As Thammasat University students grow accustomed to online learning and distance education, some may wish to explore overseas opportunities after they have done their required coursework. Taking an extra class may be informative and help complement main areas of study, giving students new ideas and perspectives and help them to practice their English language usage.
One opportunity to consider may be free massive open online courses (MOOCs) at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a global centre for research and teaching. The TU Library owns a number of books published by the University of British Columbia Press, a noted academic publisher.
In March 2012, UBC was the partner Host University of the Harvard World Model United Nations Conference (WorldMUN 2012 Vancouver). As the world’s largest student-organized Model UN conference, this was also the largest student conference to have ever been organized by UBC and the largest student conference on Canadian soil.There were 2,200 student delegates and nearly 200 faculty advisors from 270 universities from over 60 countries. The organizing committee amassed over 500 student volunteers from across the UBC campus and the local student community to execute the week-long event.
As TU students know, the Thammasat University Model United Nations (TUMUN) Club actively participates in this program. As the C-ASEAN website notes, the TUMUN Club was founded in 2011. Three-day TUMUN Conference 2020 was held from 9 to 11 January 2020.
Following up in this cooperative spirit, MOOCs available at UBC is EQ for Family Business:
An introduction to the importance of cultivating emotional intelligence in family business. Listen to stories from family business members, and learn ways to develop your own traits to help you build rapport and strengthen relationships. Learn how cultivating emotional intelligence can help your company achieve a competitive advantage.
- About this course
Family businesses are the backbone of our economy—not just in Canada, but around the globe. Despite being the most common type of ownership structure, family businesses are often the most complex; relationships between family members can become strained, especially if emotions take over, causing challenges that can affect the bottom line.
In this course, family business participants examine the importance of cultivating their own emotional intelligence (EQ) to achieve greater business success. While the course focuses primarily on next-generation successors, it also provides elders with an opportunity to explore their own experiences in order to help sustain healthy family business relationships, especially during transition periods from one generation to the next. In addition, the course provides family business advisors with a deeper understanding of how EQ will help them communicate more effectively with their family business clients.
- What you’ll learn
After completing this course, participants will have developed:
- a greater awareness of the type of role model who will help them cultivate their EQ in the future.
- an EQ tool kit that will enable them to make a more vital contribution to their family business.
- a roadmap for how to build into their life the kind of characteristics that will enable them to become successful leaders.
The class instructor will be David C. Bentall, Founding Principal of Next Step Advisors Inc.
As the Next Step Advisors website indicates,
- Next Step has three key focus areas:
Executive/ Life Coaching, Business Family Consulting and Public Speaking.
These key areas provide opportunity for David to offer his wealth of knowledge and experience in service of his clients’ objectives. He is a man of integrity and passion, and is respected in the business world. David C. Bentall can assist you to find answers to your questions, whether they concern your personal, business or family life. A Next Step Advisor does not sell a product or a system. However, they can assist you to determine what your next step should be and to develop the courage to take that step!
A further learning opportunity at UBC is Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs.
Its online description follows:
Using real examples, learn how ecology can guide urban design to avert environmental disasters and improve people’s lives.
- About this course
Too often modern cities and suburbs are disorganized places where most new development makes daily life less pleasant, creates more traffic congestion, and contributes to climate change. This trend has to change; and our course is going to show you how.
Ecodesign means integrating planning, urban design and the conservation of natural systems to produce a sustainable built and natural environment. Ecodesign can be implemented through normal business practices and the kinds of capital programs and regulations already in use in most communities. We will show you how ecodesign has already been used for exceptional projects in many cities and suburbs—from Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm to False Creek North in Vancouver to Battery Park City in Manhattan, as well as many smaller-scale examples that can be adopted in any community. Cities and suburbs built according to ecodesign principles can and should become normal, instead of just a few special examples, transforming urban development into desirable, lower-carbon, compact and walkable communities and business centers…
What you’ll learn
- The principles of ecodesign and why it is important as a response to the current disorganized urban growth model
- Ways to adapt to a changing climate, and ways to mitigate climate change locally
- Policies to balance auto and airplane transportation with walking, cycling, transit and high-speed rail
- Ways of designing urban and suburban regulations to make cities more livable and environmentally compatible
- Strategies for designing and managing the public realm, plus Innovative arrangements and processes for implementing ecodesign
The course will be taught by Professor Larry Beasley, Distinguished Practice Professor of Planning, University of British Columbia.
Professor Beasley is a retired Co-director of Planner for the City of Vancouver. He is now the founding principal of Beasley and Associates, an international planning and urban design consultancy.
The class will be co-taught by Jonathan Barnett, one of the pioneers of the modern practice of city design. As a professor of city and regional planning and director of the graduate urban design program at the University of Pennsylvania, and as a professor, critic or lecturer at many other universities in the United States, Australia, China, Korea, and Brazil, Jonathan Barnett has helped educate more than a generation of city designers.
The TU Library owns a copy of Dr. Barnett’s Planning for a new century: the regional agenda. It is shelved in the General Stacks of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.
Still another MOOC being offered at UBC is Gender and Sexuality: Applications in Society:
Gender & Sexuality shape work, life and play. Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills to engage with key issues through key concepts and perspectives.
About this course
Navigating through the complexities of Gender & Sexuality is a necessity in our world, now more than ever. Engage with globally renowned scholars from top Canadian universities to learn concepts and practices that advance respect and human rights. This course will teach you to better understand and apply knowledge about gender and sexuality — a critical first step in addressing social, economic and cultural inequalities.
This intersectional approach to Gender & Sexuality Studies will cover key topics in the fields of literature, language, geography, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cinema and media studies, law and medicine. Some questions we will address include:
What is gender and sexuality?
What does this mean in different contexts?
How do we think critically and creatively about identity, communication, and community?
How are gender and sexuality organized in media and popular culture?
How do people, young and old, negotiate knowledge about gender and sexuality?
This course is for anyone who wants to build their own cultural competence and the capacity of those around them to understand gender and sexuality and the intersections of these core facets of culture and nature, with other differences, like race, age or disability.
What you’ll learn
- Deepen understanding and knowledge about gender and sexuality.
- Explore personal and academic histories and narratives in Gender & Sexuality Studies.
- Participate in current conversations on a wide-ranging local and national scale.
- Acquire knowledge about classical and contemporary theories in Gender & Sexuality Studies.
- Explore the possibilities for intersectionality to highlight social justice issues.
- Gain an appreciation for a diverse range of individuals, communities, and viewpoints.
The class is led by Dr. Janice Stewart, Senior Instructor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)