LibGuides: Resources for Online Teaching and Learning: Agricultural &amp; Food Sciences: Online Courses

Selected General Online Courses

Introduction to Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Course description
This course will provide a detailed description of the systematic review process, discuss the strengths and limitations of the method, and provide step-by-step guidance on how to actually perform a systematic review and meta-analysis. Specific topics to be covered include: formulation of the review question, searching of literature, quality assessment of studies, data extraction, meta-analytic methods, assessment of heterogeneity and report writing.

Systematic Review and Systematic Mapping

Course description
This course aims to introduce systematic reviewing and systematic mapping as methods for evidence synthesis. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the activities that are necessary to maximize comprehensiveness, transparency, objectivity and reliability throughout the review process. This step-by-step course takes time to explain the theory behind each part of the review process, and provides guidance, tips and advice for those wanting to undertake a full systematic review or map.

Crafting Research Questions and Qualitative Methodology
Course description
This course covers approaches to research and evaluation in the planning field, for those preparing to write 1st-year doctoral and other research papers. Topics include narrowing down research interests, using quantitative and qualitative techniques complementarily, and interviewing and other fieldwork challenges. The course uses a seminar-type format in which readings, class discussions, and assignments are built around (1) generic themes that run across the research interests and paper topics of students in the class, and (2) lessons about methodology to be learned from the case comparison studies assigned.
Survival Skills for Researchers: The Responsible Conduct of Research
Course description
This course is designed to provide graduate students and postdoctoral associates with techniques that enhance both validity and responsible conduct in scientific practice. Lectures present practical steps for developing skills in scientific research and are combined with discussion of cases. The course covers study design, preparation of proposals and manuscripts, peer review, authorship, use of humans and non-human animals in research, allegations of misconduct, and intellectual property. Also discussed are mentoring relationships and career options. Aspects of responsible research conduct are integrated into lectures and case discussion as appropriate to the specific topic. This course also satisfies the training grant requirements of the NIH for education in the responsible conduct of research.

Visualization for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education

Course description
This course is an introduction to principles and techniques of visual communication, and provides opportunities for science and engineering majors to acquire practical skills in the visual computer arts, in a studio environment. Students will learn how to create graphics for print and web, animations, and interactive media, and how to use these techniques to effectively communicate scientific and engineering concepts for learning and teaching. This class involves three hands-on creative projects, which will be presented in class.

Writing Recommendation Letters Online
Course description
Building on the foundation laid by the popular earlier print editions of his faculty handbook on writing recommendation letters, Joe Schall digs deeper in this new online edition, addressing issues ranging from the ethical considerations faculty wrestle with when writing letters to the new challenges posed by the information age. Citing sources ranging from The Chronicle of Higher Education to refereed journal articles to excerpts from listserv discussions among scholarship directors, this handbook advises faculty on the best practices when writing letters for students, as well as informs writers about nine of the nation's top scholarships and the detail that selectors crave in winning scholarship reference letters.
Writing Personal Statements Online
Course description
For students, personal statements and application essays are among the most difficult and most important documents they will ever write. They are difficult because they require both introspection and polish, and important because the writer may literally be competing for tens of thousands of dollars in a huge field of outstanding candidates. A writing tutor who has provided guidance on more than a thousand graduate applications, Joe Schall advises you on how to be competitive but not cocky, informed but not formulaic, openly creative yet professional. As you consider ways to write your way into your future, count on this website to help you grow and thrive in the process.
Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age
Course description
For students and others who read it, this style manual quickly becomes a favorite resource. Whether planning a paper, running a grammar check, completing a report, composing an email, puzzling over a usage or grammar issue, or writing a resume or online portfolio, you are bound to find the material and examples you need in Style for Students Online. Drawing from his breadth of experience as a tutor, teacher, editor, and creative writer, Joe Schall provides technical writing advice that spans from the conceptual to the niggling. Thoughtful, practical, up-to-date, and rich in pith, Style for Students Online should be bookmarked as one of your oft-visited websites.
Advanced Writing Seminar
Course description
The purpose of this seminar is to expose the student to a number of different types of writing that one may encounter in a professional career. The class is an opportunity to write, review, rewrite and present a point of view both orally and in written form.
Graduate Technical Writing Workshop
Course description
This course is designed to improve the student's ability to communicate technical information. It covers the basics of working with sources, including summarizing and paraphrasing, synthesizing source materials, citing, quoting, and avoiding plagiarism. It also covers how to write an abstract and a literature review. In addition, we will cover communication concepts, tools, and strategies that can help you understand how engineering texts work, and how you can make your texts work more effectively.

Advanced Workshop in Writing for Science and Engineering
Course description
This course offers analysis and practice of various forms of scientific and technical writing, from memos to journal articles, in addition to strategies for conveying technical information to specialist and non-specialist audiences. The goal of the workshop is to develop effective writing skills for academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics and assignments vary from term to term.

Science Writing and New Media: Communicating Science to the Public
Course description
This course provides an introduction to writing about science (including medicine, technology, and engineering) for general readers. With a strong emphasis in background research, this course will help students build a foundation for strong science writing. Students will read works by accomplished science writers. Each assignment will focus on a different popular form, such as news articles, interviews, essays, and short features.
Science Writing and New Media: Explorations in Communicating about Science & Technology
Course description
Proficiency in communicating about science and technology comes from both knowledge and practice, and this course emphasizes both. Through a variety of reading and writing assignments, we will examine general principles of good writing, as well as principles associated specifically with scientific and technical writing. We will also explore the effects of new media as avenues for communicating about science.
Science Communication: A Practical Guide
Course description
This class develops the abilities of students to communicate science effectively in a variety of real-world contexts. It covers strategies for dealing with complex areas like theoretical physics, genomics and neuroscience, and addresses challenges in communicating about topics such as climate change and evolution. Projects focus on speaking and writing, being an expert witness, preparing briefings for policy-makers, writing blogs, and giving live interviews for broadcast, as well as the creation of an interactive exhibit for display in the MIT Museum.
Writing in the Sciences
Course description
This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, peer review, grant writing, ethical issues in scientific publication, and writing for general audiences.

Agriculture: Selected Online Courses

Agri-Food Systems Analysis
Course description
This course will provide an introduction to critical skills for understanding and evaluating sustainability metrics in relation to Agri-Food systems.
Agricultural Economic Modeling Tools
Course description
Learn how to utilize Agriculture Modeling tools to achieve economic and sustainability outcomes.
Agriculture, Economics and Nature
Course description
Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do.
Challenges of Agribusiness Management
Course description
The goal of this course is to understand the challenges and opportunities of agribusiness nowadays. From farms to retailers, from input providers to traders, all the diverse players of this value chain interact a complex business environment in which nature, policy, technology and management strategies have to be considered to overcome future challenges and seize upcoming opportunities.
The Economics of Agro-Food Value Chains
Course description
In this course, you learn how the agro-food value chain approaches the challenge of constantly improving its competitiveness by producing high quality food and products and also aiming to attain greater sustainability. This course is taught by a group of international experts from Universities in Italy, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Each of them will give you insights into a specific topic related to food quality and the organization of the agro-food value chains.
Environmental and Natural Resources Economics
Course description
Economic analysis of agricultural problems associated with use of renewable and nonrenewable environmental and natural resources.
Global Food Futures and Agri-food Systems Solutions
Course description
Learners will analyze proposed solutions to some of the most pressing agri-food challenges and participate in creating innovative solutions to build a global food system in the face of rapidly changing climates, minimizing harm to Earth’s natural systems.
Sustainable Agri-food Marketing
Course description
This course examines the principles and practices of sustainable marketing in the agri-food industry and marketing’s role in the creation and management of relationships with customers and other stakeholders.
Sustainable Agri-food Supply Chain Management
Course description
Learn how to manage a sustainable agri-food chains that operates in a manner that exploits and optimizes the synergies among environmental protection, social fairness and economic growth.
Sustainable Agribusiness Comprehensive Exam
Course description
Take the Comprehensive Exam and demonstrate the knowledge and skills acquired in the Sustainable Agribusiness MicroMasters program to earnyour DoaneX MicroMasters credential.
Understanding Agribusiness, Value Chains, and Consumers in Global Food Systems
Course description
Learn about the dynamic business of food and agriculture, exploring value chain thinking and the role consumers play in our rapidly evolving food systems.

Discover Best Practice Farming for a Sustainable 2050
Course description
The Discover Best Practice Farming for a Sustainable 2050 Course is based on a clear vision: imagine best practice farming for 2050, start to implement these strategies now, all the while making sure it will still be profitable. At UWA we're doing just that with the Future Farm 2050 Project, set on a mixed-enterprise farm in Western Australia and we want you to learn how it can be done in your part of the world. Although this course is based on agriculture, it's not only about farming. It is a multi-disciplinary course that addresses a wide range of issues confronting the industry, including rural communities, rural infrastructure and conservation of biodiversity in agriculture. By completing this course you will understand that feeding and clothing the planet requires a multi-disciplinary approach and upon completion you will be able to explain best practices of sustainable farming and apply them in new contexts.
Drones for Agriculture: Prepare and Design Your Drone (UAV) Mission
Course description
Learn how to prepare and execute a flight mission with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and how to use, process and understand the collected drone data for your own applications.
e-Learning on Digital Agriculture
Course description
Agriculture is no exception to digital revolution, going beyond a simple adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). According to ICRISAT, digital agriculture is defined as “ICT and data ecosystems to support the development and delivery of timely, targeted information and services to make farming profitable and sustainable while delivering safe nutritious and affordable food for all.”
Global Postharvest Loss Prevention: Fundamentals, Technologies, and Actors
Course description
This course provides an overview of the issue of postharvest loss of grains by exploring essential physical, technical, and social dimensions of postharvest supply chains and loss prevention methods globally. This course will, for the first time, provide you as professionals, practitioners, and students, with a comprehensive introduction to postharvest loss processes and begin building capacity for loss prevention worldwide.
Sustainable Agricultural Land Management
Course description
This course will cover the agricultural and urban water quality issues in Florida, their bases, land and nutrient management strategies, and the science and policy behind the best management practices (BMPs). Students will learn to evaluate BMP research and analyze its role in determining practices and policies that protect water quality.
Weather Forecast in Agriculture and Agro-advisory (WF)
Course Description
Weather Forecast in Agriculture and Agro-advisory is an agriculture course taught by T.N. Balasubramanian (Rtd.), and Dr. R. Nagarajan, from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University.
A Workshop on Geographic Information Systems
Course Description
This class uses lab exercises and a workshop setting to help students develop a solid understanding of the planning and public management uses of geographic information systems (GIS). The goals are to help students: acquire technical skills in the use of GIS software; acquire qualitative methods skills in data and document gathering, analyzing information, and presenting results; and investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate possible applications.
The workshop teaches GIS techniques and basic database management at a level that extends somewhat beyond the basic thematic mapping and data manipulation skills included in the MCP core classes (viz. 11.204 and 11.220). Instead of focusing on one thematic map of a single variable, students will concentrate on more open-ended planning questions that invite spatial analysis but will require judgment and exploration to select relevant data and mapping techniques; involve mixing and matching new, local data with extracts from official records (such as census data, parcel data and regional employment and population forecasts); utilize spatial analysis techniques such as buffering, address matching, overlays; use other modeling and visualization techniques beyond thematic mapping; and raise questions about the skills, strategy, and organizational support needed to sustain such analytic capability within a variety of local and regional planning settings.

Backyard Urban Chicken Class
Course description
This course is designed to prepare citizens for having backyard chickens in an urban environment. Participants who complete this class will receive a certificate of completion upon completion.
Biosecurity for Youth Caring for Livestock
Course description
You’ve heard about biosecurity but what does it really mean and what should you be doing about it? Through enjoyable interactive activities in these four modules, you’ll learn about biosecurity concepts, routes of infection and disease transmission, how to identify sources of risk, and prevention strategies you can use to decrease those risks. Learn about economic and animal health implications of preventing livestock diseases as you apply biosecurity protocols with your own animals.
Dairy Production and Management
Course description
With the world's first MOOOOO-C, you will gain a broad and comprehensive understanding of all aspects of dairy management such as genetics, nutrition, reproduction, animal health, farm economics, and sustainability of dairy production systems. There's something here for everyone whether you are just looking for the basics or have years of experience in the dairy industry.
Feeding the World
Course description
This course will explore the concepts driving current food production science (population growth, urbanization, emerging affluence, resource constraints, and underlying biological limits) with the main focus on livestock production. Each of the major food animal species (dairy, swine, beef, and poultry) will be covered in terms of their universal life cycles, constraints to production and emerging societal issues.
Introduction to Livestock
Course description
This course is intended as an introduction to the small scale livestock industry of the Midwest. This course provides an overview of the industry and of the principles of livestock production. Topics include breed identification, characteristics and selection. Livestock production systems common to the Midwest are discussed as well as the basic infrastructure needed to begin a livestock production business.
Sustainable Food Production Through Livestock Health Management
Course description
Learn about the impact of infectious disease on sustainable animal-based food production by understanding the science of growth, immunity, and infection and by learning the problem-solving skills needed to advance animal health and food production through optimal management practices.

Integrated Pest Management
Course description
This course will expose students to integrated pest management strategies appropriate for fruit and vegetable crops in the Midwest. Course content includes study of major pests, diseases, and weeds affecting fruit and vegetable crops of the Midwest. Students will gain practical knowledge of pest life cycles and methods of control in order to effectively implement an integrated pest management program within a fruit and vegetable operation. Students will also work toward gaining the Illinois pesticide applicator’s license.
Introduction to Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Course Description
This is a course introducing students to Integrated Pest Management (IPM), taught at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur by Professors Prabhuraj A, B.V. Patil, and M. Bheemanna.
Protect U.S. Common and Invasive Pests of Stone Fruits: Fungal Diseases
Course description
This course covers fungal diseases of importance to all regions of the United States where peaches are grown. The learning objectives are to understand the following regarding the diseases and pests:
• Hosts; • Distribution; • Damage; • Life Cycle; • Identification; • Monitoring; • Control; • Sample ; • Submission
Protect U.S. Overview: Invasive Species that Affect Plants
Course description
Do you know the difference between invasive and introduced plants? Did you know that some introduced species are beneficial and others detrimental? In this module you will learn about a few of the invasive species that affect plants in the U.S. such as the Kudzu plant, Asian soybean rust, and citrus greening to name a few. The learning objectives are to understand the following regarding the invasive species: Hosts; Distribution; Damage; Who is involved with biosecurity
Sustainable Plant Health Care
Course description
This course is an Introduction to plant health care including their biology, identification, structure, life cycle, hosts and damages, control of insects, diseases, and environmental factors by using sustainable Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices.

As Above, So Below: An Introduction to Soils, Ecosystems and Livelihoods in the Tropics
The tropics are as beautiful and diverse below-ground as they are above-ground. Learn how to use knowledge about the natural variability in soil properties for the sustainable management of ecosystems and farms.
Drainage in Agriculture: Controlling Water and Salt Levels in the Soil
Course description
Get prepared for heavier rainfall and the increasing demand for food! The #1 Agricultural University of the world will teach you how to design and implement effective drainage systems in agriculture. You will learn how to create a perfect soil profile for optimal growing conditions for a crop and help feed the growing world population. Enroll now and prepare for the effects of climate change by draining excess water.
Irrigation Efficiency: More Food with Less Water
Course description
Learn to improve the efficiency of different irrigation system components over varying scales in order to extract less water from our resources while producing more food.
Soils & Plant Nutrition
Course description
This agriculture course studies the physical and chemical properties of soil as they apply to agriculture production, land evaluation and land use planning. As well as, the practical application to farming in relation to the characteristics of the soil, conservation of soil, water and conservation tillage. It lists the topics, objectives, readings/resources, activities, assignments, assessments, discussions and quizzes. Chapter 1- Properties of Soils, Chapter 2- Soils Investigation, Chapter 3- Soil Compaction, Chapter 4- Aggregates, Chapter 5- Pavement Structure and Base, Chapter 6- Asphalt Pavements and Materials, Chapter 7- Portland Cement Concrete.
Soils and Fertilizers
Course description
This course Includes discussion on soil formation, types, classes and groups of soil. The effects of water, nutrients, and soil erosion and its control/management also will be covered. It examines the relationships of soils, artificial growing media, fertilizers and the selection and use of fertilizers to meet plant nutritional requirements. It also includes discussion on sustainable practices in soils.
Surface Irrigation Design
Course description
This course was originally developed for the United States Department of Agriculture. It contains nearly 20 video lecture presentations with accompanying slides in English, Arabic, and French, an online textbook, homework assignments, and downloadable surface irrigation simulation software also developed by Dr. Walker. This course highlights design and evaluation of surface irrigation systems, field measurements for evaluating and improving uniformity and efficiency, simulation of surface systems, and land leveling computation and equipment.
Sustainable Soil Management: Soil for life
Course description
Learn why soil is so important, how it's being threatened and what we can do to protect this natural resource so vital to our lives.

Feeding a Hungry Planet: Agriculture, Nutrition and Sustainability
Course description
How do we create a healthy and sustainable diet for the growing world population?
Innovations in Sustainability
Course description
This course is designed for those students seeking green careers in horticulture, agriculture, building design, alternative energy systems and bio-technology. It addresses the sustainable systems approach to built environment, including review of current systems and conversion to sustainable systems that mitigate climate change and provide healthy urban environments.
Landscape Leadership: Catalyse Sustainable Development in Landscapes
Course description
Learn how to become a landscape leader! Get the skills to mobilise human resources, manage and resolve conflict and facilitate and motivate stakeholders to achieve SDG-focused sustainable change.
Sustainable Development: Solutions and Trends
Course description
We have all heard about climate change and other urgent sustainability challenges, but what can we do about it? In this course, you become familiar with some of the major environmental challenges we face today. You will learn about different sustainability solutions, and be introduced to various examples of how environmental challenges can be tackled in various ways using a multidisciplinary approach.
The Sustainable Development Goals – A Global, Transdisciplinary Vision for the Future
Course description
In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted by 193 member states, the goals represent an important international step in setting humanity on a trajectory towards sustainable development. Within this course, you will get a historical overview of how sustainability has been understood, as well as a thorough introduction to the SDGs – what they are, how progress can be measured, and how the SDGs are relevant for the management of the global systems supporting humanity. The course will examine how various societal actors are responding to and implementing the SDGs. While all of the SDGs are essential to sustainable development, SDG 13, Climate Action, is usually perceived as the most urgent in terms of the need for a swift implementation on a global scale. Therefore, particular focus is given to this SDG. Through the course, you will gain up-to-date knowledge of the current understanding of human impacts on the Earth at the planetary level. Progress towards establishing global management of human interactions with the climate system within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is also discussed. The course is designed and taught by Professor Katherine Richardson, who is a member of the 15-person panel appointed by the UN General Secretary in 2016 to write the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report. In each lecture, Katherine interviews experts who provide insights relevant to the topic at hand.

Sustainable Development: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus
Course description
Securing the supply of water, energy, and food is one of the greatest global challenges of our time. Learn all about sustainable development and global changes in this course.

Food Security: Selected Online Courses

Food Production, Public Health, and the Environment
Course Description
This course provides an understanding of the complex and challenging public health issue of food security and in a world where one billion people are under-nourished while another billion are overweight. Explores the connections among diet, the current food and food animal production systems, the environment and public health, considering factors such as economics, population and equity. Case studies are used to examine these complex relationships and as well as alternative approaches to achieving both local and global food security and the important role public health can play. Guest lecturers include experts from a variety of disciplines and experiences.
Nutritional Health, Food Production, and the Environment
Course description
This course provides an understanding of the complex and challenging public health issue of food security and in a world where one billion people are under-nourished while another billion are overweight. Explores the connections among diet, the current food production system, the environment and public health, considering factors such as economics, population and equity. Case studies are used to examine these complex relationships and as well as alternative approaches to achieving both local and global food security and the important role public health can play.
Protect U.S. Plant biosecurity
Course description
Discusses the importance of protecting the U.S. food supply, the risk of agroterrorism, and the USDA APHIS PPQ list of select agents and toxins. The learning objectives are to understand the following regarding plant biosecurity: Issues; Food Security News; Food Supply Safety; 20th Century Agroterrorism; Select Agents and Toxins; Former Select Agents and Toxins
Sustainable Food Security: Crop Production
Course description
Learn the basics of crop production and find out how to feed the future world population without depleting our planet’s resources!
Sustainable Food Security: Food Access
Course description
Learn the basics of food access decision-making. In other words, who decides what ends up on your plate. Spoiler alert: it’s not just you!
Sustainable Food Security: The value of Systems Thinking
Course description
Learn how to solve the 'Rubik's cube' of systems thinking and how it's applied to improve the environmental sustainability of food production systems!
Transformation of the Global Food System
Course description
This course focuses on how food systems can become more sustainable. It consists of four modules where each focuses on an essential ingredient towards developing more sustainable food systems: (1) Boosting the small, (2) Transforming the big, (3) Losing less and (4) Eating smarter. In each of these key areas, we will meet people from different countries around the world, who labor every day to find and spread solutions that work.
Unravelling Solutions for Future Food Problems
Course description
ln this course, more than 10 food researchers from Utrecht University will address the main issues of food consumption. They will handle two interrelated themes; Food shortage and Healthy choices. You will learn to identify the key ingredients of the world’s food challenges and to think about the solutions for enabling changes in the current food system. We will also look at the possible sustainable solutions for several acute issues: the demands of the growing human population, the role of nutrition, and the need to understand food choices in order to have healthier diet and consider the possibilities of alternative foods.

Landscape Design & Ecosystem Management: Selected Online Courses

Architecture Studio: Building in Landscapes
Course description
This subject introduces skills needed to build within a landscape establishing continuities between the built and natural world. Students learn to build appropriately through analysis of landscape and climate for a chosen site, and to conceptualize design decisions through drawings and models.
Asian Environmental Humanities: Landscapes in Transition
Course description
In this course, featuring many researchers from the University of Zurich and international institutions, we will introduce you to some of the most vibrant cultural trends addressing landscape appreciation, degradation, protection, and rehabilitation that currently circulate in the Asian hemisphere. You will learn about concepts of landscape in Asian religions, philosophy, social sciences, history and the arts and their reverberation in selected environmental projects in China, India and Japan. Furthermore, we will discuss how they are critically reflected upon in the context of the environmental humanities, and observe how an interdisciplinary approach towards regional ecosystems past and present reaches out beyond pragmatic technological solutions to mitigate environmental damage. Following us on our different paths and trajectories through the five modules of the course, you will encounter many of the reasons why environmental humanities study projects which strive to change people’s prevalent attitudes, values and behavioural patterns in order to redeem the rapidly globalizing crisis, and how they go about it.
Big Plans and Mega-Urban Landscapes
Course Description
This course explores the physical, ecological, technological, political, economic, and cultural implications of big plans and mega-urban landscapes in a global context. It uses local and international case studies to understand the process of making major changes to urban landscape and city fabric, and to regional landscape systems. It includes lectures by leading practitioners. The assignments consider planning and design strategies across multiple scales and time frames.
Design of Sustainable Landscaping
Course description
This course is intended for future landscape designers/architects and landscape contractors. It utilizes Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building systems for landscapes, the American Society of Landscape Architects sustainability guidelines and best practices in design, including elements of water, soils, vegetation, materials, construction, operations and maintenance, innovation and human-health and well-being with a focus on design problems.
Introduction to Horticulture
Course description
This course presents an introduction to the field of horticulture, a holistic survey of the industry with exposure to careers and career paths in horticulture; basic and applied plant science, including anatomy, physiology and functions of plants; and horticultural practices such as greenhouse and nursery production, floriculture, fruit and vegetable production, landscape design and installation. Throughout the course, there is an emphasis on sustainability and emerging “green” industry practices.
Planting Properly: Establishing Landscape Plants and Trees
Course description
Do you know how to plant properly? This self-paced online course will teach you the basics on how to prepare for, plant, and establish trees and shrubs in your landscape. Learn about how to test your soil, proper size and height to plant, how much water they need while they are growing, and how to care for them for the first few months. This class is free and should take approximately 1 hour to complete.
Practice of Participatory Action Research (PAR)
Course Description
This course introduces students to the techniques of participatory action research (PAR) and the practice of case study research. PAR processes are place or case-specific, place a premium on local ways of knowing, and gauge the success of research in terms of what partner-communities do with the knowledge that is co-produced. The objective of PAR is to generate the ideas, information, and understandings that ought to inform efforts to promote social change. By focusing on ways of co-producing knowledge using various forms of data collection and analysis, students will learn how the people and communities who are often university partners in applied social science research can use findings or results from PAR case studies to address the challenges they confront in their communities.
Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening-
Course description
Learn about how to start and manage your own raised bed or container vegetable garden in this free, self-paced course.
Site and Infrastructure Systems Planning
Course Description
This course is a client-based land analysis and site planning project. The primary focus of the course changes from year to year. This year the focus is on Japan's New Towns.
Students will review land inventory, analysis, and planning of sites and the infrastructure systems that serve them. They will also examine spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, stormwater runoff, parking, traffic and off-site impacts, as well as landscaping. Lectures will cover analytical techniques and examples of good site-planning practice. Requirements include a series of assignments and a client-based project.
Site Planning Online
Course description
How to plan a site, its infrastructure and public spaces so that it is sustainable, supports human needs, compatible with its natural and man-made surroundings, adaptable and economically efficient. The course includes many examples of well planned sites.
Sustainable Landscape Design
Course description
This course enables students to obtain an understanding of sustainable techniques, methods, and elements working in union to create a landscape that is responsive to the environment, regenerative, and actively contribute to healthy community.
Sustainable Landscapes
Course description
This class will explore how to approach landscape design from a perspective of sustainability. Sustainable landscape practices to be explored include: biomimicry, rain gardens, water quality treatment, phytoremediation and mycoremediation techniques, gray water catchment systems, green rooftops, and a number of other approaches to create more sustainable green infrastructures. This course seeks to prepare students for the emerging sustainability job market.

Nutrition & Food Science: Selected Online Courses

Food Analysis Labs
Course description
This course focuses on the principles of laboratory work when applied to food processing, food ingredients such as additives and minerals, food flavoring, and food safety. Topics such as HACCP, food modifications, and enzymes are also covered. Students will use equipment to do relevant lab experiments.
Food Innovation (4 course series)
Course description
A series of educational programs that are available fully on-line. These classes provide an excellent and comprehensive foundation to the food industry and are valuable to anyone interested in developing a successful food product business. These classes are two hours each and cover four topics: Food Trends: Finding Your Niche in the Specialty Foods Industry Food Product Development and Technology Essentials Quality Assurance and Food Safety Principles Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for Food Producers
Food Preservation Methods
Course description
This course introduces students to the commercial practice of food preservation to make fresh, local foods available throughout the year, make use of seasonal abundance, and add diversity to local farm foods. The hands-on portion of the course teaches a variety of preservation methods and techniques that can be used in commercial settings in ways that maintain food safety, flavor, and nutrition. The art and science, and principles of food preservation will be covered. Topics include freezing, drying, dehydrating, pickling, canning and more.
Food Quality
Course description
This file contains resources for FST1200 Food Quality including Syllabus, PowerPoint lectures, assessments, instructional materials and course labs. This course is a 3 credit hour course intended to be completed in 16 weeks.
The Meat We Eat
Course descriptionThe Meat We Eat is a course designed to create a more informed consumer about the quality, safety, healthfulness and sustainability of muscle foods and address current issues in animal agriculture in developed and developing countries.
The Science of Gastronomy
Course description
This course introduces a number of basic scientific principles underpinning the methodology of cooking, food preparation and the enjoyment of food. All topics covered have a strong basis in biology, chemistry, and physics application. Among others, they include the consumption of cooked food, the physiological and evolutionary implication of the senses, geographic and cultural influences on food, and the rationale behind food preparation. We will also discuss issues such as coupling of senses to improve sense stimulation; altering flavor by chemical means; and modification of the coloration to improve the appearance of dishes. Following the video demonstrations of the scientific principles of cooking, you will learn to recognize the key ingredients and their combinations for preparing good healthy food.

Food for Thought
Course description
A course that offers a scientific framework for understanding food and its impact on health and society from past to present.
International Nutrition
Description:
Presents major nutritional problems that influence the health, survival, and developmental capacity of populations in developing societies. Covers approaches implemented at the household, community, national, and international levels to improve nutritional status. Explores the degree to which malnutrition can be prevented or reduced prior to achieving full economic development through targeted public and private sector interventions that address the causes of malnutrition.
Introduction To Food & Health
Course description
This CME activity provides a practical approach to supporting healthy eating for a variety of medical needs. Through the use of didactic videos, animated cases, and interactive activities course participants will gain proficiency in recommending well-established nutritional practices and assessing barriers to healthy eating for patients and physicians alike.
Introduction to Nutrition
Course description
This module was developed to help clinicians understand the core foundations of a healthy, well-balanced diet. While we consider individual nutritional components, or macronutrients (i.e. fats, carbohydrates, proteins, etc.) for teaching purposes, please remember that this approach is cumbersome and frustrating for patients to put into practice since foods do not consist of a single nutrient. When deciding which foods to eat, we must consider the whole food package, which may contain multiple macronutrients as well as other vital nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
Nutrition
Course description
This course by Dominican University covers basic concepts in nutrition, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, minerals, vitamins, food safety, physical fitness, lifespan nutrition, etc.
The Science of Nutrition and Healthy Eating
You'll look at the science behind nutrition, covering aspects of biology, chemistry and physics as well as gaining insight into healthier eating. Reading food labels, choosing healthier foods, hydrating appropriately and understanding how we taste food will allow you to be more informed about the choices you make for the food you eat. You'll also investigate how information about healthy eating differs around the world.
Stanford Introduction to Food and Health
Course description
Around the world, we find ourselves facing global epidemics of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and other predominantly diet-related diseases. To address these public health crises, we urgently need to explore innovative strategies for promoting healthful eating. There is strong evidence that global increases in the consumption of heavily processed foods, coupled with cultural shifts away from the preparation of food in the home, have contributed to high rates of preventable, chronic disease. In this course, learners will be given the information and practical skills they need to begin optimizing the way they eat. This course will shift the focus away from reductionist discussions about nutrients and move, instead, towards practical discussions about real food and the environment in which we consume it. By the end of this course, learners should have the tools they need to distinguish between foods that will support their health and those that threaten it. In addition, we will present a compelling rationale for a return to simple home cooking, an integral part of our efforts to live longer, healthier lives.

Healthy Practices: Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Community and Family Participation
Course description
In this course you will find a comprehensive overlook of healthy practices in public schools in the USA, including: physical activity and nutrition in the school setting. We will review the basics of some of the regulatory programs found in the United States that support healthy students through nutrition education and nutrition programs. You will be able to explain some of the nutritional components such as, alternatives to the use of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages. Many of these principles can be applied to students in schools throughout the globe.
Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes
Course description
Discover the latest insights on the importance of nutrition and lifestyle in the development and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus in the online open course Nutrition, Heart disease and Diabetes.
Nutrition, Therapeutics and Health
Course description
Covers various topics such as Nutrients, Meal planning, and Therapeutic nutrition.
Nutrition and Cancer
Course description
Discover the latest insights on the role of diet, nutrition and lifestyle in the prevention, occurrence and progression of cancer.
Nutrition and Health: Food Risks
Course description
Learn about bacteria, pesticides and health hazards present in food.
Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome
Course description
Learn how you can impact your health by balancing your gut health; how your microbiome together with your diet can improve normal gut function. A balanced microbiome and nutritional intake can avoid disorders like IBS, obesity and diabetes.
Nutrition and Health: Macronutrients and Overnutrition
Course description
Learn the fundamentals of nutrition and its impact on human health.
Nutrition and Health: Micronutrients and Malnutrition
Course description
Learn about malnutrition and micronutrients and how they impact human health.
Personal and Social Frameworks for Nutrition and Healthy Aging
Course Description
Provides an overview of the impact of nutrition on aging and the impact of aging on nutrient needs. Examines food access, procurement, preparation, and enjoyment using a socio-ecological framework of health and wellness. Evaluates age-associated psycho-social, economic, and environmental influences on individual food security and institutional program delivery. Emphasizes nutrition and food for healthy aging.
Principles of Human Nutrition
Course Description
Principles of Human Nutrition (222.641) provides an integrated overview of the physiological requirements and functions of protein, energy, and the major vitamins and minerals that are determinants of health and diseases in human populations. Topics include the following:
Dietary sources, intake levels, physiological role, and requirement of major nutrients.
The biological determinants of nutrient requirements and the assessment of nutrient status in individuals and populations.
The role of nutrition in growth and health through the life cycle.
The rationale for the development of dietary guidelines and of nutrition policies in different countries.
The role of diet in the development of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.

Critical Analysis of Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements
Course description
There is much controversy and anecdotal information about popular diets and dietary supplements, but all too often little scientific or controlled clinical data. We examine the science behind normal mechanisms of weight control, and how weight loss diets are constructed and work. The aim of the course is to acquire the knowledge to critically appraise a weight control diet or dietary supplement and choose the best plan for success, both in the short-term and the long run. Students taking the actual class will, in addition to learning the lecture material presented here, complete in-class assignments where they choose a popular diet or supplement, research the scientific literature on this diet/supplement, and present a critical appraisal of its validity and efficacy.
Food and Nutrition Policy
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to familiarize and engage the student in the steps and dynamics of policy making processes that address nutrition problems and issues. An underlying tenant is that, where ever nutrition problems exist, policy and program options may be enacted to address the problem directly (e.g. food subsidies to the poor) and/or indirectly (e.g. income generation or job creation).
For the purpose of this course nutrition and food policy is viewed as a specific set of decisions with related actions, established by a government and often supported by special legislation, which address a nutrition or food problem or set of problems. We realize that the lack of an explicit government policy may represent an implicit "hands off" policy; however, in this course we want to focus on explicit government policies.
The Science of Weight Loss: Dispelling Diet Myths
Course description
Arm yourself with the knowledge and tools to make healthy eating decisions as you learn the science behind weight loss and dispel diet and nutrition myths.
Sustainable Food Systems: A Mediterranean Perspective
Course description
How do we produce more, better quality, and safer food while simultaneously achieving social and environmental goals?

Nutrition, Exercise and Sports
Course description
Learn about Nutrition, Exercise and Sports and understand how nutrition can support exercise and sports performance.
Science of Exercise
Course description
Learners who complete Science of Exercise will have an improved physiological understanding of how your body responds to exercise, and will be able to identify behaviors, choices, and environments that impact your health and training. You will explore a number of significant adjustments required by your body in order to properly respond to the physical stress of exercise, including changes in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism, nutritional considerations, causes of muscle soreness & fatigue, and the effectiveness and dangers of performance enhancing drugs. Active learning assessments will challenge you to apply this new knowledge via nutrition logs, heart rate monitoring, calculations of your total daily caloric expenditure and body mass index (BMI). Finally, learners will examine the scientific evidence for the health benefits of exercise including the prevention and treatment of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity (weight loss), depression, and dementia.

Rural Community Development: Selected Online Courses

Community Growth and Land Use Planning
Course Description
This subject explores the techniques, processes, and personal and professional skills required to effectively manage growth and land use change. While primarily focused on the planning practice in the United States, the principles and techniques reviewed and presented may have international application. This course is not for bystanders; it is designed for those who wish to become actively involved or exposed to the planning discipline and profession as it is practiced today, and as it may need to be practiced in the future.
Introduction to Land Management
Course description
Gain insights into the complex nature of land management and learn about terms, tasks and challenges related to our land.