What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?
March 25, 2025
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Build skills to analyze and interpret Pop Culture. Explore the dynamics of fandom, popular culture, and digital media by developing strategies for self-reflection, close reading, and analysis and interpretation.
Instructor: Christopher Haynes
Included with
(13 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
Curiosity and interest
(13 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
Curiosity and interest
Develop strategies for self-reflection and awareness, digital literacy, and meaningful engagement with fandom, popular culture, and digital media
Analyze the products of popular culture through applied close reading frameworks
Connect and synthesize critical self-reflection and close reading frameworks through personal writing and creative expression
Deepen investment in pop culture passions and communities and celebrate what we love and how we love it, and who we love it with
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How might what we love - what we watch, what we read, what we post - make our communities healthier and more vibrant? This question guides Fandom and Popular Culture in the Digital Age. In our networked and information-saturated world, three vital needs emerge: representing identity in digital media, interrogating the products of culture, and engaging meaningfully with digital communities. This course addresses these needs by inviting you into a space of reflection at the intersection of fandom, popular culture, and digital media. More than at any point in human history, these forces have put at our fingertips the means to create and disseminate ourselves in the world. We will explore the products of popular culture and trace the fan networks that sustain and derive value from them. Along the way, we will train you to recognize relationships between popular culture and the political and commercial forces that shape its publication, distribution, and consumption.
This course will equip you with the tools necessary to boost your digital media fluency and define, shape, and evolve your identity as a fan within digital spaces. But ultimately, this is a celebration - a celebration of you and your communities, what you love, and how that love might bring people together to change the world. Together, we can make this a community-driven online resource for our shared endeavor of analyzing and understanding fandom and popular culture.
Applied Learning Project
The projects across this specialization challenge learners to reflect deeply on their experiences, practice skills of close reading, analysis, and interpretation, and express their fandom in thoughtful and creative ways. Learners will practice digital literacy and professional communication skills through reflecting on their personal fandom in blog-style writing, express their creativity by making something relevant to their fandom, and engage with their fandom directly through online platforms.
Define and describe the relationship between fandom, popular culture, and digital media as each impact our identity and interactions with others
Apply critical self-reflection and close reading frameworks through personal and professional writing
Engage with pop culture and fandom communities by leveraging online platforms to make connections and synthesize learning
Reflect on your personal relationship to social media, identity, representation, and social interaction online
Define and describe the dynamics of popular music and its relationship with fandom, popular culture, and digital media
Apply critical self-reflection and close reading frameworks through analytical writing and creative expression
Engage with pop culture and fandom communities by leveraging online platforms to make connections and synthesize learning
Reflect on your personal relationship to popular music, popular art, and how popular culture intersects with memory and nostalgia
Define and describe the dynamics of geek culture, as well as its relationships to fandom, popular culture, and digital media
Apply critical self-reflection and close reading frameworks through analytical writing and creative expression
Engage with pop culture and fandom communities by leveraging online platforms to make connections and synthesize learning
Reflect on your personal relationship to geek culture, and how popular culture intersects with memory and nostalgia
CU Boulder is a dynamic community of scholars and learners on one of the most spectacular college campuses in the country. As one of 34 U.S. public institutions in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), we have a proud tradition of academic excellence, with five Nobel laureates and more than 50 members of prestigious academic academies.
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You can go at your own pace, following your interests and your ability. You can plan to spend a few hours a week learning and exploring.
No background knowledge is necessary - just come with curiosity and interest!
You can definitely move around the coursework as you see fit, but my recommendation would be to complete the courses in order, 1-3.
You will have built practical and applied skills in self-reflection, close reading and analysis, digital literacy, and professional communication and writing.
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.
This Specialization doesn't carry university credit, but some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
Financial aid available,
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