Micro-Courses

Micro-courses are developed around emerging topics and research. We conceive of the weekend as a module. With five or six speaker sessions, each weekend module provides ample opportunity to illustrate differences in disciplinary approaches to a central issue. The micro-course structure helps address two emerging aims for general education at universities:
  1. Empowering students to engage in complex problem-solving 
  2. Engaging with interdisciplinary perspectives

The multi-disciplinary approach to the course content is leveraged as a space where inter-cultural and global learning occurs by emphasizing perspective-taking, encouraging open mindedness, and promoting cultural awareness

Micro-courses attract students across majors and colleges at our respective universities, which allows students who may not interact with one another or hear from other disciplines the opportunity to do so. The lower number of credits/units and the weekend schedule provides students the flexibility to enroll with minimal disruption to increasingly packed schedules.

Current Micro-Course Series: Technology, Humanity, and Social Justice

 
Register for the Fall 2023 Micro-Course now!
 
As humans rely more and more on electronic devices to support their everyday activities, there are ever present warnings about the impacts such reliance has on human autonomy ranging from who owns and controls information networks, the inequitable impact of technology consumption on peoples and places, varying accessibility of technology around the globe, and the promises and limitations of technology in improving human health. By engaging in technology as a lens, this sequence of weekend micro-courses encourages students to examine technology as a system disproportionately impacting humanity by enabling and constraining human rights of groups of people around the globe. With a multi-disciplinary focus, the course invites researchers and practitioners from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and relevant fields more broadly. 
 
In this four-part weekend micro-course spanning four semesters, we will examine the power of technology on humanity and its implications on social justice in four areas: governance, environment, education, and health. Please note that students do not need to complete all four parts and are welcome to participate in any and all micro-course offerings.
 
This weekend micro-course is awarded one-credit for PITT students upon successful completion. 
 
In Fall 2023, the focus will be on the impact technology has on human health. This will include a discussion about technology’s impact on human interactions, including mental health amid a pandemic and the changing reliance on technology on health care delivery. It will also include a focus on the accessibility and disparities on health care’s increased use of technology across the globe as well as the transition to digitizing health records and the dangers this creates in relation to privacy, among others. Previous micro-course sessions in this series focused on the environment and education.
 

The Art of the Interview Masterclass: Stories of Displacement

 

In partnership with the Department of English, the Global Studies Center is offering a 1 credit micro course about the techniques and strategies for creating a podcast. To learn more and to register for the course, click here.