All Equity Courses
Introduction to Urban Sustainability Appraisal Tools
This course is the first in a four-part series on how urban sustainability appraisal tools serve as collaborative platforms and sustainability accelerators for communities.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Economics of the Environment
This course provides an introduction to environmental economics by exploring the economic effects of national and local environmental policies. By the end of the course, you'll understand market failure, externalities, and private and social costs, applying these concepts to issues like recycling, species preservation, and climate change.
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.
Healthy Urban Food Systems: Planning Production Facilities
This course examines the role for planning in addressing various forms of urban agriculture as well as many examples from around the country of the statutes, policy, and practices implementing interventions in food production at urban scales.
Healthy Urban Food Systems: Planning Retail Facilities
This course introduces information from legal and public health perspectives on the retail side of food systems entities, such as farmers markets, grocery stores, and mobile vending.
Gephi for Network Analysis and Visualization
Network Analysis helps urban planners, designers, and policy makers explore the dynamics and complexities of social networks and organizations. This course demonstrates the ways you can use the open-source Gephi software to visualize and analyze online social networks.
Working with Census.gov 1: Background and Geography
This first of four courses on the Census -- Background and Geography -- will prime you to understand how the Census works, where the data comes from, as well as vital terminology and data sets you should be familiar with in the built environment.
Working with Census.gov 2: Topics, Programs, Products
This second of four courses delves deeper into the Census 'architecture'. In course 2 of "Working with Census.gov", Dr. Chris Williamson, a.k.a. Dr. Data, provides an overview on the federally mandated topics that lead to programs which ultimately produce products for the public. Course 2 also delves into such tricky topics as Census data table analysis and gives insider tips and goodies from a Census Bureau veteran.
Working with Census.gov 3: Interacting with the Data
This third of four courses takes you into a series of live demonstrations and in-depth explanations and visuals from the Census.gov and American FactFiner websites. The course covers a comprehensive navigation of the pages, tools and interactive databases that form the expansive Census website and publicly accessible data stores and produced information.
Working with Census.gov 4: Quality, Interpreting and Examples
Chris Williamson, A.K.A. "Dr. Data" completes the final episode in this four course series on the 'architecture' and 'analysis' of the Census Bureau and its many products. In course 4 students will go through a brief introduction to margin of error and a range of error and data quality analysis. Along with some examples and case studies, this course takes us into Dr. Data's own Ventura County, California for a look at some of the more challenging sampling and non-sampling errors many planners and demographers must wrestle with.
Developing a Fact Basis for Hazard Planning
As sea levels rise and the changing face of natural disasters display increasing intensity, hazard mitigation has become a hot button issue in cities across the globe. This course focuses on techniques for assessing hazard exposure and physical and social vulnerabilities.
Introductory Population Analysis with Excel
Whether you're new to population analysis or just need a refresher, this course offers a comprehensive overview of the steps necessary to conduct analysis and develop projections using publicly available data. The course reviews Census data and builds skills, such as population projection, cohort survival, and concentration calculations that are essential for every professional in the planning and design community.
Introductory Housing Analysis with Excel
Planners play a crucial role in making housing more affordable and livable. In this course, you will learn about basic market principles, how to judge housing needs, and how to meet that housing need through affordable housing—all the data and analysis skills needed to estimate housing needs.
Introductory Urban Economics Analysis with Excel
Economic data is all around us. When we buy coffee or go to the movies, each of those actions involve an economic exchange or a trade of resources. This course teaches Microsoft Excel in applying the concepts of economics to the work of planners. By discussing data analysis techniques, such as sector analysis and economic base calculation with location quotient, you will gain the skills to work with economic data and become a more informed participant in the economic marketplace.