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Plain Language 101: Techniques to Write Clear, Readable, Inclusive Planning Materials
This course covers the basics of writing in plain language through a series of interactive chapters.
How to Scope for Plan Implementation
Learn hands-on steps and procedures for creating a well-scoped and funding-ready planning study.
Planning a Municipal Wayfinding System
Often overlooked, wayfinding is important for urban design, accessibility, and economic development. Learn the elements of a successful wayfinding system in this course.
Interpreting Places and Spaces
Interpretive media can dramatically enhance people's experience of place. Learn how to develop and execute a plan that brings the stories tied to places to life.
Designing a Wayfinding System
Learn how to create a comprehensive wayfinding signage system for your municipality from start to finish.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
This course discusses crime as an environmental justice issue and reviews techniques that successfully reduce crime and make communities safer and healthier through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) theory.
Building Bad, Part 1: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics
Discover the theory of “Building Bad”: an examination of the costs and benefits that can limit the functionality of buildings in exchange for profits.
Building Bad, Part 2: How Architectural Utility is Damaged by Expression
Join Jonathan Ochshorn on a captivating exploration of his theory "Building Bad" in Part Two of this course. Discover the fascinating interplay between artistic expression and the functionality of buildings, and how they can sometimes clash.
Demystifying AI: Terminology, Tools, and Techniques for Urban Planners
Understanding the basics of artificial intelligence, or AI, is increasingly important for urban planners. Learn the capabilities, limitations, and language of emerging technologies that utilize AI methods.
Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Urban Planning Work
This course will help you understand what emotional intelligence is, what the component parts of emotional intelligence are, and understand some strategies to try in each of these areas.
Principles of Materiality, Responsiveness, Inclusivity, and Impact
In this course, students will take a deep dive into the AA1000 AccountAbility standard and its four Principles: Inclusivity, Materiality, Responsiveness and Impact and how they integrate to develop a very well thought out framework.
Environmental and Sustainability Standards
This course explains the different and most relevant sustainability standards—such as GRI, CDP, SASB, ISO, B-Corp, and others—as well as the differences between process and performance standards.
Sustainability Marketing and Greenwashing
Sustainability marketing, when done right, can boost a brand’s reputation and provide an edge over competitors. This course analyzes strategies to effectively jump-start sustainability marketing efforts and avoid greenwashing.
Measuring Neighborhood Segregation and Diversity
This course reviews the various ways to measure both segregation and diversity at the neighborhood scale.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
Urban planners and urban designers are interested in building places that embody beauty and hope. In this course, Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP, presents free urban design software tools that can help urban planners and urban designers visualize changes in the built environment to support the overarching goal of creating better places.
Urban Design for Planners 2: Getting Started with QGIS and SketchUp
Course instructor Emily Talen guides viewers through the process of transferring a shapefile of building outlines into SketchUp and processes of basic manipulation necessary to create a 3D model. Learn how to load data into QGIS, set the coordinate reference system, and change the graphic display of data layers.
Urban Design for Planners 3: Neighborhoods and Centers
This course demonstrates how to delineate neighborhoods and neighborhood centers in a given area and also illustrates a sample of neighborhood enhancing design improvements.
Urban Design for Planners 4: Mix and Proximity
Course instructor Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP provides step-by-step instruction on how to use data sets to visualize and map the configuration of mix and density along main commercial corridors and neighborhoods.
GIS Fundamentals: An Introduction
This first of a series of courses covering Geographic information Systems (GIS) will guide beginners interested in learning more about GIS, especially with the use of Esri's ArcGIS software.
GIS Fundamentals: Projections and Map Design
The course will continue core concepts of GIS that began in the first course, including projections, coordinate systems, cartography, and the difference between raster and vector data models.
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