Open Access Directory - User contributions [en]

Open Courses

2012-12-10T00:27:19Z

Laura Tilsley Garcia:

[[File:oad2.jpeg|60px]] This list is part of the [http://oad.simmons.edu Open Access Directory].

* This is a section within the larger [[OERs|Open Educational Resources]].

This is a list of free online course materials for Humanities courses, in a variety of formats such as video and audio podcasts, course notes, readings and supplemental materials. These courses are aimed at college-level participants. This list is not exhaustive - new contributions are welcome. Emphasis here is on complete courses - all lectures either in video or audio format - from the past four years. In some cases, older courses that seemed especially popular or valuable have also been included. These courses do not require registration nor do they offer assessment or certification of completion.

== Classics ==

[http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization The Hero in Ancient Greek Civiliation] - Harvard University. The true “hero” of this ancient Greek literature course is the logos, or word, of logical reasoning, as activated by Socratic dialogue. The logos of dialogue requires careful thinking, realized in close reading and reflective writing. The last “word” read in the course comes from Plato’s memories of the last days of Socrates. These memories depend on a thorough understanding of concepts of the hero in all their varieties throughout the history of Greek civilization and beyond. This course is driven by a sequence of dialogues that lead to such an understanding, guiding the attentive reader through some of the major works of the ancient Greek classics, from Homer to Plato.

== English Literature ==

[http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=556751596 Literature in English, from Chaucer through 20th Century] - UC Berkeley. Historical survey of literature in English from Chaucer through the 20th century. A. Literature in English through Milton. B. Literature in English from the late-17th through the mid-19th century. C. Literature in English from the mid-19th through the 20th century.

[http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=496411997 The Epic] - UC Berkeley. Reading and discussion of epics, considering their cultural and historical contexts, the nature of their composition, and the development of the form.

[http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/shakespeare-after-all-later-plays Shakespeare After All - The Later Plays] - Harvard University. Building on the discussions of individual plays in Marjorie Garber’s book Shakespeare After All, this course takes note of key themes, issues, and interpretations of the plays, focusing on questions of genre, gender, politics, family relations, silence and speech, and cultural power from both above and below (royalty, nobility, and the court; clowns and fools).

[http://podcast.ucsd.edu/podcasts/default.aspx?PodcastId=1712 Introduction to Asian-American Literature] - UC San Diego. This course provides an introduction to the study of the history, communities, and cultures of different Asian American people in the United States. Students will examine different articulations, genres, conflicts, narrative forms, and characterizations of the varied Asian experience.

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-013-out-of-ground-zero-catastrophe-and-memory-fall-2005/ Out of Ground Zero: Catastrophe and Memory] - MIT. Within twenty-four hours of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 politicians, artists, and cultural critics had begun to ask how to memorialize the deaths of thousands of people. This question persists today, but it can also be countered with another: is building a monument the best way to commemorate that moment in history? What might other discourses, media, and art forms offer in such a project of collective memory? How can these cultural formations help us to assess the immediate reaction to the attack? To approach these issues, "Out of Ground Zero" looks back to earlier sites of catastrophe in Germany and Japan.

== German==

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-403-german-iii-spring-2004/ German III] - MIT. This course expands skills in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Students develop analytic and interpretative skills through the reading of a full-length drama as well as short prose and poetry (Biermann, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Tawada and others) and through media selections on contemporary issues in German-speaking cultures.

[[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-404-german-iv-spring-2005/ German IV] - MIT. This course focuses on development of interpretive skills, using literary texts (B. Brecht, S. Zweig) and contemporary media texts (film, TV broadcasts, Web materials). The emphasis is on discussion and exploration of cultural topics in their current social, political, and historical context via hypermedia documentaries.

== History ==

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-162a-001-fall-2012/id556290271?mt=10 Europe and the World: Wars, Empires, Nations 1648-1914] - UC Berkeley. This upper division course looks at the rise and fall of the European great powers from the Peace of Westphalia, traditionally perceived as the beginning of the modern states system, to the coming of the First World War, an era of state and empire building. Economic and technological trends are naturally part of the story as well as cultural, social, and political forces.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-167a-001-fall-2011/id462290979?mt=10 Early Modern Germany] - UC Berkeley. From the period of the Protestant Reformation to the era of enlightened despotism and the French Revolution, German history was characterized by severe conflicts and problems unresolved. Early Modern German history contains many lessons concerning the relationship of war and peace, of violence and toleration, of reform and renewal and the rejection of any change, of Baroque splendor and widespread misery, of some progress and much disappointment, in short: of a most complicated legacy for future generations.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-151c-001-fall-2011/id462290976?mt=10 The Peculiar Modernity of Britain, 1848-2000] - UC Berkeley. For many years, Britain was seen as the crucible of the modern world. This small, cold, and wet island was thought to have been the first to develop representative democracy, an industrial economy, rapid transport, mass cities, mass communication and mass culture, and, of course, an empire upon which the sun famously never set.

[http://podcast.ucsd.edu/podcasts/default.aspx?PodcastId=1538&l=1 Religion & Law: US History Civil War to Present] - UC San Diego. This lecture-discussion course examines selected topics in the history of law and religion in American society from the mid-twentieth century to the present. It is a continuation of HIUS 155A. Major emphasis will be placed upon the Religion Clauses in
the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and their interpretation by federal courts.

[http://webcast.berkeley.edu/playlist#c,d,History,EC-XXv-cvA_iCUZW065POKTT55Tjrx07Nq The United States from the Late 19th Century to the Eve of World War II] - UC Berkeley. During the first half-century before World War II, the United States became an industrialized, urban society with national markets and communication media. This class will explore in depth some of the most important changes and how they were connected.

[http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/world-war-history World War and Society in the Twentieth Century: World War II] - Harvard University. This course is a thematic exploration of the war and its time through feature films, primary sources, and scholarly interpretations. It seeks to provide a means for analyzing and evaluating what one reads or sees about World War II in terms of historical accuracy and for gaining a broader understanding of different perspectives. Themes include the impact of war on soldiers and civilians, on the home front, women in war, the Japanese and German viewpoints, and postwar issues.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-162b-001-spring-2011/id438304150?mt=10 War and Peace, International Relations Since 1914] - UC Berkeley. This course analyzes the turbulent transitions from the classical European balance of power system to the global multipolar system of today. The course explores the political, economic, ideological, and technological roots of international affairs.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-186-001-spring-2012/id496100096?mt=10 International and Global History since 1945] - UC Berkeley. This course explores great and complex global historical changes that have taken place since the end of the second World War.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/cognitive-science-c103-001/id496107742?mt=10 History of Information] - UC Berkeley. This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as "the information age." We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/history-c187-001-letters-science/id460481810?mt=10 The History and Practice of Human Rights] - UC Berkeley. A required class for students in the human rights minor (but open to others), this course examines the development of human rights. More than a history of origins, it explores the relationships between human rights and other crucial themes in the history of the modern era.

[http://podcast.ucsd.edu/podcasts/default.aspx?PodcastId=1700&v=1 History of Modern Medicine] - UC San Diego. Explores the origin of clinical method, the hospital, internal surgery, and the medical laboratory, as well as the historical roots of debates over health-care reform, genetic determinism, and the medicalization of society.

== Linguistics ==

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-251-introduction-to-philosophy-of-language-fall-2011/ Introduction to Philosophy of Language] - MIT. This course explores the nature of meaning and truth, and their bearing on the use of language in communication. No knowledge of logic or linguistics is presupposed.

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-901-language-and-its-structure-i-phonology-fall-2010/ Language and its Structure I: Phonology] - MIT. This course is designed to give you a preliminary understanding of how the sound systems of different languages are structured, how and why they may differ from each other. The course also aims to provide you with analytical tools in phonology, enough to allow you to sketch the analysis of an entire phonological system by the end of the term.

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-212-myth-ritual-and-symbolism-spring-2004/ Myth, Ritual and Symbolism] - MIT. Human beings are symbol-making as well as tool-making animals. We understand our world and shape our lives in large part by assigning meanings to objects, beings, and persons; by connecting things together in symbolic patterns; and by creating elaborate forms of symbolic action and narrative. In this introductory subject we consider how symbols are created and structured; how they draw on and give meaning to different domains of the human world; how they are woven into politics, family life, and the life cycle; and how we can interpret them.

== Philosophy ==

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/philosophy-135-001-fall-2012/id560005324?mt=10 Theory of Meaning - Language as social behavior.] - UC Berkeley. Language compared to other sign systems. The foundations of semantics, truth, meaning, reference. Issues of logical form in belief sentences, indirect discourse, sentences about causality, events, actions. Relations between thought and language.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/philosophy-3-001-fall-2012/id556422328?mt=10 The Nature of Mind] - UC Berkeley. Introduction to the philosophy of mind. Topics to be considered may include the relation between mind and body; the structure of action; the nature of desires and beliefs; the role of the unconscious.

[https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/philosophy-138-001-fall-2011/id462290982?mt=10 Philosophy of Society] - UC Berkeley. This course deals with the ontology of society and thus provides a foundation for the social sciences. The main questions discussed are: 1) What is the mode of existence of social reality? 2) How does it relate to psychological and physical reality? 3) What implications does social ontology have for social explanations?

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-209-philosophy-in-film-and-other-media-spring-2004/ Philosophy of Film and Other Media] - MIT. This course examines works of film in relation to thematic issues of philosophical importance that also occur in other arts, particularly literature and opera. Emphasis is put on film's ability to represent and express feeling as well as cognition. Both written and cinematic works by Sturges, Shaw, Cocteau, Hitchcock, Joyce, and Bergman, among others, are considered.

MOOCs

2012-12-10T00:26:29Z

Laura Tilsley Garcia:

[[File:oad2.jpeg|60px]] This list is part of the [http://oad.simmons.edu Open Access Directory].

* This is a section within the larger [[OERs|Open Educational Resources]].

The links below go to available Massive Open Online Courses in the Humanities, sorted by discipline. These are free online classes you can register for and take as an active participant. They are courses aimed at college-level participants. This list is not exhaustive and new contributions are welcome. Many of these courses require that participants follow the set timeline of the course so participants should read all course materials available before choosing to register for a course. Some of these classes offer mechanisms for assessment and confirmation of completion.

== Classics ==
[https://www.coursera.org/course/mythology Greek and Roman Mythology] - University of Pennsylvania. This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/ancientgreeks The Ancient Greeks] - Wesleyan University. This is a survey of ancient Greek history from the Bronze Age to the death of Socrates in 399 BCE.

== English Literature ==

[http://www.udemy.com/english-300-introduction-to-theory-of-literature-with-paul-h-fry/?dtcode=r1rqzr66 English 300: Introduction to Theory of Literature] - Yale University. This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?

[http://www.udemy.com/the-american-novel-since-1945-with-amy-hungerford/?dtcode=2ppe8he4 English 291: The American Novel since 1945] - Yale University. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones.

[http://www.udemy.com/classics-of-american-literature-t-s-eliot/?dtcode=cls6bbvz Classics of American Literature: T.S. Eliot] - Duke University. The central purpose of this course is to facilitate a better understanding of poems by T. S. Eliot. We will focus mainly on classic works such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and The Hollow Men, but we may also take up some less prominent poems as well.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/fantasysf Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World] - University of Michigan. We understand the world — and our selves — through stories. Then some of those hopes and fears become the world. This course will explore Fantasy in general and Science Fiction in specific both as art and as insights into ourselves and our world.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/modernpoetry Modern & Contemporary Poetry] - University of Pennsylvania. This course is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, from Dickinson and Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly "difficult."

[http://www.udemy.com/modernpoetry/?dtcode=zcgwp7q5 Poetry: What It Is and How to Understand It] - George Washington University. This course will attempt to define this genre of writing, to discuss its particular attributes, to distinguish between good and bad poetry, to explain why so much poetry is difficult, and to isolate the sorts of truths poetry seems best at conveying. Our focus will be on modern poetry, in English and in translation.

== French ==
[http://oli.cmu.edu/courses/free-open/french-i-course-details/ Elementary French I] - Carnegie Mellon University. Elementary French I is a carefully sequenced and highly interactive presentation of French language and culture in a media-rich course environment including new video shot in France and Québec with young professional actors.

[http://oli.cmu.edu/courses/free-open/french-ii-course-details/ Elementary French II] - Carnegie Mellon University. Elementary French II is a carefully sequenced and highly interactive presentation of French language and culture in a media-rich course environment including new video shot in France and Québec with young professional actors.

== History ==

[https://www.coursera.org/course/humankind A Brief History of the World] - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The course surveys the entire length of human history, from the evolution of various human species in the Stone Age up to the political and technological revolutions of the twenty-first century.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/wh1300 A History of the World since 1300] - Princeton University. This course will examine the ways in which the world has grown more integrated yet more divided over the past 700 years.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/newchinahistory1 A New History for a New China 1700 - 2000] - The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The purpose of this course is to summarize some of the new directions in Chinese history and Chinese social science produced by the discovery and analysis of new historical data, in particular archival documents and datasets, and to organize this knowledge in a framework that encourages learning about China in comparative perspective.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/modernworld The Modern World, Global History since 1760] - University of Virginia. This is a survey of modern history from a global perspective. It begins with the revolutions of the late 1700s, tracks the transformation of the world during the 1800s, and analyzes the cataclysms of the last century, concluding with the new phase of world history we are experiencing today.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/womencivilrights Women and the Civil Rights Movement] - University of Maryland. Learn about women’s roles in the U.S. civil rights struggles of the 1890s to the 1990s.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/election-2012/id565286438 Election 2012] - Stanford University. This course focuses on the November 2012 election in the United States. and what it means for us, the state of California, the United States of America, and the globe.

== Italian ==

[http://www.udemy.com/dante-in-translation-with-giuseppe-mazzotta/?dtcode=d69an5px Italian 310: Dante in Translation] - Yale University. The course is an introduction to Dante and his cultural milieu through a critical reading of the Divine Comedy and selected minor works (Vita nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia, Epistle to Cangrande). An analysis of Dante's autobiography, the Vita nuova, establishes the poetic and political circumstances of the Comedy's composition. Readings of Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise seek to situate Dante's work within the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages, with special attention paid to political, philosophical and theological concerns.

== Philosophy ==

[https://www.coursera.org/course/introphil Introduction to Philosophy] - The University of Edinburgh. This course will introduce you to some of the most important areas of research in contemporary philosophy. Each week a different philosopher will talk you through some of the most important questions and issues in their area of expertise.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/knowthyself Know Thyself, An investigation of the nature and limits of self-knowledge] - University of Virginia. An investigation of the nature and limits of self-knowledge from the viewpoints of philosophy, psychoanalysis, experimental psychology, neuroscience, aesthetics, and Buddhism.

[https://www.coursera.org/course/thinkagain Think Again: How to Reason and Argue] - Duke University. Reasoning is important. This course will teach you how to do it well. You will learn how to understand and assess arguments by other people and how to construct good arguments of your own about whatever matters to you.

[http://www.udemy.com/mit-24261-philosophy-of-love-in-the-western-world/?dtcode=cuqicpmn Philosophy of Love in the Western World] - MIT. This course is a seminar on the nature of love and sex, approached as topics both in philosophy and in literature. Readings from recent philosophy as well as classic myths of love that occur in works of literature and lend themselves to philosophical analysis.

[http://www.udemy.com/death-with-shelly-kagan/?dtcode=m4s47rjh Philosophy 176: Death] - Yale University. There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined.

== Religion ==

[https://www.coursera.org/course/mysticthought Modern European Mysticism and Psychological Thought] - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This course will provide an entry into the complex world of modern mysticism, through studying its psychological thought. We shall especially look at two terms that are very much in use also in general culture: the heart (as an emotional rather than as a physical center!...) and the soul, looking at the unique mystical concepts of their nature and destiny and asking if there were influences and meetings between the different religions.

== Russian ==

[http://www.udemy.com/russian-literature-and-music/?dtcode=cvpp6jge Russian Literature and Music] - Northwestern University. During the previous two centuries, Russian speaking writers and composers have made extraordinary contributions to the culture of the world. They have also presented a truly remarkable understanding of the human soul. The objective of this course is to provide an opening into this colorful, absorbing, and deeply sensitive universe of written images and pulsating sounds.