Course Library
Browse our library of planning courses
United States Census 2020: All About Census 2020
Learn all about the upcoming Census. This course provides an overview of planned operations and discusses the Census schedule, process, products, accuracy, publicity, and jobs.
Crowdsourcing and Urban Planning
Crowdsourcing is the gathering of ideas, content, voices, and services by leveraging the collective intelligence and wisdom of crowds.
Citizen Science in Urban Planning
This course introduces planners to citizen science and how citizen science can play a meaningful role in urban planning.
Leadership in Planning: Strategic Decision-Making in the Public Interest
At the end of this course, you will understand how to turn planning theory into practice in the real world.
Blogging About Planning
In this course we will review how blogs are used as planning tools to educate and engage participants in community decisions.
The Charrette Way: The Secrets to Collaborative Creativity
This course explores the transformative dynamics taking place in a multiple-day charrette.
Introduction to Charrettes
This course introduces the NCI System, a collaborative, design-based approach to public involvement.
Urban Sustainability Appraisal Tools for Planned Neighborhoods and Landscapes
This course is the third in a four-part series on urban sustainability appraisal tools as collaboration platforms and sustainability accelerators for communities.
MetroQuest Public Involvement Software: In Practice and In Action
This course provides an introduction to working with MetroQuest, what it helps planners achieve, and some of its most important features and capabilities. The course also presents a series of case studies to demonstrate the results MetroQuest has achieved for a wide range of planning projects.
Planning and Promoting Your Community Engagement Process
This course provides you with a step-by-step process for designing an effective public engagement process.
Best Practices for Community Engagement
This course provides you with solid understanding of the benefits to community engagement, the psychology of public participants, an overview of the tools and tactics to choose from and advice on the creation of a public engagement plan to meet the needs of your projects.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Globally and v.4 Update
The final course in the "Greening the Neighborhood" series discusses international considerations for LEED-ND and reviews LEED v.4, the first major update to the LEED-ND system since 2009.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Metrics
This course describes approaches for making the LEED-ND calculations that will influence the work of the project team throughout the process.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Core Concepts
Learn about the six key elements used throughout the submission preparation process: site type, boundary, buildable land, development program, terminology, and mapping.
Greening the Neighborhood: Accelerating Sustainability with LEED-ND
This course reviews options and resources for local governments to leverage LEED-ND by examining case studies of local experiences and results.
Greening the Neighborhood: An Introduction to LEED-ND
This course introduces the LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) system with a review of its goals and major users and the business case for undertaking ND projects. Also learn about rating system prerequisites and credit requirements, the certification process, and technical resources available for assembling successful certification submissions.
Build A WordPress Website
This ‘bootcamp’ course will help you develop a website layout using a self-hosted version of the popular content management system WordPress in under an hour. Learn to create and publish posts and pages, change the look of the site by using different themes, and manage the navigation, menus, and other content, such as as contributed modules and an image gallery.
Tactical Urbanism: How It's Done
From unsanctioned crosswalks to city-led "Pavement-to-Plaza" programs, instructor Mike Lydon describes the success of short-term, temporary projects in influencing long-term physical and policy changes in cities across the United States and Canada.
Video for Planners
Video can be a highly effective tool for communicating planning issues and increasing public knowledge and participation. It's easier than ever to create videos yourself with little to no money. This video course will walk you through the three steps of creating a video: capturing the footage, creating the video with editing software, and distributing it across the web. We’ll look at examples of planning departments that have used video well, and review different content types that you can use as a model.
There's An App for That: Using Smartphones for Planning
As more and more cities make open their data to the public, smartphones are becoming an essential tool in citizen engagement and participation. Apps and mobile websites give planners the ability to seek input from their communities, locate potholes and other nuisances, and deliver useful info during public meetings.