| Your OpenCourseWare Newsletter | February 2024 |
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| Celebrating Black History Month and Gearing Up for Pi Day |
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| MIT students in the School of Architecture + Planning (Photo by Gretchen Ertl) |
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Here at MIT OpenCourseWare, we are celebrating Black History Month and this year’s theme of “African Americans and the Arts” with a resource list of courses, videos, and other materials that highlight and honor the cultural contributions of Black Americans and people of African descent everywhere.
We also celebrate MIT OpenCourseWare users and implementers like June Odongo, an entrepreneur and CEO based in Nairobi, Kenya, who created a six-month “bridging course” in computer science from MIT OpenCourseWare materials in order to train high-quality candidates, making them job-ready.
Finally, we’re gearing up for the MIT 24-Hour Challenge which returns on Pi Day (March 14, 2024). On this collective day of giving, we encourage you to make an impact in the lives and education of millions of learners around the world by supporting MIT OpenCourseWare.
We believe in the life-changing power of shared knowledge, and thank you for joining us! Read on to learn more about what we’ve been doing—including new course publications—and as always, we hope you’ll visit us at MIT OpenCourseWare. |
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| June Odongo (left) and Cynthia Wacheke, both standing, with members of the software team at Senga Technologies. (Courtesy of June Odongo) |
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When Kenyan entrepreneur June Odongo interviews candidates for jobs at her company Senga Technologies, she naturally values programming skills, but she knows that general problem-solving abilities and a willingness to learn are just as important. As described in a recent MIT News article, Odongo drew on the free educational resources offered by MIT OpenCourseWare to create a tailored learning plan for a job candidate whose overall potential she recognized but who had insufficient background in computer science.
That candidate, electrical engineer Cynthia Wacheke, worked her way through nine MIT OpenCourseWare courses in only six months, at the end of which time her persistence was rewarded with a position as a software engineer at Senga Technologies.
Meanwhile, the program of study that Odongo initially designed specifically to help Wacheke get up to speed in the field of computer science has become a lasting resource for personnel development at the company. Within the past few months, another Senga employee completed the same program and has earned a position in Senga’s software-development team.
To read more about how Odongo, Wacheke, and their team made such effective use of MIT OpenCourseWare’s free learning resources, see the full article at MIT News. And, in the inspiring words of Odongo on LinkedIn, “Here's to the computer scientists of yesteryear, and of the future. We have so much to shape.” |
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| New Courses and Resources |
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| The earliest surviving manuscript of Beowulf. (Image is in the public domain.) |
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21L.601J Old English and Beowulf
Hƿæt ƿe gardena in geardagum þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon… Those are the first words of the Old English epic Beowulf, and in this class, students learn to read them. As Professor Arthur Bahr puts it, “Old English speaks of long, cold, and lonely winters; of haunting beauty found in unexpected places; and of unshakable resolve in the face of insurmountable odds.” In this course, you can find video lectures on Old English grammar, a mock exam to test your skills, and a reading list that includes not only selections from Beowulf but also moving laments, religious poems, and bawdy riddles.
21H.390 Theories and Methods in the Study of History
This class serves as an introduction to the methods and approaches used in the study of history. To do so, it considers an array of topics across time and space by means of a variety of sources (archival documents, oral sources, film, fiction, diaries, objects, and images), examining the ways they can be used to research, interpret, and present the past. In this course, you can access the syllabus, reading list, and assignments, including samples of student work; you can also read Professor Mutongi’s Instructor Insights on how she taught the class and why it’s important for students to try to write beautifully.
17.41 Introduction to International Relations
Why do countries go to war? And what makes countries decide to work together to tackle a crisis instead? This course provides an introduction to the politics of international relations, examining the causes of conflict and cooperation in the international system. To do so, the material first engages prevailing theories of international relations and then applies these theories to such diverse historical and current phenomena as war initiation, trade, terrorism, nuclear strategy, human rights, and environmental politics. Here you can find the course syllabus, reading list, detailed descriptions of the assignments, and a set of downloadable lecture slide files covering most of the lectures. |
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| “Electric light from off-grid solar power lights a home in India. (Image courtesy of The Climate Group on Flickr. License: CC BY-NC-SA.)” |
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RES.EC-004 Energy Needs Assessment Toolkit
Understanding the circumstances, resources, challenges, and market opportunities of a specific community is the first step toward selecting and implementing solutions to meet that community’s energy needs. This resource on MIT OpenCourseWare serves as a point of entry to an online toolkit developed by the MIT D-Lab to assist organizations that have an on-the-ground presence in an off-grid community or region. If you’re involved in such an organization or have an interest in designing for an equitable world, the toolkit can help you navigate the process of gathering information to make informed decisions about what technologies and business models will best meet the specific needs of the community through market-based initiatives.
RES.21G-601 Телемосты (Telebridges) Russian Conversation Exchange Site
This resource connects you to an open-access conversation exchange site that offers topics and conversation tasks for students learning Russian and English. The goal of the site, which was developed as a pilot project by MIT language lecturer Maria Khotimsky along with her colleagues at other institutions, is to support exchanges between students in English-speaking and Russian-speaking countries. The conversation topics included are aligned with common college-level Russian language curricula, grouped by levels defined by ACTFL proficiency standards, and utilize OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) practices. Topics include vocabulary, questions, and interactive activities that can be used in conversations as well as in individual practice.
RES.HS-002 Chemistry Behind the Magic: Chemical Demonstrations for the Classroom and RES.HS-003 ChemLab Boot Camp
We’re pleased to announce the return of two popular resources originally created as part of Highlights for High School, a previous MIT initiative providing teaching and learning materials to high school teachers and students. RES.HS-002 Chemistry Behind the Magic presents a series of exciting videos of chemistry demonstrations, along with teaching notes for instructors who would like to try similar activities in their own classrooms. (See the warning notice, though!) The videos featured in RES.HS-003 ChemLab Boot Camp follow the experiences of 14 students in an introductory course on lab techniques, as they struggled with, but ultimately mastered, the skills needed to be successful in an MIT chemistry lab. |
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| Further MIT OpenCourseWare Courses |
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| Lupe Fiasco presents “Rap Theory & Practice: An Introduction” (Courtesy of MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing on YouTube) |
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In celebration of Black History Month and this year’s theme of “African Americans and the Arts,” we’ve compiled a list of courses, videos, and other educational resources available from MIT OpenCourseWare, MITx, and others at MIT in order to highlight and honor the cultural contributions of Black Americans and people of African descent everywhere.
In addition to our Africana Studies collection on MIT OpenCourseWare, you’ll find Coretta Scott King’s speech on the movement for economic and social justice (courtesy of MIT Video Productions), Lupe Fiasco’s talk on rap theory and practice (courtesy of MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing), and valuable resources like the Climate Justice Instructional Toolkit.
Other highlights include Chalk Radio podcasts “How Africa Has Been Made to Mean” and “Finding Expertise Everywhere” with Prof. M. Amah Edoh (available in the courses Global Africa: Creative Cultures and Reparations for Slavery and Colonization) as well as “Unpacking Misconceptions about Language & Identities” and “Honoring Your Native Language” with Prof. Michel DeGraff (available in the course Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities).
Finally, don’t miss the Dungeons & Dragons interview with MIT professor of digital media & artificial intelligence D. Fox Harrell where he discusses game design and the writing of “The Nighsea’s Succor,” a D&D adventure appearing in the recent anthology Journeys through the Radiant Citadel.
Read more in this Medium article by MIT Open Learning, and join us in honoring Black History Month with these rich and in-depth resources on Black culture, history, and contributions. |
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| Save the date—the MIT 24-Hour Challenge returns on March 14! |
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Get ready! The MIT 24-Hour Challenge returns on Pi Day, March 14. We hope you’ll join MIT alumni, OCW supporters, and friends in making an impact on this collective day of giving. By donating to MIT OpenCourseWare on March 14, you’ll be making a difference in the lives and education of millions of learners around the world.
Support the life-changing power of shared knowledge with a gift to MIT OpenCourseWare during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge.
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