Los Angeles – The eight new courses in the Urban Design for Planners series have quickly become some of the most popular offerings of the 120 online videos currently available on Planetizen Courses.

The instruction available in the Urban Design for Planners series reflects the growing importance of the skills and tools of design to the planning profession—an importance made obvious by all of the courses in the Urban Design for Planners series quickly becoming the most viewed courses on the Planetizen Courses site.

"With our knowledge about planning principles and the design of place in hand, these communication tools fundamentally change who can claim the role of urban designer," says series instructor Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP, who is also a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Sustainability.

The eight courses that comprise the Urban Design for Planners series: 

1. Software Tools
2. Neighborhoods and Transects
3. Connectivity and Design Interventions
4. Neighborhood Centers
5. Neighborhood Edges
6. Mix and Diversity
7. Proximity and Density
8. Parking and Traffic

Software used during the series includes QGIS, Scribus, GIMP, and Inkscape. All of the software programs used during the course are free and open source tools common in the planning and design profession.

"We're proud to offer the Urban Design for Planners series as a complete package of practical skills with potentially huge impact on the careers and the communities of planners everywhere," says Chris Steins, co-founder and executive producer of Planetizen Courses.

Urban Design for Planners is the latest course in the Planetizen Courses' growing library of programs, developed by (and for) the urbanist, planning, design, and development communities. New Planetizen courses are released every week and optimized for smartphones and tablets, recognizing the rapidly growing trend of using mobile devices to access online education. All eight of the courses are available at the Planetizen Courses website. The courses are eligible for AICP CM credits, and LA CES credits are pending.

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