EA syllabi and teaching materials

By Julia_Wise🔸 @ 2018-09-05T18:19 (+101)

I've been collecting a list of all the known courses taught about EA or closely related topics. Please let me know if you have others to add!


Pandemics Interventions course

January 2024, Lin Bowker-Lonnecker

Website


Pandemics course

BlueDot impact, 2023

Website


"Global Priorities" at University of Edinburgh

Fall 2023, Sean Brocklebank

Course description


SERI Biosecurity Interventions Technical Seminar

January 2023, James Lin and Victor Warlop

Post and syllabus


Law x Effective Altruism Introduction Fellowship at McGill University

Fall 2022, Julian Guidote

Syllabus


"Safeguarding the Future" at MIT

Spring 2022, Kevin Esvelt and Michael Specter

Syllabus


Biosecurity reading list

February 2022, Chris Bakerlee

Post


AGI safety fundamentals

For 2022, Richard Ngo

Syllabus


"Are we doomed? Confronting the end of the world" at University of Chicago

Spring 2021 and beyond, Daniel Holz & James A. Evans

Syllabus

Notes from a student

Lots of coverage from spring 2024; google for more


"Ethics and the Future" at Yale

Spring 2021, Shelly Kagan

Syllabus


"The Great Problems" at MIT

Spring 2021, Kevin Esvelt

Syllabus


Improving Science Reading Group

2021, EA Cambridge

Reading list


Longtermism syllabus

2021, Joshua Teperowski Monrad

Syllabus


Biosecurity and biorisk reading list

2021, Tessa Alexanian

Post


"Changing the World" at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2021, David Manley

Syllabus, alternate copy of syllabus


Effective Animal Advocacy Fellowship

Winter 2021, EA at UCLA

Syllabus and discussion guide


Social Sciences & Existential Risks Reading Group

Winter 2021

Reading list


Global Development Fellowship

Winter 2021, Stanford One for the World

Syllabus


"Ethics for Do-Gooders" at University of Graz

Summer 2020, Dominic Roser

Syllabus


Cause Area Guide: Institutional Decision Making

May 2020, EA Norway

Guide, with reading list (focused on forecasting)


Intro to Global Priorities Research for Economists

Spring 2020, David Bernard and Matthias Endres

Description, with link to reading list and materials


Governance of AI Reading List

Oxford, Spring 2020, Markus Anderljung

Reading list


EA course at Brown University

Spring 2020, Emma Abele and Nick Whittaker, based on Harvard Arete fellowship syllabus

Syllabus


GCBR (global catastrophic biorisk) reading list

2020 or before, Gregory Lewis

List


"Philanthropy and Social Difference" at Columbia University

Spring 2017, Spring 2020, Victoria Rosner

Syllabus


"Psychology of (Effective) Altruism" at University of Michigan

Winter 2020, Izzy Gainsburg

Syllabus


"Philosophy and Philanthropy" at University of Chicago

Winter 2020, Bart Schultz

Syllabus


Syllabus: Artificial Intelligence and China

Jan. 2020, Ding, Fischer, Tse, and Byrd

Reading list


In-Depth Fellowship at EA Oxford

Reading list


"Topics in Global Priorities Research" at Oxford University

Spring 2019, William MacAskill and Christian Tarsney

Syllabus


AI alignment reading group at MIT

Fall 2019

Reading list


"Normative Ethics, Effective Altruism, and the Environment" at University of Vermont

Fall 2019, Mark Budolfson

Syllabus


Arete fellowship at MIT

Fall 2018, MIT EA group

Syllabus with discussion prompts


"Safety and control for artificial general intelligence" at UC Berkeley

Fall 2018, Andrew Critch and Stuart Russell

Syllabus


"Artificial Intelligence and International Security"

July 2018, Remco Zwetsloot

Reading list


“The Psychology of Effective Altruism” at University of New Mexico

Spring 2018, Geoffrey Miller

Syllabus


“Training Changemakers” program

Spring 2018, Philanthropy Advisory Fellowship at Harvard University

Program plan


“The Ethics and Politics of Effective Altruism” at Stanford University

Spring 2018, Ted Lechterman

Syllabus


“Effective Philanthropy: Ethics and Evidence” at London School of Economics

2017/2018, Luc Bovens and Stephan Chambers

Summary


Seminar on EA at University of Toronto

Fall 2017, Jordan Thomson

Summary


"Effective altruism" course at University of St Andrews

2016-2017, Theron Pummer and Tim Mulgan

Syllabus


“How to actually change the world” session at MIT

Fall 2016, Angelina Li and Daniel Ziegler

Evaluation and course materials


EA course at St. Catherine’s University

Fall 2016, Jeff Johnson and Kristine West

Syllabus


EA course at University of Saint Andrews

Fall 2016, Theron Pummer and Tim Mulgan

Syllabus


EA course at University of York

Spring 2016, Richard Yetter Chappell

Syllabus


EA Syllabus

Stefan Schubert and Pablo Stafforini

This syllabus is intended for use in philosophy, political science, or general humanities programs.


EA courses at UC Berkeley

In spring 2015 and 2016, students at UC Berkeley have led a full-semester class on effective altruism.

Organizers spring 2015: Ajeya Cotra, Oliver Habryka

Organizers spring 2016: Ajeya Cotra, Rohin Shah

Materials:

Syllabus 2015

Syllabus 2016

Readings

Retrospective after leading the first class


Practical Ethics course at Oxford

Michaelmas term 2014, Julian Savulescu

Outline (with syllabus available)

Syllabus


Stanford “Doing Good in the 21st Century” course for high schoolers

Description

Taught Spring 2014 by Michael Dickens and Kelsey Piper


Ethics course at UC San Diego

(with EA emphasis)

Taught Winter 2014 by Theron Pummer

Syllabus


Peter Singer’s Coursera MOOC

(Adapted from Practical Ethics course at Princeton, fall 2013)

You can join the course to see all materials.

Other resources

EA teaching resources database from EA St. Andrews

Suggested reading list by Pablo Stafforini

Facebook group on EA and education

Charity elections for high schools, from Giving What We Can

AI Governance reading lists and syllabi by Michael Aird


Theron @ 2019-11-23T14:34 (+11)

Check out the new EA teaching resources database (built at St Andrews University): https://effectivealtruism.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/?_ga=2.220916632.1221540258.1574519560-1711956814.1566911816

Miranda_Zhang @ 2021-07-02T19:30 (+5)

I took this class, Are we Doomed? Confronting the End of the World which I thought was fairly EA-aligned (in terms of addressing existential risk, and including a link to 80k): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YSs8_COvHQBiE2msm37C2Nt6Sc29GcJJq3fpl2Tii0I/edit?usp=sharing 

*edit Oh, and Philosophy and Philanthropy explicitly read EA texts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NnhmKR-hXcyHkVPWFQ7roeVzTlSMIYnh0mWD3obSV-k/edit?usp=sharing 

Pablo @ 2021-07-03T00:49 (+3)

Thanks! I added the first one to this list.

Julia_Wise @ 2021-07-06T14:20 (+2)

Thanks, added to the post!

izzyg @ 2021-04-21T15:17 (+5)

I taught a class in Winter, 2020 called "Psychology of (Effective) Altruism" at University of Michigan. 

Here's the syllabus link!

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hVMTHtJRG_gmscIZDa3aEUE4SAx8jDoQip1EfpB938I/edit

Julia_Wise @ 2021-04-29T17:42 (+2)

Thanks! Added.

Vael Gates @ 2022-07-16T22:53 (+3)

"Preventing Human Extinction" at Stanford (first year undergraduate course)

Syllabus (2022)

Additional subject-specific reading lists (AI, bio, nuclear, climate) (2022)

@Pablo Could you also your longtermism list with the syllabus, and with the edit that the class is taught by Steve Luby and Paul Edwards jointly? Thanks and thanks for keeping this list :) .

HaukeHillebrandt @ 2021-11-09T17:35 (+3)

GCBR reading list

Btw... this should be wiki maybe

MichaelA @ 2021-10-21T13:32 (+3)

Thanks for this collection! I send people the link to this decently often (maybe monthly?)

One addition: I made a Collection of AI governance reading lists, syllabi, etc.

Misha_Yagudin @ 2020-02-18T19:51 (+3)

If MIT's alignment reading group is here, this course should also belong to the list: AGI Safety @ UC Berkley (Fall 2018).

null @ 2018-11-08T13:02 (+3)

This is an excellent collection - thank you!

Katrina @ 2022-09-15T21:56 (+2)

Here is a syllabus I developed for an EA-aligned introductory research writing course, which could easily be adapted by other instructors. The course is aimed at a freshman audience (at UW Bothell) and is largely taken by first-year students fulfilling composition requirements. 

Erich_Grunewald @ 2022-09-15T22:50 (+1)

Looks like the doc isn't publicly shared -- I get "You need access" when I try to view it.

Katrina @ 2022-09-29T16:34 (+1)

Thanks, Erich, I've gone ahead and changed it! Hopefully everyone can access it now!

dewierwan @ 2021-09-26T18:04 (+2)

Updated link for the LSE Effective Philanthropy course: https://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar2019-2020/courseGuides/PH/2019_PH332.htm 

MichaelA @ 2021-07-18T10:18 (+2)

Thanks for making this collection! One thing I don't think has been mentioned yet is the "sample syllabus on existential risks" from the website associated with The Precipice.

This is a sample syllabus on existential risk, intended as a helpful resource for people developing courses on existential risk — in schools, universities, independent reading groups, or elsewhere. It assumes that those participating have access to The Precipice, so takes this as the central text.

The syllabus is divided into 10 topics, covering many facets of existential risk. One could remove, add, or merge topics to cater to longer or shorter course. Each topic has one or two highlighted readings (marked with an asterisk) and supplementary readings for those who wish to explore further. There are also a few key questions to guide thinking and discussion.

The syllabus is by no means comprehensive, and I’m very open to suggestions on how it could be improved or made more helpful to educators. Please send any comments to syllabus@theprecipice.com.

TOPICS

1. Foundations

2. Ethics of existential risk

3. Thinking about existential risk

4. Natural risks

5. Nuclear weapons

6. Climate change

7. Pandemics

8. Unaligned artificial intelligence

9. Political institutions

10. Macrostrategy

John_Maxwell @ 2019-11-19T03:36 (+2)

Here's another one: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8i3Wdy4FuJbSDQr5k/a-semester-long-course-in-ea

dewierwan @ 2021-09-26T18:05 (+1)

AGI Safety Fundamentals curriculum, by Richard Ngo

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mTm_sT2YQx3mRXQD6J2xD2QJG1c3kHyvX8kQc_IQ0ns/edit?usp=sharing

david_reinstein @ 2021-07-02T22:33 (+1)

Thank you!

Other than the one from David Bernard and Matthias Endres, do you know if any of these are Economics-focused and/or involve formal maths and/or quantitative content?

BenSchifman @ 2021-06-29T16:56 (+1)

Thanks for this resource!  @velutvulpes just posted one that you may want to add: Ethics and the Future seminar at Yale

Aaron Gertler @ 2021-06-30T07:06 (+2)

Just added this to save Julia some time :-)

BenSchifman @ 2021-06-30T18:05 (+1)

Thank you!

EmmaAbele @ 2020-07-15T18:51 (+1)

Also the EA Oxford In-Depth Fellowship

Risto_Uuk @ 2019-01-03T14:16 (+1)

If you were to organize an effective altruism course around William MacAskill's book Doing Good Better, what additional readings would you give to students to fill in the holes of the book?