Disaster Preparedness Course

[grini]

I was reading some Croatian article about e-learning and there was a link to Coursera.org.

We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.

I was curious about courses so I explored and found a course about disaster preparedness. I thought maybe someone will be interested in it.
Here is the link:
_http://www.coursera.org/course/disasterprep

About the Course
This course will teach the student how to survive when everything we normally take for granted is gone, when the structures we depend on have failed. We will examine the Disaster Cycle, particularly the Mitigation and Recovery phases. Students will prepare an extensive personal preparedness plan covering such topics as supplies, communication, food and water, shelter, security, and comfort (yes even in survival there can and should be comfort). We also look at preparedness on the institutional and government levels.

We will look beyond these plans towards the one aspect of survival, which will enable a person to survive when all planning has failed. Disasters, by definition, overwhelm all available resources. If all available resources are gone, only one thing will keep a person alive and that is their attitude. A persons awareness and attitude, the two are closely linked, allow a person the means to remain calm, avoid panic, and draw upon resources within and outside the person to survive when their world has failed. In truth not everyone survives in extreme circumstances; people die, but, even in death, attitude, if it cannot save you, provides some degree or comfort.

I signed up... maybe he will say something useful.
In the meantime, I will go and read Preparedness thread.

Edit: Link correction.

 

[paralleloscope]

Coursera is a nice learning platform imo(online courses from different universities). I signed up for this too, sounds interesting, though no start date has been announced. I found that the link you gave didn't work for me, alternately go coursera.org and search disaster in courses.

 

[grini]

Coursera is a nice learning platform imo(online courses from different universities). I signed up for this too, sounds interesting, though no start date has been announced. I found that the link you gave didn't work for me, alternately go coursera.org and search disaster in courses.

I hope that the link now works. I was logged in when I copy/paste it, maybe it didn't work because of that. The only difference is https -> http.
I don't have experience with Coursera, but it reminds very much of e-learning system that my faculty have.

 

[Gwenllian]

I don't think they teach first aid?
The need for this was talked about in the BBC series 'Survivor' Thread.

The course sounds a bit theoretical to me, but maybe it is useful.

 

[paralleloscope]

The link is working here now.

Mariama: Regarding theoretical, that's what I thought too- It could still have some good points though. But some actual practice like with Fire extinguishing and First aid courses or even a scout/ survival club membership could be helpful, in addition.

 

[Hesper]

This does look like an interesting course. However, it says the focus is on the "mitigation" phase of the disaster cycle, which is:

The mitigation phase of the disaster cycle is almost concurrent with the recovery phase. The goal of the mitigation phase is to prevent the same disaster-caused damages from occurring again.

Yeah, it's just the "getting there" part that I think we need, along with the practical skills like the others have mentioned. But I still think the course would be useful for the guide it would provide in getting everything in order before the collapse. That's the thing that interests me. And heck, it's free! But not all disaster cycles are created equally, and, if the info on the forum is accurate, the mitigation/recovery phase of this one is in a league of its own. Good find Grini :)

 

[Pinocchio]

Did anyone end up taking the course? If so, I'd be curious what was thought about it (especially regarding practical/useful information). I notice there is another coming up Aug 26th, 2013 (6 weeks long). In the interest of preparedness (and potential career opportunity as I'm interested in medicine) I recently signed up for a local EMS course which should prepare me for a more rigorous EMT-B Certification program, which also starts in August. Well I'm curious and wonder if it wouldn't be a good supplement for me at that time... Thoughts?

 

[grini]

Did anyone end up taking the course? If so, I'd be curious what was thought about it (especially regarding practical/useful information). I notice there is another coming up Aug 26th, 2013 (6 weeks long). In the interest of preparedness (and potential career opportunity as I'm interested in medicine) I recently signed up for a local EMS course which should prepare me for a more rigorous EMT-B Certification program, which also starts in August. Well I'm curious and wonder if it wouldn't be a good supplement for me at that time... Thoughts?

Hi sbeaudry,

When I enrolled to this course I received this email:

Welcome and thank you for signing up for Disaster Preparedness.

I hope you will find the course helpful and enjoyable.

We expect the class to begin in 2013 and will notify you again when the class starts.

Again, Welcome.

I think Aug 26th, 2013 is that class in 2013 that he was talking about, because I didn't receive any additional notification about this course.

 

[Pinocchio]

Ok. Well, I signed up for it, so... I guess we'll see, huh?

 

[Nook]

Thanks grini, for sharing.

Ok. Well, I signed up for it, so... I guess we'll see, huh?

I signed up as well. I think that in order to have it set up like this and to make it available for free for anyone that wants to sign up worldwide, it has to have some useful information. Besides, it's free!
And did I mention it's free? :D

Also got interested in the books mentioned on the page:

Suggested Readings
Strongly recommended:

Disaster Preparedness and Management, Michael Beach, FA Davis 2010

Deep Survival, Gonzales, Laurence, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2004

Further reading:

Medical Response to Terrorism, Preparedness and Clinical Practice, Keyes, Daniel MD, MPH, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005

Disaster Medicine, Hogan, David E., D.O., F.A.C.E.P., Lipincott Williams & Wilkins, 2002

The first one, Disaster Preparedness and Management, Michael Beach, FA Davis 2010

Has only one review on Amazon, which is positive with 5 stars.

By tortugo
Format:Spiral-bound|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is for the person who wants to know about every detail of disaster preparedness. This book is very detailed and thorough.

The second, Deep Survival, Gonzales, Laurence
It has 305 reviews and they say it's 'written in a semi-biographical form.'

Here's the link for the third: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0781749867/

Interesting to note that the new ones start at $100, even the used ones start at $45...Maybe it's actually worth reading?

There's only one 5-star review here as well:

The Medical Response to Terrorism Textbook is EXCELLENT - I have really enjoyed reading it (and I HATE reading textbooks). Each chapter is up to date, focused, and written in a manner more reminiscent of a novel than a medical textbook. Limiting the number of pages per chapter really forced the authors to be concise and made each topic more inviting to read. Great stuff - Dr. Keyes, et al should be very proud.

And the last one, Disaster Medicine..starts at $148.98 for a used copy... :O
_http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0781726255/
There are three 5-star reviews

 

[Ivan_]

And the last one, Disaster Medicine..starts at $148.98 for a used copy... :O
_http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0781726255/
There are three 5-star reviews

Referring to an old post, but fwiw, a used copy is 4.14 now. Hardcovers are fun, but usually more expensive.

 

[Keyhole]

Interesting this thread just popped up as I am currently looking at (real life) courses in bushcraft and survival. Practical lessons on how to build fire, make shelter, build hunting traps, skin rabbits and other animals, forage medicinal plants etc. I know its a bit off topic but, has anyone been on anything of this sort? They're certainly quite expensive, but my thoughts are that there is only so much you can actually learn from a book without gaining hands-on experience.

 

[Ivan_]

LOL, I am like that as well. All sorts of books, guides, DVDs, tools, anything, when I have the time. I am intrigued by the crafting part but have also bought SOME of the items you would need in the bug-out bag (like firestarters amass and a LifeStraw, and looking towards a foldable hatchet ), but there is much more to buy and optimize, still.There was a thread, "Preparednests" http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=21375.0, do check it out in case you haven't.

 

[Gary]

Interesting this thread just popped up as I am currently looking at (real life) courses in bushcraft and survival. Practical lessons on how to build fire, make shelter, build hunting traps, skin rabbits and other animals, forage medicinal plants etc. I know its a bit off topic but, has anyone been on anything of this sort? They're certainly quite expensive, but my thoughts are that there is only so much you can actually learn from a book without gaining hands-on experience.

I agree, books can convey important information, but actually doing stuff can be different matter entirely. I have a bushcraft type friend who has taught me some survival basics. I am thinking it would be fun to incorporate some of these activities, improving our preparedness, as part of the UK Gatherings we have :)