Micro-Courses

Micro-courses are short, nongraded courses focused on a particular topic that you complete at your own pace. Each course is interactive and includes challenges that you can complete throughout the lessons. You can complete a whole course or a single lesson – select the learning path that fits your need. All micro-courses are open access and available for everyone to complete.

If you have any questions or would like to know more, please contact julie.arensdorf@wisc.edu

Copyright & Fair Use

This micro-course provides an introduction to copyright and gives you practice deciding how and when you can use someone else’s work.

Graduate Research

This micro-course is composed of five lessons that introduce you to resources and services that can help you conduct your research efficiently, engage with scholarly conversations in your field, and share your contributions with the world.

Grants & Funding

This micro-course provides an introduction to the world of grant seeking by covering each step of the proposal process: planning, researching, writing, and follow-up. The topic of communication and networking are interwoven throughout the micro-course as well since they are vital components to successful proposals.

Including & Navigating Race in the Classroom

This developmentally sequenced micro-course is intended as a starting point for an iterative process of continuous development on best practices for inclusive classrooms. Lessons include curating course materials, finding and evaluating course materials, ways of navigating classroom interactions and classroom dynamics, and strategies for addressing harm.

Introduction to Intellectual Property

This micro-course provides an introduction to the laws, institutional policies, and cultural implications around intellectual property, which we engage with every day. This micro-course is intended to clarify intellectual property as you may encounter it and produce it in your time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Introduction to Patents

This micro-course provides an introduction to the types of patents and patent concepts, the anatomy of a patent, and the patent process. This micro-course also covers how to search for patents and how they can serve an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs, designers, and researchers of many kinds.

Introduction to Research Data Management

This micro-course covers the reasons to invest time and effort into good data management and then introduces best practices that you can start building into your research process immediately.

Literature Reviews in the Sciences

This micro-course explores the skills and tools necessary to research and write a literature review in the sciences, including planning, organization, disciplinary-based source exploration, drafting, and revision.

Reflecting on Social Justice Foundational Concepts

This micro-course is intended as a place for reflection on one’s own experience at a pace that feels manageable to each person who completes it. Lessons include social identity, socialization, implicit bias and micromessaging. If you are already familiar with some of these concepts, challenge yourself to consider them from new angles or identities.

Responsible Data Planning, Use, and Sharing

This micro-course provides an introduction to the current landscape of policies and regulations regarding data that informs working responsibly with research data, and then discusses developing plans for data management and data sharing.