Archaeology
ARC 122 W — Archaeology and Ancient Engineering: An Online Course
Many of the world’s most famous, monumental, and staggering engineering projects or inventions are in fact ancient, some even prehistoric. Stonehenge and related megaliths date back thousands of years. Found off Greece in a shipwreck, the enigmatic Antikythera bronze is an astonishing invention dating before the Roman empire. Even if Hero of Alexandria’s 1st century ce steam engines were only theoretical, they deserve mention alongside his pneumatics and mechanics innovations. Some of the most remarkable achievements in antiquity include Roman roads and bridges, and the advent of concrete and hydrological technology such as aqueducts. Add to this the qanat canals and irrigation system of Persia, the pyramids of Egypt, the stone cities and road networks of the Incas and their ancestors in South America, and the urban and sculptural stoneworking of the Aztecs in Central America. All of these feats of engineering, occurring long before the Industrial Revolution, will be the subject of this course.
Design
DSN 102 — Design Execution: Bringing Ideas to Life
Design is now a major force in businesses, governments, and universities worldwide, nowhere more so than in our own Bay Area backyard. In this three-quarter sequence, we will explore the nature of design and its relevance both within and beyond the realm of the design professional. The Fall quarter course (“Ideation: The History and Theory of Design,” taught by Barry Katz) served as a general introduction to the history and diverse philosophies of design. In the Winter quarter (“Design Execution: Bringing Ideas to Life,” taught by Peter Macdonald), students will focus on practical design methodologies. The Spring quarter course (“Implementation,” taught by Christopher Ireland) will guide students through a process of transforming theory and practice into a viable business strategy. While these courses build upon one another, each course can be taken independently as well.
Psychology
PSY 17 — The Psychology of Guilt
Many of us are ambivalent about guilt. We recognize the need for it but would rather not experience it. However, guilt is an integral part of our lives, and we need to understand it in order to deal with it effectively.
This course will address such questions as: What is guilt? How does it differ from shame or regret? What functions does it serve? What are its cultural and gender differences? And is the capacity for guilt part of our evolutionary heritage or is it socially constructed? We will look at behaviors that typically induce guilt, the role of guilt in family and intimate relationships, healthy and unhealthy forms of guilt, and feelings of guilt when one has done no wrong. Finally, we will address the issue of how to deal with guilt—both as we experience it ourselves and as we induce it in others.
PSY 205 W — The Science of Willpower and Change: An Online Course
Physical health, emotional well-being, social relationships, and professional success all require the ability to regulate our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Advances in psychology, neuroscience, medicine, and mind-body research are beginning to paint a new picture of what willpower is, why it matters, and how to develop it.
Is willpower in the mind or in the body? Is it possible to run out of willpower, and how do you build a bigger reserve? What motivates people to change? Why do we talk ourselves out of things we really want or need to do? How much control over our thoughts and feelings do we really have, and what are the healthiest ways to regulate them? This course will address those questions through lectures, readings, and discussions, and give students the opportunity to apply the ideas of the course to making an important change or pursuing a major goal in their lives.
WSP 29 — The Science of Willpower and Change: An On-Campus Workshop
According to the American Psychological Association, Americans list “not enough willpower” as the number-one thing keeping them from their goals. What if willpower is not some unattainable virtue, but a natural instinct you can train? What if willpower is a strength you can cultivate, and even a “contagious” state you can catch and share with others?
This one-day workshop will explore what willpower is, why you already have it, and how to develop it. You will learn practical strategies for tapping into the body’s willpower reserves, training the brain for greater focus and self-control, transforming old habits, and overcoming the most common willpower challenges. You will also discover the biggest myths about willpower, and learn the latest insights about self-control and change from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. Whatever your biggest goal, this workshop will help you get started, tap in to your motivation, and embrace the process of change.
Business
BUS 03 — Financial Planning, Part II
The world of personal finance can appear highly complex, and we often willingly delegate control of this area of our lives to others, sometimes to total strangers. Using an entertaining, hands-on approach, this course demystifies that world and helps us to participate actively and wisely in shaping our own financial destiny. Topics in this course include investing in bonds and real estate, creative strategies for saving for college and retirement, and estate planning. Recent significant changes in these areas will also be discussed. We will meet the apocalyptic Four Horsemen of Financial Planning—taxes, inflation, risk, and administrative costs—and see what mischief each causes and how to minimize their impact.
BUS 127 — Does Advertising Still Matter? Using Time-Tested Techniques Today
Creating brand awareness and generating demand remain two critical marketing imperatives for launching or maintaining a business. But do the tools and skills that defined advertising in the age of Mad Men still apply in the 24/7, mobile, consumer-controlled social marketing environment of today? The answer is a resounding yes, though marketers need to master an ever-expanding toolchest of new web-based platforms and tactics augmenting the mass communication media that have defined advertising since its earliest days.
In this course, we will investigate the fundamental attributes of classic advertising, such as television, radio and print, and the role these media have played in society and marketing programs. We will then explore the prevailing marketing environment to assess the role that these types of media continue to play today. Tracing their evolution across media and changing consumer behavior, this course will provide students with a comprehensive approach to applying time-tested advertising principles to contemporary forms of communication and consumer engagement. By the end of the course, students will be able to judge which classic tools and associated skills remain relevant today and how best to modify the ones that seem outdated. In short, they’ll have the competence to differentiate between basic principles (timeless) and specific tactics (contemporary) in developing their marketing programs.
BUS 130 — Leadership and the Enneagram: Become the Leader You Really Want to Be
Leadership—it’s a skill that most of us need, at work and in life. In virtually every interaction and in every relationship, leadership is at play. Building a greater understanding of leadership can have significant benefits: You can be more successful in gaining the positive engagement of followers and, even when you are not in a leadership position, you can better appreciate the dynamics of a situation and facilitate progress toward common goals.
Last year, we featured a year-long series called “Mastering Marketing”; this year the focus will be on leadership and management. Although it’s impossible to cover this topic in an exhaustive way, this series of courses will help you understand leadership and management skills from various important perspectives. Each course will give you practical insights that will be immediately applicable to your professional and personal life. This quarter, we call your attention to five offerings: “Leadership and the Enneagram: Become the Leader You Really Want to Be,” “The Creative Entrepreneur: Innovation Through Design Thinking,” “Women Leaders: Mastering Influence, Authenticity, and Power,” “Courageous Leadership,” and “Building Strong Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations.” While these courses build upon one another, each course can be taken independently as well.
BUS 218 — Marketing Without Money
Creating buzz is a critical goal for both startups and established companies. To do so, almost nothing compares to the power of free on the Internet. Established companies leverage Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other online media to deepen customer relationships, while small businesses like law firms and nonprofits use SEO (search engine optimization) to get to the top of critical Google, Yelp, and Google+ local searches. Today’s Internet world is a free-for-all of Google, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Yelp, and other social media sites too numerous to list.
This course will help startups, small businesses, and established companies understand the opportunities presented by Google SEO and social media marketing as no-cost marketing vehicles. Reworked for 2015, the course will alternate between lecture overviews and workshops. For example, one week will be a lecture presentation of basic concepts, such as SEO or Facebook marketing, and the next week will feature small-group, interactive activities designed to help you learn, in a “hands-on” fashion, how to make your own “marketing without money” plan. By combining expert lectures with exercises, this course will propel you from theory to practice. The course will end with student presentations of their custom Internet marketing plans.
Technology
CS 21 A — Beginning Website Design
In this hands-on course, students will learn the fundamentals of creating and publishing a website through a mixture of exercises, lectures, and demonstrations. Computer novices and more advanced users alike should find the course challenging and engaging. Topics include website design principles, HTML5 basics, images, tables, Cascading Style Sheets, forms, and graphics. By the end of the course, students will have built a website and will be ready to strike out on their own.
CS 41 W — Beginning Programming (PHP): An Online Course
Have you ever wondered how web developers create their websites? In this hands-on course, students will explore the world of programming by learning the fundamental grammar and meaning of the PHP programming language. PHP is a computer scripting language that has been used for many years to produce dynamic web pages. Students will come away with a fundamental understanding of PHP that will be applicable to other programming languages. Topics covered will include language basics (syntax, semantics, data types), variable basics, control flow structures, functions, file handling, and ways to leverage others’ code through the use of libraries. By the end of the course, students will be able to write and build a program, and will be able to figure out how to solve a problem in a programmatic way.
CS 52 — Beginning Programming: JavaScript
JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language that is extensively used to create web pages and web applications. It is also used to add highly responsive interfaces, validate forms, add dynamic functionality, communicate with web servers, and act as a server-side language. In this course, students will gain a fundamental understanding of JavaScript that will be applicable to other programming languages. Students will learn language basics (syntax, data types, operators), variables, scope, memory, control flow structures, functions, the document object model, the browser object model, object-oriented programming, and events. By the end of the course, students will be able to write and build a program using JavaScript, and will be able to figure out how to solve a problem in a programmatic way.