Course Library
Browse our library of planning courses
Urban Agriculture
Urban farming is becoming more popular around the state of California, taking many forms along the way, as documented in this film produced by experts from the University of California and the Cal State University system in cooperation with local organizations.
City Dreamers
The film "City Dreamers," directed by Joseph Hillel and released in 2018, tells the story of four women designers who worked to shape North American cities throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.
Working From Home for Planners
The future of work and the future of education are location independent, and we’re all better off because of it. This course will cover three topics: Productivity, Teamwork, and Public Meetings.
Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City
“Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City” tells the story of Daniel Burnham’s life and achievements, as one of the most influential architects and planners in American history.
Urbanized
This film surveys some of the most pressing challenges of contemporary urbanism, while also presenting some of the most ambitious ideas for addressing those challenges. In Urbanized, the ideas don't always require the most famous architects and financing from the richest people in the world. According to Urbanized, ambition can be self-taught, community-based, and balanced with nature.
The Future of Cities After COVID-19
This virtual panel discussion focuses on the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the development, demographic, and environmental trends of the future. Speakers: Allison Arieff, William Fulton, Scott Frazier, and Mariela Alfonzo. Moderator: James Brasuell.
The Human Scale
The Human Scale juxtaposes the urban experiences of cities across the World to raise questions about the costs of modernity and to argue in favor of city planning that reclaims the public realm for social life. This new approach to planning is measured by walking distances, social interactions, and social inclusion, rather than vehicle speeds and parking spaces.
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
What makes good public spaces work, and why are some public spaces underused? Over the course of this film, William Whyte details insights into seven basic factors of successful public spaces: suitable space, interaction with the street, the sun, food, water, trees, and, finally, a term Whyte calls triangulation, or the ability of a public space to bring people together.
Introduction to City Planning 5: The City of Tomorrow
This fifth and final course of the "Introduction to City Planning" series discusses the key challenges facing cities in the future, as well as some potential solutions.
Introduction to City Planning 4: Planning in the Postmodern Age (1980-Today)
This course surveys the key economic, environmental, sociopolitical, and technological shifts responsible for the evolution of contemporary planning from 1980 to contemporary times. Assessing historical planning movements through a critical lens, course instructor Jason Luger discusses the relevance of past successes and failures for cities today.
The YIMBY Movement: Opportunities and Challenges for Planners
Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) is a relatively new movement, but YIMBYs are quickly gaining political power and numbers. This course discusses the origins, goals, and tactics of the YIMBY movement.
Introduction to Urban Informatics
This course discusses how the field of urban informatics works. You will also learn about the technologies and concepts influencing Urban Informatics, including "Big Data," machine learning, visualization, and data-driven decision making.
Complying With Federal Law in Regulating Telecommunications
This course explains what local governments need to do—and to avoid—to comply with federal laws while regulating telecommunications facilities.
Federal and State Religious Land Use Statutes
This course will explain what local governments need to do—and to avoid—when enacting and applying land use regulations that affect religious land uses.
Introduction to Smart Cities
This course explores the characteristics and the challenges of smart cities, as well as the potential opportunities for smart cities within the design and planning fields. This course also discusses the drivers and the essential technologies in a smart city.
Transportation Planning: Making Transportation Plans—Rationality and Politics
This course explains the major forms of planning applicable to transportation, including rational comprehensive planning, strategic planning, policy analysis, incremental planning, advocacy planning, and communicative planning.
Local Regulation of Marijuana Businesses
This course examines the role of local regulation in states that have legalized marijuana. Learn about marijuana components and products, federal and state laws, zoning, and social equity issues.
Transportation Planning: Strategies for Working with Roadway Capacity
This course explains the menu of contemporary approaches to modifying or adding to transportation capacity. It provides examples of capacity responses to regional mobility for commuters and local accessibility for communities.
Introduction to City Planning 3: Midcentury Modern (1940-1979)
This course explores the central role of planning in envisioning cities in the middle 20th century. World War II and the Cold War re-ordered power and politics in new ways. The tragic destruction and loss of World War II gave transformed into exciting opportunities for planners to try new things, in new ways.
Transportation Planning: Travel Behavior Principles and Modelling Approaches
This course provides an overview and critique of the four-step model used in transportation planning. By the end of this course, viewers will be able to conceptualize how transportation models can address contemporary problems in transportation planning, such as transit-oriented development.