In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx -- and shows how minority neighborhoods suffer most from flawed urban policy. A quiz, thought provoking question, and links for further study are provided to create a lesson around the 18-minute video. Educators may use the platform to easily "Flip" or create their own lesson for use with their students of any age or level.

Open Education Week is an ideal time to hear from our community members who are leading open education initiatives on their campuses and across their states to reduce costs for students and empower faculty to enhance learning in their classrooms. We will hear from two OER librarians and a faculty member who are successfully growing awareness and adoption of open educational resources. They will share the successes and challenges of coordinating statewide efforts and influencing their colleagues to adopt OER in their courses.

This course examines the economic, political, social, and spatial dynamics of urban growth and decline in cities and their key component areas (downtown, suburbs, etc.). Topics include impacts of industrialization, technology, politics, and social practices on cities. Students will examine the role of public and private sector activities, ranging from zoning and subsidies to infrastructure development and real estate investment, in affecting urban growth and decline. Readings are both theoretical and empirical, with considerable thought paid to comparative and historical differences.

Renew Boston Trust is a program launched by the City of Boston to improve energy efficiency in municipal buildings. By implementing energy conservation measures, such as lighting upgrades and weatherization, the program aims to reduce energy use and lower greenhouse gas emissions

A truly inter-disciplinary course, Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions reviews how law, economics, sociology, political science, and planning conceptualize urban land and property rights and uses cases to discuss what these different lenses illuminate and obscure. It also looks at how the social sciences might be informed by how design, cartography, and visual studies conceptualize space’s physicality. This year’s topics include land trusts for affordable housing, mixed-use in public space, and critical cartography.

On Thursday, January 26, 2023, #GoOpen held a public webinar titled, “How Open Educational Resources Can Support Digital Equity in Your State”.  The session dove into the benefits of OER for digital equity, including hearing the perspective of a state that has invested in OER to promote equity. Featuring Connecticut education leader Doug Casey, the session provided specific examples of how participants might take action in their states to craft Digital Equity Plans that can leverage OER to support equity and capitalize on improved digital infrastructure.

This activity is for students to work in teams (2012) or individually (2013) to develop a project (such as a physical or numerical model), survey based research, case study, technical briefs on a remediation technology, etc. of the students' choice, based on their understanding of and interest in the subjects covered in the class. This is used in the GL 199 Hydrogeology course, which is offered through the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences at Norwich University. This is an experimental course that has not made it to the course catalogue as yet. It is currently offered to students majoring in Geology, with an acknowledgement that a course in hydrogeology is a desirable component of a Geology curriculum. Environmental Science students are encouraged to take it to deepen their understanding of subsurface processes. This course is considered a science elective for Civil and Environmental Engineering majors, and greatly complements the Hydrology, and Soils and Materials classes that are a part of the regular CE&E curriculum. Students from freshmen through seniors across these three majors are accepted into the course.
With a cross section of majors and academic years in the class, it was determined that a project that has students thinking about a topic of their choice and developing fundamental research and collaboration skills is critical to meeting common workplace demands.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This course, is designed to be a descriptive and analytical overview of water organs, availability, location and flow. It will be examined in the light of problems, possibilities and policy and consider historical perspectives.

This is a unit of Study from the Rwanda ICT Essentials for Teachers Course. Teachers should be able to explain how existing and planned national policies impact classroom practices and how their classroom practices correspond to and support policies related to ICT. So on completion of the unit teachers should know and understand existing and planned national policies related to ICTs in Education, identify how classroom practices correspond to and support national policies;
Demonstrate a determination to play a positive role in nation building.

By the end of this unit you should be able to demonstrate how existing and planned national policies related to ICT impact classroom practises and vice versa.

This OER campus administrator guide, officially entitled "OER & Online Learning: Administrator Quick Start Guide, Strengthening the Shift to Online Learning in California Community Colleges Through the Use of OER", is an outcome of a project by ISKME, supported by a grant from the Michelson 20MM Foundation, to conduct a study and develop a set of resources to accelerate OER use for distance education, especially the urgent shift to remote learning during the pandemic in 2020.

The Guide, created in collaboration with a selection of OER and online education champions across California community colleges (CCC), seeks to support community college administrators in California and beyond in more effectively supporting faculty use of OER as they work to address the reality of online learning in response to COVID-19 and future disruptions. The guide provides quick tips and starting points for campus administrators as they work to create the policy and practice environments needed to foster increased OER use for online learning.

See the associated OER and Online Learning: Faculty Quick-Start Guide for more in-depth tools and resources targeted to faculty and instructional design support, at: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/oer-online-learning-faculty-quick-start-guide

Students will go through a series of activities using primary and secondary sources in order to answer the following question. "Is immigration a good thing?"

This module includes 10 topics related to finding, evaluating, and presenting scientific information related to climate change or other interdisciplinary topics.

The ultimate goal is for students to prepare a paper and present it to their colleagues as though they were giving it at typical professional meeting such as American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, or American Quaternary Association. However, the technical level of the talk should be at a level that the class will understand and enjoy.

The topic should demonstrate scientific method rather than being merely descriptive or primarily applied science/technology. Students should use current literature. The presentation will be more interesting if the subject is somewhat controversial. The final product should demonstrate that the student understands and has gained the skills presented in all 10 topics.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This is a discussion-based, interactive seminar on the development of information and communication technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. The students will seek to understand the issues surrounding designing and instituting policy, and explore the possible ways in which they can make an impact on information and communication technology in Africa.

This course uses the tools of macroeconomics to study various macroeconomic policy problems in-depth. The problems range from economic growth in the long run, to government finances in the intermediate run, and economic stability in the short run. Many economic models used today are surveyed.

This course examines the interconnections of international politics and climate change. Beginning with an analysis of the strategic and environmental legacies of the 20th Century, it explores the politicization of the natural environment, the role of science in this process, and the gradual shifts in political concerns to incorporate “nature”. Two general thrusts of climate-politics connections are pursued, namely those related to (a) conflict – focusing on threats to security due to environmental dislocations and (b) cooperation – focusing on the politics of international treaties that have contributed to emergent processes for global accord in response to evidence of climate change. The course concludes by addressing the question of: “What Next?”

This course will analyze the causes and consequences of international trade and investment. We will investigate why nations trade, what they trade, and who gains (or not) from this trade. We will then analyze the motives for countries or organizations to restrict or regulate international trade and study the effects of such policies on economic welfare. Topics covered will include the effects of trade on economic growth and wage inequality, multinationals and foreign direct investment, international trade agreements and current trade policy disputes.

This course provides a substantive overview of U.S. politics and an introduction to the discipline of political science. It surveys the institutional foundations of U.S. politics as well as the activities of political elites, organizations, and ordinary citizens. It also explores the application of general political science concepts and analytic frameworks to specific episodes and phenomena in U.S. politics.

Comparative politics is the systematic study and comparison of the world's political systems. The course begins by discussing the factors and categories of analysis that political scientists and important international institutions like the World Bank, NATO, and the United Nations use regularly; it ends by comparing and contrasting governments from five different regions of the world: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Define the chief characteristics of a nation state; Identify and explain various comparative methodologies used to compare various political systems; Distinguish between unitary, federal, and confederal governmental models; Compare and contrast political cultures in selected countries; Compare and contrast political socialization in selected countries; Describe and explain patterns of representation and participation in selected countries; Compare and contrast the roles and functions of political parties in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of interest groups in selected countries; Identify and explain governance and policy-making in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the executive in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the judicial branch in selected countries; Compare and contrast the role of the bureaucracy and the policy process in selected countries; Describe and explain the political economy and development in selected countries; Identify and explain political challenges and changing agendas in selected countries. (Political Science 221)

This course introduces undergraduates to the basic theory, institutional architecture, and practice of international development. We take an applied, interdisciplinary approach to some of the “big questions” in our field. This course will unpack these questions by providing an overview of existing knowledge and best practices in the field. The goal of this class is to go beyond traditional dichotomies and narrow definitions of progress, well-being, and culture. Instead, we will invite students to develop a more nuanced understanding of international development by offering an innovative set of tools and content flexibility.