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Open Online Learning

McMaster’s Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) initiative began with a partnership with online course provider Coursera in 2014. This partnership leverages the MacPherson Institute’s digital design and production capacity to encourage members of the campus community to rethink course curriculum in student-oriented ways. In 2017, one of our MOOCs, Mindshift, had a total of total of 87,504 enrolled learners across six continents and was voted the MOOC of the year by Class Central, a MOOC aggregator. The rapid growth of MOOCs has led to increased choice for learners and has encouraged us to shift our production and recruitment emphasis to skills-based courses.

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Mindshift

Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of selective ignorance over general competence.

Mindshift: Launch Course

DNA Decoded

Are you a living creature? Then, congratulations! You’ve got DNA. But how much do you really know about the microscopic molecules that make you unique?

DNA Decoded answers these questions and more. If you’re curious about DNA, join Felicia Vulcu and Caitlin Mullarkey, two biochemists from McMaster University, as they explore the structure of DNA, how scientists cracked the genetic code, and what our DNA can tell us about ourselves.

DNA Decoded: Launch Course

Finance for Everyone Launch Course

The Finance for Everyone Specialization will help you learn the language of finance and understand how the flow of money relates to the most important key social issues influencing our lives and communities.

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Learning How to Learn Launch Course

This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about the how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects.

Experimentation for Improvement

Experimentation for Improvement

We are always using experiments to improve our lives, our community, and our work. Are you doing it efficiently? Or are you (incorrectly) changing one thing at a time and hoping for the best? In this course, you will learn how to plan efficient experiments – testing with many variables. Our goal is to find the best results using only a few experiments. A key part of the course is how to optimize a system. This course is taught by McMaster’s Kevin Dunn.

Experimentation for Improvement: Launch Course