Science

Online Courses Turn Profs From ‘Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side’

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“Any person, … any study”: it is the phrase heard resounding across the Arts Quad as a backwards-walking tour guide shouts to a shuffling clump of wide-eyed high school students about Cornell’s history of inclusiveness. For Cornellians, the phrase is cliched, but beloved — seen running across the front of every brochure, every banner and every statue across campus. Ezra Cornell was progressive for his time and aimed to promote his institution’s role as a nondiscriminatory place of learning that is open to any student, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. Unbeknownst to Ezra Cornell, the age of the computer would take this inclusiveness to another level.

Science

Cornell, University of Queensland Offer Free Online Shark Course

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Already excited for shark week? Can’t get enough of the sharp toothed fish? Well, you’re in luck. Cornell University, in collaboration with The University of Queensland, has created a Massive Open Online Course on sharks titled ‘Sharks! Global Biodiversity, Biology and Conservation.’

The course is free and focuses on the total diversity of living cartilaginous fishes — the larger group of about 1,200 living species that includes the sharks, rays, and ratfishes, according to Prof.William Bemis, ecology and evolutionary biology, an instructor for the course.