Navigating Disruptions and Emerging Technologies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
Overview
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In a world defined by rapid change, innovation waits for no one. Navigating Disruptions and Emerging Technologies helps you understand, anticipate, and lead through transformation.
Explore how technologies like AI, immersive computing, and probabilistic forecasting are reshaping industries—and learn how to think like a futurist. You’ll master frameworks for evaluating innovation, apply data-driven foresight to complex decisions, and build essential human skills in critical thinking, communication, and ethical leadership.
Whether you’re a professional, entrepreneur, or educator, this course will help you move beyond reacting to disruption—to shaping the future with confidence and purpose.
Syllabus
- Module 1: Emerging Technology and Disruption
- Welcome to Module 1—the foundation for understanding how innovation and disruption reshape industries, organizations, and society. In this module, you’ll explore what makes a technology emerging, what turns it into a disruption, and how individuals and businesses can adapt and learn from these rapid changes.
- Module 2: Futurism, Scenario Planning, and Science Driven Decision Making
- Welcome to Module 2—where we’ll explore how to think like a futurist and make informed, evidence-based decisions in an uncertain world. In this module, you’ll learn how scientific reasoning, probability, and AI can help us anticipate disruptions and plan strategically for the future.
- Module 3: Mastering the Foundational Skills for Navigating Disruption
- Welcome to Module 3—where we’ll develop the mindsets and foundational skills needed to think critically, communicate effectively, and create meaningful impact in an era of rapid technological change. In this module, you’ll explore how to adopt a scientific mindset, evaluate information credibility, navigate difficult conversations, and communicate ideas through storytelling and speculative design. These core skills form the foundation for thriving in a world shaped by emerging technologies and continuous disruption.
- Module 4: Immersive Technologies and Extended Reality (XR)
- Welcome to Module 4—where we’ll explore how the physical and digital worlds are converging through spatial computing. This module connects the scientific, creative, and ethical skills you’ve developed so far to the next generation of immersive technologies shaping business, work, and society. Spatial computing represents a major platform shift. Instead of interacting with data through flat screens, we now engage with information that understands space—content that knows where it is, how it relates to its surroundings, and how it can respond to us. This module will help you understand the technologies behind this transformation and how to use them responsibly and strategically.
Taught by
Robert J. Brunner