Via Erik Stattin (in Swedish) I found out about MIT OpenCourseWare. Here are some courses that I find interesting, and for which there are lecture notes and assignments available online:
- Problems of Philosophy; “The course has two main goals: First, to give you a sense of what philosophers think about and why. This will be done through consideration of some perennial philosophical problems, e.g., the existence of God, reason and faith, personal identity and immortality, […]. We will draw on readings by important figures in the history of philosophy as well as contemporary authors. The second goal is to develop your philosophical skills, and your critical and argumentative skills more generally.”
- Introduction to Linguistics; “This class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the course, we will be learning (in many different ways) that human language is a surprisingly intricate – yet law-governed and fascinating mental system. In the last part of the class, we will use what we have learned to address a variety of questions, including how children acquire language, what are the similarities and differences among languages, how spoken (and signed) language relates to written language, among others.”
- Laboratory in Software Engineering (more in terms of what they cover than actually taking the course); “troduces concepts and techniques relevant to the production of large software systems. Students taught a programming method based on the recognition and description of useful abstractions. Topics: modularity; specification; data abstraction; object modeling; design patterns; and testing.”
- Product Design and Development; “Covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. […] Topics include identifying customer needs, concept generation, product architecture, industrial design, and design-for-manufacturing.
- Systems Optimization: Models and Computation; “Application domains include: transportation and logistics planning, pattern classification and image processing, data mining, design of structures, scheduling in large systems, supply-chain management, financial engineering, and telecommunications systems planning.”
I hope they add some interesting courses for the Urban Studies and Planning department.