Online and Remote Learning

Explore writing and meditation practices and overcome blocks to the creative process. In this course, you'll work to create new pathways in your consciousness, open your creativity and eliminate feelings of limitation and inhibition. The course combines meditation, lectures, writing exercises and discussions with a community of like-minded writers. You'll try journaling, sitting, and walking meditation, and writing exercises to help you tell your story, memoir, or poem. As insight develops, creativity, clarity, and happiness arrive. Unblock creative energy and learn lessons of craft. Create connections between your interior and exterior lives. Connect the wisdom within your heart to the written word.  

This course gives you an overview of Enterprise Architecture (EA) and its role in implementing an organization’s strategy.  You'll learn about aligning business and IT and how to use principles, standards, patterns and best practices. Explore the most used EA methodologies, the fundamentals in business, technology and security and the interrelationships between domains. You'll also learn how to measure EA benefits, convey them to key stakeholders and develop architectural and governance skills that follow key frameworks used in the industry (e.g. TOGAF) and use an architectural language (e.g. Archimate). Understand how Enterprise Architecture (EA) helps deliver the organization's vision. Show how EA can influence the overall performance of the organization and affect its competitive advantage. Explain the relationships between business, application, data, technology and security aspects. Advocate good EA practices and appropriate governance. Evaluate the current state of an organization versus its stated vision and goals. Understand the fundamentals about using a disciplined, comprehensive methodology as well as take an agile approach. Explain how an architectural language like Archimate in conjunction with TOGAF. Evaluate the results of an Enterprise Architecture practice.

This course explores contemporary approaches to Enterprise Architecture (EA) and equips learners with practical tools and techniques to support agile, strategic decision-making in the face of rapid technological change. Participants will learn how to apply EA to guide enterprise-level responses to emerging trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), service-oriented architecture, cloud computing, big data, and predictive analytics. You will gain the ability to document and interpret an organization’s current (“as found”) architecture and use languages/frameworks like ArchiMate and TOGAF to plan and communicate future-state designs. Emphasis is placed on developing EA strategies that are responsive, data-driven, and grounded in business realities. By exploring real-world examples and analyzing the impact of past and present technological shifts, learners will enhance their ability to lead architectural thinking in dynamic environments. Apply tools and techniques used in enterprise architecture (EA) practice. Describe the purpose and value of identifying an organization’s “as found” architecture as a foundation for informed EA planning. Analyze the impact of major technological shifts—such as service-oriented architecture, cloud computing, big data, and AI—on enterprise architecture. Evaluate how these changes affect an organization’s current and future architecture. Explain the role of data and information in EA and formulate strategies for effectively leveraging them. Interpret industry surveys and synthesize insights to identify and assess current trends in enterprise architecture. Monitor emerging technologies and assess their potential implications for EA strategy. Recognize and explain the leadership qualities and strategic mindset needed to influence enterprise architecture initiatives.

Organizations use quality management and process excellence to deliver value for customers, generate returns for shareholders and improve workplaces. This course gives you a solid grounding in the ideas and practices of quality management. You'll learn the core ideas that underpin the leading quality and process excellence methodologies and frameworks used today (ISO, TQM, Lean Six Sigma) and how to apply Lean Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) methodology to business and work situations. Understand how quality relates to business strategy. Measure and define quality in your processes from your customer's perspective. Map and analyze your processes. Understand and identify waste in your processes. Understand and be able to apply fundamental project management and Lean Six Sigma tools to improve processes.

Lean Six Sigma is a strategic tool organizations use to deliver value for customers, generate returns for shareholders and create a meaningful workplace environment for employees. This hands-on course covers widely used concepts associated with the Lean Six Sigma methodology. You'll learn how to identify improvement opportunities, develop solutions and ensure that the benefits are realized. Map the value streams in your organization. Analyze a value stream to improve flow and create demand-driven pull. Calculate takt time and quantify the baseline performance of your value stream. Establish and define standard work. Lead kaizen events to improve the effectiveness of your value stream.

Fantasy and science fiction allow writers and readers to step outside familiar boundaries into imaginary worlds. In this workshop-style course, you'll learn the elements of both genres and get feedback from a community of writers as you craft the first draft of a new short story. You'll explore the foundations of world-building, plot, scene-setting, character development, and dialogue, as well as honing your critiquing skills. You'll also find out more about the business side of writing fantasy and science fiction. Create plot, narrative and characters that use elements of fantasy and Science Fiction. Learn some of the business aspect of fantasy and science fiction writing. Benefit from a critique of your manuscript.

Accident prevention should be a top priority for all organizations. Reducing accidents means fewer injuries and a boost to your reputation and employee morale. You incur fewer costs related to property damage, reduced productivity and legal liability. In this course, you'll learn the importance of approaching accident prevention systematically. Topics include occupational health and safety (OHS) programs, hazard identification, auditing tools, investigations and case studies. This online course has live webinars.  Understand the true cost of workplace accidents and how to prevent them. Investigate the direct and root causes of workplace accidents. Review the essential elements of an internal responsibility system. Understand the purpose of loss control and loss management programs. Implement an occupational health and safety (OHS) management system.

Pharmaceutical and laboratory operations depend on Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). This GMP/GLP course teaches you the regulations and expectations of Health Canada HPFBI GMP/GLP and US FDA GMP/GLP and how they apply to the manufacturing, distribution and importation of pharmaceutical, radiopharmaceutical, biological and veterinary drugs. You'll learn effective Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) writing and GMP auditing and get valuable insight from guest speakers who work within the pharmaceutical industry. Financial assistance may be available to eligible Ontario residents through the Ontario Bridging Participant Assistance Program (OBPAP) provided by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). Please email scs.learnerservices@utoronto.ca for details.   Ability to work in a GMP/GLP-compliant environment. Know the importance of good documentation practices and record-keeping. Understand the purpose and reasoning behind GMP/GLP regulations and their practical application through key quality systems. Understand the Qualyty Assurance-GMP-Quality Control relationship. Acquire essential skills for effective SOP writing and GMP auditing.

Advance your understanding of occupational health and safety (OHS) management and get the tools to develop and apply the right system for your organization. If you're a professional with responsibility for managing OHS, learn about legislative compliance, risk management, hazard recognition and control and due diligence. You'll analyze and discuss precedent-setting case law, scan contemporary systems and thoroughly review the amendments to Bill C-45 that established the crime of OHS Criminal Negligence in the Criminal Code. Apply and interpret federal and provincial occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation. Ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices. Apply the principles and key requirements of an OHS management system. Review Bill C-45 (Section 217.1 of the Criminal Code) and know how to comply with it. Create a safety culture within an organization.

Building on your project management experience, this micro-course will help you develop the skills and competencies you need to establish, lead, and/or work within a Project Management Office (PMO). A PMO provides structure to centralize and standardize project management initiatives so your organization improve its project management maturity and can achieve its goals. You’ll learn about the different types of PMOs, how they create value, and how to select the right type of PMO to best support the unique needs of your organization to be successful. By the end of this learning experience, you’ll know how to create, grow, and sustain a PMO that delivers value to your organization, and how to navigate important risks and challenges. In addition, you’ll gain the ability to assess the maturity of an existing PMO, and how to align the PMO to organizational strategy. Within 4-6 weeks of successfully completing this course, you will receive your micro-credential indicating achievement of the outlined learning outcomes and competencies/skills. Micro-credentials are tamper proof, verifiable, blockchain-based and 100% digital. They can be shared on social media, including LinkedIn and Facebook, embedded in websites or downloaded as PDFs. For more information, please visit: https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/unique/micro-courses. By the end of this micro course, you'll be able to: Describe what a PMO is and does Assess the appropriate type of PMO for an organization Evaluate the considerations for creating a PMO Assess the maturity level of a PMO Design a PMO to add value to an organization Create a PMO execution plan Competencies developed and assessed in this course include: Assessing the type of PMO needed Writing a PMO business case Building and sustaining a PMO Assessing the maturity of a PMO Aligning the PMO with strategy