Web Engineering II: Developing Mobile HTML5 Apps

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About this course

Become familiar with the challenges that come with the planning, development, testing, and maintenance of HTML5 apps. Web Engineering takes you through the concepts, methods, techniques, and tools needed for systematically developing websites and web applications. In Web Engineering I "Basics of Web Development" we learned how to create a professional website, and now we take a step further as you develop your very own HTML5 app!
Using the mobile HTML5 framework from Sencha Touch, you will go online and practice handling the infrastructure and tools needed for the development and maintenance of an established web app. In particular, you will learn the basic technical and architectural principles necessary for web app building.

Course Content

Web Engineering II builds upon on the material learned in the first course, Web Engineering I.
Each chapter presents the following content through a series of instructional videos, screencasts and online interactive exercises. You will also work in small groups, applying and testing practical examples of key technical aspects in web development.

• Chapter 11: Starter Kit: Tools for the HTML5 App in the Cloud
• Chapter 12: Design Pattern REST for the Mobile Web
• Chapter 13: Interactive Exercises with JavaScript at Codecademy
• Chapter 14: Web Programming with JavaScript and REST API
• Chapter 15: Overview of HTML5 and its JavaScript APIs
• Chapter 16: Online Exercises with the HTML5 Framework from Sencha Touch
• Chapter 17: Introduction to NoSQL Databases for Web Apps
• Chapter 18: Design and implementation of a WebSocket App
• Chapter 19: Preparing an HTML5 App for App Stores
• Chapter 20: Screen casting Web Apps for User Documentation

As a learning object for exploring and applying the course content, we will use the mobile web-based Audience-Response System ARSnova. It will be used as a live feedback app throughout the MOOC.
The official course language is English, but the videos will be in German with English subtitles.

Course Structure

The entire course consists of two consecutive parts: the first part of the course Web Engineering I, started on 15 October 2013, and this course, Web Engineering II, starts on 17 January 2014. Each course consists of 10 chapters with 6 to 8 learning units and has a weekly workload time of about 6 hours. For students at universities, the entire course has a workload equivalent to 6 ECTS credits.
With sufficient prior knowledge, you can move directly onto Web Engineering II.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Develop a high-performance, secure and accessible website, upon a client’s request.
• Design and realise an HTML5 app and upload this to app stores.

Who is this course aimed at?

Both parts of the MOOC "Web Engineering" are aimed at undergraduate students of computer science, including media and business computer science, computer science specialist trainees in the field of application development, and working web designers. For students of THM in the Department of MNI, the entire MOOC "Web Engineering" is equivalent to the Bachelor module "Internet-Based Systems" (CS 1024).

Course Certificates

You will receive a certificate from the THM for both Web Engineering I and II, if you provide the following:

• Web Engineering I: completion of the online final exam and creation of a website
• Web Engineering II: completion of the online final exam and creation of an HTML5 App

Prerequisites for Course Participation

You must have a working knowledge of HTML/CSS as provided by the track Web Fundamentals from Codecademy.

Our Experience

Whoever offers an online course in web engineering should be able to offer appropriate references. In recent years, we have worked in the areas of e-learning and web-based systems. This includes the university search engine Pharus, the learning and collaboration platform eCollab, and the mobile Audience-Response System ARSnova. These were developed as open source student projects, starting from bachelor and master projects to production.
Looking back, it was the course "Web Engineering" that adequately prepared students for these projects. If you complete both parts of the course Web Engineering I and II, you will be able to do the same.

Gamification Design

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About this course

Why Gamification?

Games have become the new normal. The gaming industry is already more powerful than other ways of entertainment like music or movies. An average young person will spend more than 10,000 hours gaming by the age of 21 - somewhat the time that it takes us to master any kind of skill- and yet, there's a huge engagement crisis in many other areas. 70% of US full-time employees are not motivated by what they are doing, kids spend way more time engaged with video games than they do with books, the average attention span in 2012 was less than 10 seconds and it's decreasing every year...
It seems like only games are truly understanding how human motivation really works. But how is that possible? Why are we glued to games? Can we design that kind of gameful experiences in non-game contexts to make them more engaging?
And the most important question: How to do so?

Course Structure

Week 1 (17/03/2014) Games. Game Design. Gamefulness. Gamification
Week 2 (31/03/2014) Psychology and Gamification: Why are games and gamification so engaging?
Week 3 (07/04/2014)The different types of Gamification
Week 4 (14/04/2014) Defining gamified experiences: Things to know before we start
Week 5 (21/04/2014) Creating gamified experiences: The first steps of the design process
Week 6 (28/04/2014) Designing gamified experiences: Storytelling, mechanics, aesthetics and much more
Week 7 (05/05/2014) Going further than the basics

Learning Outcomes

In this course you'll learn the basics of Gamification with a highly practical approach. We'll especially focus on how to design gamified experiences in real life and students will be able to gain knowledge in areas such as: game design, psychology, management, or education.
Our main goal will be to understand and master the principles of gamification to design experiences that make things more fun and engaging.

Who is this course for?

Do you want your team to perfom better? Are you looking for ways to fully engage happy customers? Do you want to see kids learning while playing? Or are you just looking forward to seeing a better world?
Gamification can be used in many areas and almost any task can be fun and engaging so this course could be great for people like: teachers, educators, managers, C-level executives, health and fitness professionals, psychologists or researchers. So...
Whether you ever asked yourself one of these questions or you just want to know how to make things more fun and engaging, this course is for you!

Prior Knowledge

This is a level 1 course and all you need to bring in the class is a playful attitude! Anyway, having some prior knowledge is always great, so if you already want to start this epic adventure, here are 3 ways you can do so:
- If you want to start reading some books on it: http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/05/best-gamification-books-where-to-start.html
- If you’d rather learn by doing: http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/the-35-gamification-mechanics-toolkit.html
- And if you like none of them, well, there’s always a way. Go and start playing games!

Assessments and Certification

This MOOC will be based on creative assignments where we’ll try you to learn by doing and after successfully completing those assignments, students will receive their statement certificates of accomplishment if their overall score is higher than 7. Besides, everyone will receive an statement of participation.

Workload

This course will feature weekly videos and creative assignments so you’ll have to spend around 3-4 hours per week, and if you want to know more, we’ll provide you with reading references and plenty of insightful videos, blogs and resources. In addition, there will be live hangouts and local meetups so the workload is actually up to you.

Live G+ Hangouts & Local Meetups

We plan to do Live Hangouts with the best students of the week, and local meetups with the best communities of the course.
Live Hangouts
Every week, we’ll ask all the students to discuss about some interesting topics and we'll feature the most insightful ones on a weekly hangout. More information coming soon.
Local Meetups
We’ll foster local communities within the course and we’ll try to organise meetups with the biggest and most active ones from all over the world. To do so, we’ll select 3 organisers that voluntarily apply for that position in the forums and then try to coordinate a meetup with the teachers during the course or afterwards. Stay tuned for more exciting news!

Keep in touch!

We are quite active on FB, Twitter, G+ and blogs! You can follow us and engage in the conversation here:
Facebook: Gamification Design MOOC Page
Twitter: #GDMooc @victormanriquey / @isidrorodrigo / @kokopus_dark / @McEwan22
Linkedin: Gamification Design MOOC Network
Google+: Gamification Design MOOC G+ and Live Hangouts Community
Our Blogs: Epic Win Blog / HR Gamer

Official #GDMooc Student Communities

Facebook

• Gamification Group

Monte Carlo Methods in Finance

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 About this course

Learn how to measure the risk of an investment portfolio!

In this course you will simulate the time evolution of prices of financial assets, use the Black-Scholes model to price European or Asian options and compute the Value-at-Risk of a portfolio. The approach is hands-on with a strong emphasis on practical simulations that you will program, run and explore in your own computer.
"Monte Carlo Methods in Finance" will be offered on iversity from 20 January, 2014 until 16 April, 2014.

Course Structure

The course is structured in 9 chapters
Chapter 1: Introduction [2014/01/20 - 2014/01/29]
Chapter 2: Understanding random numbers [2014/01/30 - 2014/02/05]
Chapter 3: Generating random numbers [2014/02/06 - 2014/02/12]
Chapter 4: Brownian motion [2014/02/13 - 2014/02/26]
Chapter 5: Ordinary differential equations [2014/02/27 - 2014/03/05]
Chapter 6: Stochastic differential equations [2014/03/06 - 2014/03/12]
Chapter 7: Pricing of simple derivative products [2014/03/13 - 2014/03/26]
Chapter 8: Pricing of more complex derivative products [2014/03/27 - 2014/04/02]
Chapter 9: Modeling and quantifying financial risk [2014/04/03 - 2014/04/16]
Chapters are divided into units. Each unit consists of a video followed by a quiz. At the end of each chapter you will solve and turn in some homework exercises. In these exercises you will explore additional material on your own and then respond to questions in multiple choice format.
Some of the explanations in the videos and the exercises make reference to short programs that you can download and execute in your own computer. You are encouraged to experiment with these programs (modify the values of parameters, complete or rewrite the code to alter the model or to implement related functionality) and run your own simulations. The code provided can be executed in either GNU Octave or MATLAB.

Certification

You will receive a certificate of participation after completing the course assignments (videos, quizzes and homework).

Learning objectives

At the end of this course you will know how to answer the following questions:

1. Why are random numbers needed in quantitative finance? And, if they are random, how can they be used to give precise, accurate answers to quantitative financial problems?
2. What is the Black-Scholes model and how can it be used to simulate the evolution of asset prices in financial markets?
3. How are Monte Carlo methods used to determine the right price of a derivative product, such as a European call option?
4. What is the theory of copulas and how can it be used to model general dependencies among financial assets?
5. How is financial risk modeled, characterized and quantified?

Workload

You will need between 5 and 8 hours of work per week during a total of 12 weeks to complete all the learning activities, including the homework.

Prior knowledge

The course is geared to students not only in economics and finance, but also in mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics and the natural sciences.
No knowledge of finance is required.
Basic knowledge of Calculus (integration and differentiation, Taylor series), Linear Algebra (matrices, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors) and Probability (random variables, probability density and cumulative distribution functions) at an introductory undergraduate level is strongly recommended.
Programming knowledge is recommended. We will be designing simulations that can be executed in either GNU Octave or in Matlab. The programs will be short, intuitive, fully documented and easy to follow. Yet they will be powerful tools under your control, and will allow you to explore, experiment and learn at your own initiative.

Language

The course will be taught in English.

Our team

Ana Lozano Valverde, Think Visual [video direction and production]
Iago López, 14 pies [video production]
Lorenzo Hernández, Quantitative Risk Research, S.L. [course contents]
Jaime Vinuesa, Quantitative Risk Research, S.L. [course contents]
Alberto Suárez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [course direction]
Special thanks to Profs. Jose Luis Fernández Pérez and Santiago Carrillo Menédez from the Mathematics department at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid for their input and advice.

FAQ

Where can I find the software needed for the course?
The programs used in the course can be executed either in GNU Octave (version 3.6.4) or in MATLAB.
GNU Octave is freely redistributable software and can be downloaded from http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/. The version that should be used in Windows is Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2, which can be retreived at the URL Octave 3.6.4 for Windows MinGW. Please follow the instructions in that webpage to install the software.
MATLAB is commercial software and you need to have a valid license to install it in your computer. As a result of support from MathWorks, students will be granted a downloadable license to MATLAB and the recommended toolboxes (Statistics and Optimization) for the duration of the course.

Resilient Building Design

 

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About this course

Course Description

On November 9, 2013 the devastating typhoon Haiyan hit the Phillipines, causing more than 5,000 deaths and destroying the homes and cities for millions. Natural disasters are happening more and more often due to climate change. We can’t do much to stop them, but as architects we can help with the recovery and to build shelters that would withstand them.
The goal of this online course is to generate design ideas for resilient schools for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan and other natural disasters. The participants in this course will design schools, which could be implemented by the Department of Education and Architecture for Humanity in the Philippines. We will engage with a team of architects, planners, engineers, and social workers. After the course, the projects and instructions will be placed on the open source platform Open Online Architecture (OOArch.org), so anyone can download and use them.
An international jury will select the best projects, which will eventually be built. We’ll have weekly lectures and daily discussions on our forum. A team of professors, consultants, and teaching assistants led by Prof. Ivan Shumkov will guide and assist all students in their work.

Course Schedule

Week 1, January 7: Climate change effects and resilient architecture research
Week 2, January 14: Resilient schools design begins
Week 3, January 21 : Resilient schools design feedback
Week 4, January 28: Teamwork and schools final design
Week 5, February 12: Projects final submission

Learning Outcomes

Students will learn about resilient architeture and how it can be used in communities in need. They will improve their design and collaboration skills. During the second week of the course, each student will design individual proposals and post them on the forum. All students will be publish their design proposals and ask others for feedback and help on their projects. They will form collaboration teams, which will work together on developing integral projects that include aspects of architectural design, engineering, social space, community development, economical feasibility, sustainability and resilience.

Workload

The involvement in the course is flexible. For architects, this is meant to be an intensive design studio course, so participants are expected to dedicate 10-20 hours a week. For others, who act as advisors and collaborators, it could take 2-5 hours of work weekly.

Course Format

The course will be organized similar to a competition for design ideas, but will encourage collaborations and teamwork. We will use peer-to-peer review as a way to exchange feedback. We will also have a course forum and team groups on Google+ where students will exchange and discuss design ideas. During the course, the projects will be developed to the phase of schematic design. At the end of the course, the 5-10 best proposals will be selected and further developed with the guidance of the course professor, consultants, and the local authorities. Some of the proposals will eventually be build if funding and local support are secured.

Prior Knowledge

Previous experience in design is recommended, but there will be opportunities for others to participate. The course work will be collaboration between people from many different backgrounds: design, engineering, economics, healthcare, social studies. They will share and exchange their knowledge, skills and energy to design solutions that are resilient, feasible, sustainable, buildable, etc.

Certification

After completing the course assignments, students will receive certificates of participation according to their role and degree of involvement: architect, designer, project manager, engineer, consultant, advisor, economist, communications, etc.

Thank you for enrolling. We will update you with news soon.