculum
    • Supporting children with difficulties in reading and writing
  • Health
    • Useful Genetics Part 1
    • The Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People
    • Social Epidemiology
  • Humanities
    • Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World
    • An Introduction to American Law
    • Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences
    • Moralities of Everyday Life
    • Greek and Roman Mythology
    • Technology and Ethics
    • A History of the World since 1300
    • The Modern World: Global History since 1760
    • Practical Ethics
    • The Ancient Greeks
  • IT
    • Visual Design
    • Content Strategy for Professionals: Growing Audiences for Your Content
    • Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences for Your Organization
    • Introduction to User Interface Design (Part 2)
    • Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling
  • Law
    • Introduction to International Criminal Law
    • Law and the Entrepreneur
    • International Human Rights Law: Prospects and Challenges
    • Presumed Innocent? The Social Science of Wrongful Conviction
    • The Global Student’s Introduction to U.S. Law
  • Math
    • General Game Playing
    • Games without Chance: Combinatorial Game Theory
  • Music
    • The Music of the Rolling Stones, 1962-1974
    • Music’s Big Bang: The Genesis of Rock ‘n’ Roll
    • History of Rock, Part Two
    • History of Rock, Part One
    • The Music of the Beatles
  • Physics
    • Galaxies and Cosmology
    • Astronomy: Exploring Time and Space
    • Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life
    • The Science of the Solar System
    • Introduction to Astronomy
    • Analyzing the Universe
    • Imagining Other Earths
    • How Things Work 1
    • From the Big Bang to Dark Energy
    • The Diversity of Exoplanets
    • AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery
    • Exploring Quantum Physics
  • Social Sciences
    • Moral Foundations of Politics
    • Living with Dementia: Impact on Individuals, Caregivers, Communities and Societies
    • Positive Psychology
    • Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War: Global Perspectives
    • Organizational Analysis (Self-Paced)
    • Paradoxes of War
    • Introduction to Psychology as a Science
    • Democratic Development
    • Human Trafficking
Posted in Goals | Tagged 2015, Coursera, goals, learning, online, The Great Courses | Leave a reply

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