CityReads│CitiesX Teaches Everything about Urban Life

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Free Online Course CitiesX Teaches Everything about Urban Life

City is probably humanity’s greatest invention. In the free online course CitiesX, Prof. Edward Glaeser explains what makes cities energizing, amazing, challenging.

Source: https://www.edx.org/course/citiesx-past-present-future-urban-life-harvardx-urban101x

A week ago, edX, an online learning destination and MOOC provider, opened a new course CitiesX by Prof. Edward Glaeser at Harvard University. In this introductory course of cities, Prof. Edwards Glaeser explains what makes cities energizing, amazing, challenging. CitiesX covers a variety of topics, such as power and city, trade and city, industry and city, consumer and city, technology and city, poverty and opportunity, urban building and planning, housing and city, transportation and city, urban health, and urban safety. Finally there is an extra bonus, urban economics lectures. The course explores key concepts of urban development by examining cities around the world, including London, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, Shanghai, Mumbai, Kigali, and many more.

The course includes a historical exploration of cities: how urban centers like ancient Rome resulted from consolidation of imperial power, how cities like Sao Paulo grew as important hotbeds of industry, and how cities like Seattle became hubs of technology and human capital.

CitiesX also dives into pressing social and urban planning issues like public health, transportation, zoning, gentrification, cost of living, crime, and congestion. The course includes interviews and insights from academics, policy makers, urban leaders and city residents.

Edward Glaeser, the course instructor, is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992. He regularly teaches microeconomics theory, and occasionally urban and public economics.

He has published dozens of papers on the economic growth, law, and economics of cities. In particular, his work has focused on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission. His books include Cities, Agglomeration, and Spatial Equilibrium (Oxford University Press, 2008), Rethinking Federal Housing Policy (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2008), and Triumph of the City (Penguin Press, 2011). I once wrote a note based on one of his review article on CityReads│ How economists study cities Besides the academic publications, Prof. Glaeser also writes numerous commentaries for newspaper columns. 

Prof. Edward Glaeser

Since I am teaching city-related courses, I am curious about how Prof. Glaeser delivers lectures and engages students in the online platform. Surely, there are different teaching skills that I can learn. So I registered on edX.org. I was asked what my goal was. I chose to complete the course. To get an offical and verified Certificate is certainly a possible goal. But I can wait until later. All the course materials, videos, readings, questions, and other resources are free and downloadable to any registers. I can sit at home at a time convienent to me and listen to Prof. Glaeser, along with dozens of first-class scholars in the world.

The analytical framework of the course comes from economics, but is enhanced by conversations with experts from other disciplines (including Sociology, Urban Planning, Journalism, Anthropology, History, Art & Music) to provide learners with a greater understanding of all aspects of urbanism. The material in this course is a combination of Professor Glaeser’s direct-to-camera lectures and interviews with experts on a variety of topics, ranging from ancient Mesopotamian cities to the challenges of fighting crime sewer systems in modern day Brazil — and everything in-between.

There are twelve sections in this course, with more than 180 videos. Every video is subtitled and short, no longer than 10 minutes, which makes it easy to study even if you don’t have a whole block of time. There is a multiple-choice question for every video. As long as you watch the video, you can answer the question correctly. The video and the subtitle files can be downloaded. 

At the beginning of each section you will find an Introduction video and a What You’ll Learn page that highlight key themes and outline content. At the end of each section, you will find read & reflect section, where you are asked to read assigned reading and participate the discussion with your fellow course takers from all over the world. 

Outline of section 1

The course also recommends additional resources for each section so students can further their learning. 

One of the advantages of online course is the self-paced study. You can control the place, time, pace and order of learning. But one of the disadvantages is the completion rate is low due to the lack of external monitor. To deal with this issue, CitiesX uses short and high-quality videos to attract students. CitiesX also lower the difficulty of the questions and increase the frequency of asking the questions to engage students.

Below is one video clip from the section of The consumer city. It is a cartoon featuring the dialogue between city mouse and countryside mouse. The two cute mouses are discussing the pros and cons of city and country living. 

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=w0557nsg26t&width=500&height=375&auto=0

I have glanced through the whole course from the beginning to the very end. I watched some of the videos and answered some of the questions. I think CitiesX is very student-friendly. The course assessment is based on your time and effort. For those students who would like to go deeper, the course also offers guideline and suggestion. I highly recommend this course for anyone who feel interested at learning more about cities and urban life.

If you want to get a verified certificate, you need to finish the study within half a year and score at least 70 out of 100. You also need to pay $99. If you don’t want to pay, just forego the certificate. After all, it is the process of learning that counts. Free online course is one of the best things in this world. Of course, it is free from the perspective of users. It is actually rather expensive to make the online course. It takes a lot of money, time, people, expertise and dedication. So here is the list of people and sponsor that we should be grateful for. 

Have you ever enrolled in an online course? Please share your experiences and thoughts with me by leaving a message. 

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