For 2017-2018, faculty participating in the Boston Civic Media consortium will be offering a range of undergraduate courses that explore the intersection of civic media and climate change. Browse the available courses below and click on enroll to learn how to cross register for the selected course. While we cannot guarantee availability of seats, we encourage you to reach out to the professors with any questions.
Review your school’s cross registration requirements
Every school handles cross registration differently. more information can be found on your school website.
Contact your course’s listed instructor for availability
Reach out to the listed instructor to ask about availability. Make sure to mention finding the course on the Boston Civic Media website!
Follow cross-registration instructions to sign up
Under each listed course description is a button link which will take you to the hosted institution’s cross registration information.
This course serves as an introduction to contemporary and emergent design practice, by investigating the expanded role of design in the public realm, the agency of designers working with(in) communities, and the utility of design-thinking as a tool for social change. Students will learn in both lecture and project-based formats, and will be responsible for working cooperatively and collaboratively in teams on group projects. Students will engage in learning by doing, and they will be required to document, reflect, and analyze their work intermittently over the course of the semester and at the end of the semester through a formal Practice Assessment. Community Practice also provides an introduction to the Practice Department and the pedagogies of applied learning at the BAC.
This course will guide students using a critical media literacy approach to understand the effects of media consumption and messaging on audiences, specifically the impact of media consumption on youth and communities. Students will learn the connection between media messages and behavior, and will examine the benefits and consequences of using media as a tool for change by exploring a variety of approaches to producing media for social change. Students will be able to take learning from the academic to applicatory by developing a strategy that addresses current issues for their own local community. Students will implement team-designed communication campaigns project, and will gain valuable experience creating their own public information campaign.
Students will refine and broaden their ability to interpret scientific language and communicate critical scientific content to others. This course will examine popular representations of environmental issues in various outlets such as film, fiction, and journalism. Conversation about any scientific inaccuracies will provide a motivation for delving deeper into the science and discussion of creative intent will provide a mechanism for discussing ethical, social, and political impact of related research. Students will then apply such interpretative understandings to their own craft as they put scientific translation and communication into practice in select scenarios.
Contact Information
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
After years of inadequate government action against escalating climate change, activists have turned to creative strategies to educate the public, agitate for policy change, propose alternative ways of living, and transform the environmental imaginary. In this studio-seminar, you will “learn by doing,” collaboratively designing a civic media/activist art project around fossil fuel divestment while critically exploring a broad range of creative responses to ecological crisis. No prior experience in the arts is required; the studio is organized into multidisciplinary, diverse teams that work together to create projects and to inquire into the history, theory, best practices, and critiques of community inclusion and environmental politics in art and design.
This course introduces concepts, methods and practices of data visualization and data storytelling for journalism and civic media graduate students. Data journalism is an emerging field of practice that ranges from the dazzling interactive graphics of the New York Times to the consistent, watchful reporting of sites like Homicide Watch. In this course, students learn to adopt a "data-mindset" and reflect on how telling stories with data can help advance (and occasionally obscure) public understanding. Students will learn how to find and create data sets for their stories, how to analyze data (including some basic scripting and coding) and how to present data in a variety of ways. We will also discuss privacy, verification, ethics and some of the other thorny issues that arise with data reporting. Some experience in HTML and coding is helpful but not required.
Contact Information
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
Arts for Global Health
Semester Fall
Institution Harvard
Instructor
Doris Sommer
Course Description
The lecture series addresses how change and growth in global health can stem from an aesthetic approach to its technical and social challenges. Theoretical readings (Plato, Kant, Schiller, Dewey, Freire, Gramsci, Rancière, Mockus, Boal, Nussbaum, inter alia) are grounded in concrete cases of health care. The final project will be a design for a creative intervention. A companion essay will trace the development of the design and reference theoretical texts and cases.
This interdisciplinary course relates human drivers, impacts, and responses to changes in weather and climate. The course uses perspectives from sociology, anthropology, and environmental justice to understand the challenges that people, communities, and nations are facing today and are likely to experience later in this century. Because climate change is a complex problem, we also draw upon research by historians, archaeologists, health geographers, and climate scientists. Students will apply their new knowledge to a final project on climate change in Boston.
The video game industry is one of the largest sectors of the entertainment industry. But the importance of games goes well beyond industrial silos. Games and game mechanics are factoring into the experience of television, film and the web, and increasingly, into other institutions, including education, democracy and health. What’s more, games are being deployed in these contexts to produce real world social change. This class provides students with an introduction to games and game design and gives them the opportunity to partner with an organization in designing games for real people to solve real problems. Students will work in groups, each with a specific geographic and content focus, to design board (or otherwise analog) games and digital prototypes that will be tested and deployed.
Contact Information
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
Climate change is a complex topic of enormous scientific interest, societal importance, and political debate. This course introduces students to the science of climate change and global warming, focusing in particular on: past environmental change, including abrupt changes and past intervals of warmth; the response of physical and biological systems to recent and ongoing changes in climate; future climate scenarios, forecasting uncertainties, and public-policy options; and critical evaluation of media coverage of climate-change issues.
Contact Information
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
Data Storytelling
Semester Spring
Institution MIT
Instructor
Rahul Bhargava
Course Description
This class is focused on how to tell stories with data to create social change. We will learn through case studies, examples and hands-on work with tools and technologies. We will introduce basic methods for research, cleaning and analyzing datasets, but the focus in on creative methods and media for data presentation and storytelling. We will consider the emotional, aesthetic and practical effects of different presentation methods as well as how to develop metrics for assessing impact. Over the course of the semester, students will work in small groups to create 5 sketches, each using a different technique for telling a data-driven story. Think about a “sketch” as a half-realized project; where you have implemented just enough of the most important details of the idea in order for us to understand your vision. A sketch is NOT a fully realized presentation of a data story. For the final project, students will have the chance to expand and expand on one of these sketches to create fully realized presentation of a data-driven story.
The course is open to all technical levels and backgrounds. We will prioritize students with a strong background in one or more of the following areas: journalism, software development, data analysis, documentary, visual and performing arts.
This course serves as an introduction to contemporary and emergent design practice, by investigating the expanded role of design in the public realm, the agency of designers working with(in) communities, and the utility of design-thinking as a tool for social change. Students will learn in both lecture and project-based formats, and will be responsible for working cooperatively and collaboratively in teams on group projects. Students will engage in learning by doing, and they will be required to document, reflect, and analyze their work intermittently over the course of the semester and at the end of the semester through a formal Practice Assessment. Community Practice also provides an introduction to the Practice Department and the pedagogies of applied learning at the BAC.
This course introduces concepts, methods and practices of data visualization and data storytelling for journalism and civic media graduate students. Data journalism is an emerging field of practice that ranges from the dazzling interactive graphics of the New York Times to the consistent, watchful reporting of sites like Homicide Watch. In this course, students learn to adopt a "data-mindset" and reflect on how telling stories with data can help advance (and occasionally obscure) public understanding. Students will learn how to find and create data sets for their stories, how to analyze data (including some basic scripting and coding) and how to present data in a variety of ways. We will also discuss privacy, verification, ethics and some of the other thorny issues that arise with data reporting. Some experience in HTML and coding is helpful but not required.
Contact Information
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
Art and Ecology
Semester Spring
Institution Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Nature, landscape, earth, environment, climate: so many words for the natural world that surrounds us. This class looks at the current state of the natural world: its beauty and peril, its sublime and polluted aspects. Projects will address the climate crisis through the lens of time. We will create projects that engage sustainability and resilience as creative responses in art and design to our imperiled future. Themes of energy, community, waste, conservation, interconnectedness, visual communication, and design for change will be our focus.
We will play with fundamental concepts of time in art including narrative, duration, tempo, and others through projects in a variety of media including sound, video, multiple image sequences, and books. Collaborative, research, and performative practices will be explored. The class will include a 4-5 week module creating civic media projects for and with Mothers Out Front, a national organization of mothers working to find solutions to climate issues, particularly around their key action agenda to halt new pipeline approvals in the Boston metro area, work with the gas companies to stop extensive gas leaks throughout the city, and spread information about the hazards of natural gas.
The BAC offers enrollment in certain degree program courses to non-matriculating students on an as-available basis through its Part-Time Enrollment Program. Please contact the Registrar's Office at 617.585.0135 or [email protected] for further information.
Method 2: Register for Continuing Education
Please follow these steps in order to register online:
Create an account and log into http://selfservice.the-bac.edu
Select “Register for Continuing Education Courses”
Select the Session (Distance students should select “Distance”)
Select “Section Search” on the left hand side or in the middle of the page.
Make sure the Period field is set to the desired semester.
Make certain the “Registration Type” is set appropriately to Continuing Education.
You may begin to search for courses.
When you locate the proper course, click on the “Add” button on the right.
A verification box will appear. Click “Hide” in upper right corner in order to proceed with adding additional courses. Click “New Search” or “Refine Search” on the left in order to conduct another search.
Repeat previous steps when registering for multiple courses (with each new course search, please be certain that the Registration Type and Period are correct)
When you have completed course selection, click on “Proceed to Registration.”
Review your schedule. If it is correct, click “Next”.
The next screen will ask you to finalize the registration by clicking “Finish”.
Select the “Finish” button to complete your registration.
If you would like to make changes to your schedule, click “Modify your schedule.”
In order to print your schedule, click on “View Schedule”, or by accessing the “Classes” tab and following the links for “Schedule” and then “Student Schedule”.
Contact Info & Additional Info
BAC Helpdesk (for information regarding login credentials, or password retrieval):
617-585-0191 | [email protected]
Registrar’s Office (for information regarding the registration process and Part-Time Enrollment Program/Non-Matriculating Registration):
Website | 617-585-0135 | [email protected]
Emerson College
Enroll as Non-Matriculating Student
How to Enroll in Credit-Bearing Undergraduate or Graduate Courses as Non-Matriculating Student
Prerequisites:
A high school diploma or GED to register for undergraduate-level courses. A bachelor's degree for enrolling in graduate-level credit-bearing courses.
Additional prerequisites specific to each course may be applicable.
Policies concerning prerequisites apply in all instances.
Please contact Professional Studies to learn more. The staff can assist you with the steps in the approval process and registration.
For pricing, refund and withdrawal policies, see here.
Contact Info & Additional Info
The Department of Professional Studies and Special Programs
Website | 617-824-8280 | [email protected]
Northeastern University
Enroll as Undergraduate Special (Nonmatriculated) Student
How to Registering as Undergraduate Special (Nonmatriculated) Students
Students outside of Northeastern University and Northeastern employees may petition to take undergraduate classes on a semester-by-semester basis. Approval is based on the student’s academic qualifications and on the space availability of the class. Nonmatriculated undergraduate students may take up to 20 cumulative semester hours at Northeastern (not including related labs). Classes are billed at a per-credit-hour rate; details.
Step 1: Print out the Undergraduate Special Student Form.
Step 2: Find the class you want to take by searching the class schedule by term. In doing so, please note the following information:
Five-digit CRN number that goes after the class name.
The “Attributes” information, as you will need it to find the corresponding college to contact for dean’s office signature
Step 3: Contact the student service department of the college offering the class to obtain the dean’s office signature:
College of Arts, Media and Design (617-373-5583, Office located in 100 Meserve)
D’Amore-McKim School of Business (617-373-3270, Office located in 250 Dodge)
College of Computer and Information Science (617-373-2462, Office located in 202 West Village H)
College of Engineering (617-373-2154, Office located in 220 Snell Engineering)
Bouvé College of Health Sciences (617-373-3320, Office located in 120 Behrakis)
College of Science (617-373-4475, Office located in 206 Mugar)
College of Social Sciences and Humanities (617-373-3980, Office located in 180 Renaissance Park)
Office of the Provost (617-373-8589, Office located in 110 Churchill)
Step 4: Submit the completed form to the Office of the Registrar.
Step 5: You will receive an email from the Office of the Registrar confirming your registration when it is complete.
Step 6: Students will need to complete “I Am Here” (attendance confirmation process) through myNEU. “I Am Here” begins the Thursday before classes start. The link can be found during that time under the “Self-Service” tab of myNEU.
Tips and Notes
If you need to drop a class as a special student, email [email protected] with your NUID, the term, and the class(es) you want to drop.
If you need to swap or add classes, fill out a new Undergraduate Special Student Form, obtain the required signatures, and submit to the Office of the Registrar with a notation that it is a swap or addition to your current schedule.
Your bill, which is generated electronically on your myNEU, should be paid by the end of the first week of the class. If it is not paid in a timely fashion, you may be dropped from the class. Billing and payment information.
Contact Info & Additional Info
Enroll as Non-Matriculated Student
How to Registering as Nonmatriculated Students
Complete our paper Undergraduate Non-Matriculated Student Registration Form (pdf) and fax it to 617-879-2099 or mail it to
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Wheelock College,
200 Riverway, Boston, MA 02215, attn: Jeremy Manus.
Mail your check (made payable to 'Wheelock College') and/or voucher to
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Wheelock College,
200 Riverway, Boston, MA 02215, attn: Jeremy Manus.
Your registration is not complete until we receive your payment and/or original paper voucher.
Contact Info & Additional Info
Program Website
MIT
Enroll as Undergraduate Special Student
Undergraduate Special Student Program
The Undergraduate Special Student Program is geared toward currently enrolled students interested in taking classes at MIT that are not offered at their home university. This non-degree status allows students to customize their course of study with options for part-time or full-time enrollment and the ability to stay for one or two academic terms. Upon completion of the program students can request an academic transcript to take back to their home university.
Qualified applicants must:
Be enrolled in a full-time undergraduate degree program elsewhere
Have completed one year of full-time study prior to the planned enrollment date
Demonstrate their ability to succeed in MIT’s rigorous classes
Application Procedures
A person seeking admission as a non-degree undergraduate Special Student must apply through the online application. Completed applications for a given term must be submitted before 11:59PM (Eastern US Time) on the deadline date indicated above. All materials must be submitted online at: gradapply.mit.edu/special/apply
Fall Term Entry:
Application Available: February 1st
Application Due: May 1st
Notification By: July 1st
Spring Term Entry:
Application Available: August 1st
Application Due: October 1st
Notification By: December 1st
Applicants wishing to audit classes, which MIT refers to as Listener Status, are subject to the same regulations and tuition as those taking classes for credit.
Requirements:
Below is a list of required components that must be included in the application:
Submitted online application, which includes applicant biographic information and $75 application fee (by credit card)
One letter of recommendation from an appropriate professor, instructor, teacher, or work supervisor
Planned class schedule, including up to 5 classes to which you are interested in enrolling
Statement of objective
Scanned/uploaded copies of your official college transcript(s)
Self reported results of TOEFL exam and uploaded copy of test report (*International applicants only)
Special Student Admissions notifies all applicants of admissions decisions by email. If the applicant is admitted, further instructions about registration and tuition payment requirements will be provided.
Registration Limitations
Please keep in mind that there are several registration limitations related to special student enrollment, as such it is important that you keep the following factors in mind when selecting classes.
Regular MIT degree students will be given priority for registration in classes with limited enrollment
Special students are not eligible to register for classes listed as thesis, research, UROP, or other subjects for degree candidates only. Do not select any these classes when completing your application.
Applicants should limit the classes they are interested in taking to a single MIT department.
Applicants cannot apply for Harvard cross-registration classes in the initial application. Enrolled students may apply for one Harvard cross-registration class after arriving on campus. Additional restrictions may apply.
Enrolled students may not be eligible to take IAP classes depending on their current or future registration status.
Contact Info & Additional Info
Undergraduate Special Student Program
Website | 617-253-2917 | [email protected]
Harvard
Non Harvard Students must create an XID prior to Cross Registering for courses at Harvard University.
The XID will be used only for cross registration.
Be sure to use your school email address to create an XID
Your login name can be your school email address or you can choose a login name of your choice.
Once you create an XID, you will use your login name to log into Course Catalog to Cross Register for courses(find instructions to cross register for courses below)
Once you are enrolled in a course, you will be provided with a Harvard University ID (HUID) to access your course materials.
Log into Harvard University Course Catalog using your XID (School email address or login name) and password. Select the XID login prompt on the login page.
Use the Search function to view the Course Catalog
On the results page, select the ‘Eligible for cross registration’ link at the top of the left panel.
Select a course title to view the course details.
Click the “add to cross-registration petition list” check box on the course details page to add a course to your cross registration petition list. The checkbox is available when you are eligible to cross register for the course. You may add multiple courses to your petition list. Courses in your petition list will be saved until you delete them.
To submit an online cross registration petition:
If you are not already logged in, login to the Harvard University Course Catalog with XID
Select “My Cross-Registration” page from the Home page. You can also access this page from the Search page, or Course Detail page.
Go to the petition you want to submit.
Select a grading option from the drop-down menu.
Select a Credit level from the drop-down menu.
Click ‘Submit Online Petition’.
If prompted, enter your Program/Department , Degree Year, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name , Date of Birth, Gender, Home School ID, Home School Status, and Status of Harvard ID
Click Confirm on the pop-up.
Each Instructor will receive an email alerting them that you are interested in cross-registering for their course. Instructors approve or deny student requests online.
You are not enrolled in a course until you receive email notification of enrollment from the Host School registrar.
