Online Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies
Online Course Schedule for Spring 2024

Real World Research Methods

Note: Understanding the world around us often requires the use of research. From evaluating programs to surveying customers, there are a host of applications for research in our everyday lives and careers. This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the knowledge base, traditions, theories, and tools of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research used in various fields, including program evaluation, business, education, and healthcare. The course starts with a basic review and discussion of different industries that use research for various purposes, followed by several core modules in each methodology and the ethical factors to consider when conducting research. Students will complete interactive exercises throughout to gain experience in applying different research methodologies in different contexts while they prepare to design a research project of their own in an area of interest to them.

African Affairs: Hist Interf

Ancient Rome & the Big Screen

This class will explore representations of Rome in classical texts and their adaptations in cinema, focusing on shifts accompanying Rome’s changing political and cultural status vis-à-vis America’s. Rome is not a fixed and unchanging entity but rather a set of constantly shifting and adapting representations. As a primary text, we will use Monica Cyrino’s Big Screen Rome to get a sense of the film history and sociopolitical contexts of the films, as well as readings in ancient literature that correspond to the films under discussion, including Plutarch’s Lives, Suetonius’ Lives, Tacitus’ Histories, Plautus’ plays, and the poetry of Catullus and Horace. We will begin the class with Plautus and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, moving through films including Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Life of Brian, and end with the film The Eagle and episodes in HBO’s Rome with readings from Suetonius and Caesar. We will also read short scholarly articles about the production and reactions to the films of the course. In addition to written assignments, such as weekly musings and analysis of secondary sources, we will also complete creative assignments crafting our own reimaginings of Rome in varied formats. Through this course, we will gain a foundation in Roman history and Rome’s changing image in America that directly correlates with America’s own changing image.

Business Statistics

This course will introduce students to elementary statistics for business. Students will learn the foundational concepts of probability, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics, and they will learn the standard techniques that are used to analyze statistical data in a business environment.

Ethical Leadership

This course offers a selective introduction to the study of philosophy through the critical examination of ethical issues arising within situations calling for responsible leadership. We will apply theoretical principles to selected case studies from professional life, carrying out careful analysis of problems concerning right and wrong surrounding finance, accounting, and investment, marketing and advertising, corporate governance, international human rights, data science, global business, distributive and social justice, environmental policy, and national and global democratic citizenship.

Financial Management

This course introduces the theory and practice of corporate financial management and the application of financial management techniques to business decision-making. Topics include financial statement analysis, financial ratio analysis, the time value of money, risk and return, capital budgeting, cost of capital, sources and uses of financing, and international markets. Students will learn about data security standards, the importance of data anonymization and methods to identify and prevent insider threats.

Fndmntl Concepts of Modern Sci

This course will help students grasp fundamental scientific concepts developed over more than eight hundred years; these concepts are essential in the understanding of our contemporary world. The students will also have an opportunity to understand how and when the so-called “conflict between science and religion” originated and its evolution through the Galileo conflict until present. Through classroom lectures and discussions, reading assignments, student presentations and issues debates, we will address the complex evolution of arguments at every step of discoveries of scientific concepts about our world and Church’s interpretation of them and in the process we will review and gain appreciation of one of the most exciting intellectual endeavors ever. This extraordinary display of substantive and original ideas which this debate generated for centuries continues today and allows us to enrich the understanding of our present universe from the smallest subatomic particle to the Big Bang expansion of the cosmos and challenges us to make our own judgment about the meaning of it all.

International Organizations

Note: This course offers a broad introduction to international organizations, a subfield of international relations concerned mainly with how global organizations help states avoid conflict (war) and promote cooperation (peace). The course is structured around four key themes: first, the theories and history of international organizations; second, questions about security. war and peace; third, global economic issues and finally, humanitarian, and environmental issues. The course will pay particular attention to the United Nations and to regional international organizations such as the European Union.

Introduction to Marketing

This course will cover those activities for creating and communicating the message of an organization regarding the goods or services it wishes to offer to customers, clients or members, and will include the concepts of advertising and selling. The course will consider both theoretical and practical aspects of how businesses engage in marketing efforts. Required course for Entrepreneurship and Organizational Leadership concentrations.

Islamic Religious Thought/Prac

This course explores the diversity and depth of the Islamic religious tradition, and how it is lived by 1.8 billion Muslims globally. We will look at the stories and significance of the Qur’an; the Prophet Muhammad’s life, character traits, and importance in Muslim spirituality; forms of prayer and pilgrimage; mysticism and morality; art and architecture; interfaith relations; and more. Through immersive learning, students will engage a wide range of materials including historical fiction, film and digital media, and centuries-old texts. Assignments will include reflection papers, collaborative discussions, original research and more. This course seeks to present the diverse voices, perspectives, and religious experiences of Muslims, to introduce students to the study of religion more broadly, and to equip students to address stereotypes in their daily lives and communities.

Let Them Eat Culture

Oddly this class is not really about food directly. Yet, it is about how human culture, politics, and well-being have been dramatically affected by our food—how we grow it, sell it, distribute it, and eat it. Homo sapiens have existed for 250,000 years, yet civilization (and written history) emerges only 10,000 years ago. Why? For 240,000 years human beings existed as hunter gatherers chasing their food. It wasn’t until they made a transition to agriculture and domestication of animals for food that they created permanent settlements leading to a division of labor and written language. Throughout history what we eat and how we produce and distribute it has been central to trade, warfare, and the development of social class. Food has spurred political revolutions and has transformed our biological existence—in some cases for the worst and in others for the better. In the 21st century it is easy to take food for granted. Yet we spend 10 percent of each day, on average, consuming food and drink (…even more time earning enough to buy it). We’ve become disconnected from food production in this is the age of the Happy Meal, reheating rather than cooking, and celebrity chefs on multiple TV networks. We’ve forgotten how much time and energy it once took to produce and prepare food. We’ve lost our knowledge of even what is in our food. In this class you will learn about the food we consume now and what we ate in the past and the very real and important consequences of these choices.

Note: Core Areas: Humanities OR Culture

Math as Philosophy

Here is a stunning fact: the world can be understood mathematically. This fact underlies our success in science, computers, and even our private every-day reasoning processes. But how is this so? Why is mathematical thinking so astonishingly useful to help us understand the world around us? In this course, we examine the conceptual foundations of mathematics. No prior mathematical knowledge is required for this course. This is not a course about doing calculations. It is about abstract structures, and how we use such structure in our thinking. Throughout the course, we will ask the following questions. How do we organize things into collections, and networks? Does "+" (adding) mean what you think it means? Are there numbers that can't be enumerated (even by God), and if so, how do we even know about such spooky numbers? How do computers work, and how could it possibly all boil down to just ones and zeros? Are there math problems that can't be solved (even with an infinitely powerful computer)? And how do we even know how to figure out the answer to that? Finally, how do computer simulated neural networks "learn," and how much is it like human learning?

Note: Core Area: Natural Science or Philosophy. Concentration: Bus and Entrepreneurship

Multimedia Design for Comms

This course focuses on digital multimedia design for communication(s). We begin with establishing a common understanding of terms and standards used in multimedia communication(s). We address the theory and practice of how technology is accepted and then focus on how different communication formats and digital tools influence meaning-making. The course uses a learning by doing approach. This means that throughout the semester you will be creating various artifacts that you will then curate and showcase as a final course project. The online environment is designed to provide the guidance that you will need to have a successful final project. This guidance comes in the form of mini lectures, demonstrations, discussion, peer and instructor feedback

Public Health in China

This Independent Study will build on essential foundational work in “China’s Digital Revolution” (BLHV 3106) to examine in depth China’s system of public health, the policies and agencies involved, and, in particular, the potential of digital and AI interventions to enhance equity in health delivery. Key subtopics to be addressed include: 1) the current public health structure, central, provincial, local, and responsibilities at each level; 2) health expenditure and financing, notably through government-sponsored insurance schemes; 3) health equity, namely, distribution of resources urban-rural and by region; 4) medical research, including disease control, cancer research, and the bioethics of gene and cell therapy; 5) medical education and training; 6) the potential of telehealth and telemedicine to improve health care access; 7) adoption of AI in health care technology; and 8) US-China collaborative medical research projects.

Religion and Film

Many film theorists value cinema’s realist abilities above all else. Many religious studies theorists contend that religion deals with our relationship to the transcendental, in other words: with the relationship to that which is beyond physical reality. Is it possible then to have religious cinema? What is religious cinema? This course explores religion beyond the abstract and private; it explores religion as it interacts with physical reality and human bodies, with human history and politics, with representation and narrative. Through our viewing of global cinema we will study questions of faith and the quest for meaning in different traditions, with a particular focus on gender and sexuality (queer cinema). This course has both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Students will be responsible for 90 minutes of preparatory work weekly through online lectures, discussion boards. podcasts, group work, readings and more. Then the entire class will meet at the same time each week for 60 minutes of live Zoom structured discussion and learning to go deeper into the asynchronous elements.

Note: This course has both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Students will be responsible for 90 minutes of preparatory work weekly through online lectures, discussion boards. podcasts, group work, readings and more. Then the entire class will meet at the same time each week for 60 minutes of live Zoom structured discussion and learning to go deeper into the asynchronous elements.

Sex and Society

This course provides an introduction to the vibrant and interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies, and investigates the ways in which sex and sexuality are shaped by society, and the ways in which they are connected to power and inequality in our world. We will begin the course by exploring some key theories and concepts within the field, and situate them alongside the history of LGBTQ activism in the United States and elsewhere. We will then consider how these concepts can be applied to a variety of contemporary issues such as sexual identity and the state, same-sex marriage, representations of sexuality in popular culture and the media, transnational sexualities and sexual identities, and consumerism. Throughout the course, we will examine how sexuality intersects with other social categories such as gender, race, class, nationality, age and ability/disability.

Note: Coursera students only. Core Area: Writing, Humanities or Culture.

Social Psych of Econ Behavior

Economics has developed as a highly deductive social science. It begins with rather rigid assumptions about how human beings should behave to be “rational.” These were developed in the late-18th Century. Yet, inductive approaches, such as psychology and sociology understand human behavior with much a more inductive lens. How do people actually act economically and socially in feudal, capitalist, socialist, or communist economic systems? How do they react to the “rules of the game” and what are the consequences? This course examines and compares the economic systems humans have used historically to define the social psychology of economic behavior. It also addresses the future of economic systems given new technologies like automation and artificial intelligence and the rapid expansion of globalization and online commerce.

The Human Condition

What makes us human? How much of this is a part of our “nature” (e.g., biological hardware, chemistry, and physiological changes) and how much of it is due to how we are nurtured (our socialization, cultures, and social interactions)? This course explores some of the most central aspects of the human condition and asks, “What makes us tick?” The class explores competing paradigms derived from a combination of studies and research from biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, archaeology, and historical observation. The structure of the course is inspired by the concept of a “hierarchy of needs”—beginning with essential “lower order” aspects of the human condition moving up toward the problems and issues that are more often the focus of life once the essentials of life have been obtained. The course challenges the notion that 21st century human beings are all that different from those that existed in 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 years ago. It also seeks to understand how human behavior can vary so much across cultures now. Reading material for the course also includes a combination of original source excerpts from the world’s religious and legal texts, and philosophers and scientists such as John Locke, René Descartes, B.F. Skinner, John Watson, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Sun Tzu, Niccolò Machiavelli, Edward O. Wilson. Lecture and the course readings are supplemented with suggested journal articles including current research as well as multimedia excerpts on each week’s topics.

The Role of U.S. in the World

Note: Whether or not we are all Americans, we all deal every day with the consequences of how the United States has interacted with and related to the rest of the world. This course focuses on American foreign policy and how it connects to both regional dynamics and transnational challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change. It takes seriously the argument that every citizen of the world has a responsibility to understand and engage with how the US intersects with global dynamics, and in particular that every American resident has a responsibility to participate in political discourse over foreign policy questions. These matters are too important to leave to “the experts.” And by the time you finish this course, you’ll be on your way to becoming one yourself.