The Teaching Company

[Obsessed]

I see their audio/DVD courses advertised in the paper pretty often. Some of them look pretty interesting. I'm wondering if anyone here has ever purchased one and, if so, what you thought of it. Maybe the academics among us can chime in as well with any general or specific impressions of the company.

Thanks.

 

[BCatl]

The public library in my county keeps courses from the Teaching Company, you might check to see if your local library keeps any and you can check them out.

MIT and Berkeley, among other universities, also have something called open courseware, or something along those lines. MIT's site is the best.

Here is Berkeley's most recent offering http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php, however, if you enter a subject you are interested in at the search box, other courses from other years come up.

Not all courses are on video. Most are just audio, and some just have written course materials.

 

[BCatl]

Here is MIT's http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.

Open courseware members are universities all over the world, so if you speak a foreign language, you can take courses from all over the world.

They are free, but not for credit.

 

[ckirk]

I've ordered two of their courses over the years. One on American Literature and the other was on Effective Reasoning. Both were very well done by the professors.

To me, they are on the level with freshman/sophmore survey "lecture hall" classes. It's like having someone tape the class then listen to it later. You lose something not being present but in general I was pleased.

But they'er not cliff notes. Like college, if you want to learn the material you have to spend alot more time outside of just listening to the tapes. For instance, on the Literature class its not much use if you don't actually read the books.

They make a good, inexpensive way to backfill on some of topics of interest you couldn't fit between parties in college.

 

[mdevine]

I have purchased over a dozen different courses from the Teaching Company through the years. My favorites have been history courses (including several medieval history courses by Professor Daileader that are especially well done). I have also completed courses in literature, game theory, linguistics, philosophy, politics and music. I have both Bachelors and Doctorate degrees and am very pleased with the quality of the courses. I put the lectures on my ipod and listen to them while driving. I would strongly recommend them to anyone considering this type of thing. I believe they will send sample lectures if you contact them.

 

[LinuxMintyFresh]

I agree with the library idea. I've listened to several of these and each was very well done. The professors seem distinguished, the programs are well planned and flow well, and the information is easy to follow and understand. There are course handbooks, though, and I've never been able to obtain one, which ins't really a problem, but if you want the most out of the courses then you should try and find them.

 

[The Knize]

I see their audio/DVD courses advertised in the paper pretty often. Some of them look pretty interesting. I'm wondering if anyone here has ever purchased one and, if so, what you thought of it. Maybe the academics among us can chime in as well with any general or specific impressions of the company.

Thanks.

I have never had a video or DVD version, only audio versions, but have listened to lots of them. They are generally very good and some are absolutely extraordinary!

I have never used the written materials with them, but have looked them over. I am sure they would add to the amount learned, but are not really necessary get a tremendous amount out of these.

 

[hifigeezer]

The TC music lectures by Robert Greenberg are excellent IMHO and many are on Ebay. I also like Charles Kors "Birth of the Modern Mind" but I must admit I haven't finished it.

 

[The Knize]

Re specific TC releases that seemed great, I am sure I am leaving a bunch out, but there is a really long set on the Civil War and an equally long one on WWII, that I thought were revelatory, and those are subjects I felt like I knew something about.

There is one by a Penn professor on the history of language, that was just amazing, and had all kinds of information I had never heard anywhere, about what the modern thinking is on how different langauges groups developed and what the various languages can tell us about the human condition and how we got here.

There is one on American Military History from the Civil War on, that had a lot on Viet Nam as I recall, that seems to no longer be available. The prof was someone who taught at the US Army war college. Just wonderful stuff and the feeling that one was hearing things they would never get out of the general public media about what happened in various wars and why. Actually, I suspect that part of the reason why it may no longer be available is that there was quite a bit on fighting insurgencies and lots of discussion of reference to the Iraq situation, which was fairly complementary of the strategy of the Adminstration, which I took to be the Bush administration at the beginning of the Iraq conflict. However, I would dare say that the Bush administration got pretty far away from what this guy was presenting as the modern military thinking about how such a war should be conducted.

The set on Ancient Greece was particularly good, in part because it emphasized just how foreign to the modern mind the Greeks were.

The list really goes on and on. There is a set on American literature that I remember as being particularly good in places, too. Another very long set. Funny what I remember, but I had never really gotten what was supposed to be so special about Emily Dickinson. After those lectures, I got it and came out a true beliverer in ED. I also recall that I have had trouble figuring out where Wm. Faulkner really fit in at the end of the day, and those lectures really helped!

The one on the Vikings were eye opening, too, as to human history. I really had had no idea. Although I would say that they, like the Vikings, really petered out toward the end. The first 8 or so CDs were amazing, though!