We are now offering five different online courses based on CRInfo and Beyond Intractability (a partner site of CRInfo). All are self-paced (meaning that you may start at any time and finish at any time within twelve months). All of the courses have been developed by project co-directors Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess, and are being taught by Heidi Burgess, who has been teaching and doing research on the topic of intractable conflict for almost twenty years. The five courses currently available are as follows:

• Focus: The course focuses on things everybody should know about conflict: why it occurs, how it can be beneficial, and how to manage it so that it is beneficial and not harmful. For more information, please see the Conflict 101 home page.
• Intended Audience: Conflict 101 is intended for college students (both advanced undergraduates and graduate students), people who deal with conflict a lot in their jobs (teachers, managers, health care providers, etc.), parents who want to do a better job of dealing with their kids or spouses, or anyone who wants a better understanding of ways of dealing with conflict.
• Credit: Formal university credit is not available for this course. However, a letter of completion (explaining the material covered and rating the quality of work done) is provided.
• Cost: The cost is $250.
• Requirements: This program consists of 10 units, averaging about 40 pages of online reading each. For those wanting more information, several thousand pages of supplemental material and about 100 hours of online audio are also accessible in the full Beyond Intractability and CRInfo systems. Students are asked to answer a few questions at the end of each unit, generally requiring a written response of about 2-3 pages. Most of these questions can be answered based on the readings and background knowledge alone, although a few may take additional online reading to investigate the current status of a particular conflict. Students are also asked to participate in an online discussion, in which they are encouraged to relate what they are learning to ongoing current events. This course requires about 120-150 hours of work (approximately equivalent to one 3-credit-hour, semester-long course).
• Registration Process: Please see the "How Do I Register?" section of the Conflict 101 home page for details.

• Focus: This course is designed to help students better understand and deal with long-lasting and difficult-to-resolve conflicts (although much of the course material is also applicable to simpler, more tractable disputes). For more information, please see the DCIC home page.
• Intended Audience: DCIC is intended for college students (both advanced undergraduates and graduate students); third parties (peacebuilders, mediators, and aid and development workers); and people who are directly involved in difficult conflicts as disputants or victims, and who want to find more constructive ways of approaching their situation.
• Credit: Formal university credit is not available for this course. However, a letter of completion (explaining the material covered and rating the quality of work done) is provided.
• Cost: The "full" version costs $250, and a "light" version costs $100. (Some "light" version scholarships are available for students from developing regions.) For more information on the differences between the "full" and "light" versions, please see the DCIC home page.
• Requirements: This program consists of 10 units, averaging about 40 pages of online reading and 1-2 hours of online audio interviews (for which transcripts are available for people who prefer to read). For those wanting more information, several thousand pages of supplemental material and about 100 hours of online audio are also accessible in the full Beyond Intractability system. Students are asked to answer a few questions at the end of each unit, generally requiring writing about 5-8 pages in response. Most of these questions can be done based on the readings and background knowledge alone, although a few may take additional online reading to investigate the current situation in a particular conflict. Students are also asked to participate in an online discussion in which they are encouraged to relate what they are learning to ongoing current events. This course requires about 120-150 hours of work (approximately equivalent to one 3-credit-hour, semester-long course).
• Registration Process: Please see the "How Do I Register?" section of the DCIC home page for details.

• Focus: This is an introductory course, designed to teach students the basics about conflict, values, and how the two interact in society. Students will learn about the causes of conflict, conflict dynamics, and ways in which people (both disputants and third parties) can deal with conflicts to make them either destructive or constructive. For more information, please see the course syllabus.
• Intended Audience: Social Conflict and Social Values is intended for undergraduate college students.
• Credit: This course may be taken for credit through the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education.
• Cost: The cost is $591 for three semester hours credit.
• Requirements: There are six units. Each has 60-100 pages of reading (all available online), a small amount of listening (to online audio), an online quiz, and either a short paper or a hands-on exercise. There is also a final exam. In addition, all students are expected to participate in the course online discussion, relating what they are learning in the course to current events. This course requires about 100 hours of work (approximately equivalent to one 3-credit-hour, semester-long course).
• Registration Process: Click here to visit the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education page for this course.

• Focus: This course examines the nature of conflict in society, including what causes it, what its effects are, and what can be done to maximize the benefits (by engaging in conflict constructively) and limit the costs (by preventing, managing, settling, or resolving destructive conflicts). For more information, please see the course syllabus.
• Intended Audience: Conflict Management in Social Systems is intended for upper-division undergraduate college students.
• Credit: This course may be taken for credit through the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education.
• Cost: The cost is $591 for three semester hours credit.
• Requirements: The course has six units. Students will need to read 10-15 essays (or so) for each unit, which amounts to 60-120 pages of reading. They will also listen to an hour or less of audio for each unit, take an online quiz (to check their comprehension of the reading and listening assignments) and complete a short paper or outside activity for each unit that requires them to employ some of the ideas in the unit to a "real world" situation. The final exam is an online simulation, which can be completed at home at your own pace. This course requires about 100 hours of work (approximately equivalent to one 3-credit-hour, semester-long course).
• Registration Process: Click here to visit the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education page for this course.

• Focus: This course examines intractable conflicts and ways in which these conflicts can be transformed to bring about stable peace. Fundamental concepts of both conflict studies and peace studies will be examined, including peace, justice, power, violence and nonviolence, peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding. For more information, please see the course syllabus.
• Intended Audience: Topics in Peace and Conflict Studies is intended for upper-division undergraduate college students.
• Credit: This course may be taken for credit though the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education.
• Cost: The cost is $591 for three semester hours credit.
• Requirements: There are six units. Each has 60-120 pages of reading (all available online), a small amount of listening (to online audio), an online quiz, and either a short paper or a hands-on exercise. Starting with Unit 2, these short papers all examine one conflict, and go together to create a major case-study of that conflict, along with an intervention plan at the end. There is also a final exam. In addition, all students are expected to participate in the course online discussion, relating what they are learning in the course to current events. This course requires about 100 hours of work (approximately equivalent to one 3-credit-hour, semester-long course).
• Registration Process: Click here to visit the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education page for this course.

Although all five of these courses utilize the Beyond Intractability website as primary source material, prospective students should understand that the website is very large, and contains thousands of pages of reading. Each course focuses on a different segment of the website content, and overlap between the courses is minimal. Consequently, students can take more than one of these courses without repeating work that they have already done.

If you have questions about which course to choose, look at each of the syllabi to see which one seems more interesting and relevant to your needs. If you still have questions, send an email to Heidi Burgess and she will try to help you figure out which course is best for you.

Other Educational Materials

• Web-Based Conflict Research Tutorials
• Group Projects: A Conflict Resolution Guide for Students
  Resources, helpful advice, and guidelines for successfully completing a group project, while constructively handling conflicts that may arise among the group members.