SKILLS YOU WILL GAIN

• Art History
• Art
• History
• Mythology

Jesus and the Gospels is a far-ranging course. It examines not only the canonical Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John familiar to us from the New Testament, but also the many other, apocryphal narratives and literary works that have contributed to our perceptions of Jesus, Mary, and Christianity. All of these works are encompassed by the word "Gospel." Professor Luke Timothy Johnson attempts to show us the human Jesus underlying the many portraits we have. He approaches the Gospels and our perceptions of Jesus from a different perspective than the popular quest for the "historical Jesus." (The Teaching Company course The Historical Jesus offers a fascinating look at this approach.) Professor Johnson asserts that the portrait of Jesus addressed by such an approach, legitimate and compelling though such an approach may be, leads to questions that are virtually "impossible to answer satisfactorily" through proper historical methods. "It is, after all, as literature that the Gospels influenced history. And it is through literature that present-day readers can continue to encounter Jesus," he says.

The Hidden Factor: Why Thinking Differently Is Your Greatest Asset is your opportunity to learn the strategies that make you a more diverse thinker and position you to break down institutional silos and build robust, effective teams. Delivered by Professor Scott E. Page of the University of Michigan—a pioneering researcher in his field—these 24 thought-provoking lectures are packed with case studies, cautionary tales, and formal mathematical methods that prove the case for cognitive difference. Whether you’re in a leadership position or striving to advance your career, Professor Page’s techniques will train you to

• tackle problems with the right mix of individuals,
• drive innovation and avoid collapse,
• adapt to changing circumstances and challenges,
• forecast outcomes with greater accuracy, and
• identify conditions in which diversity trumps ability.

By teaching you to “see around the bend” and analyze decisions from multiple perspectives, The Hidden Factor even has practical benefits beyond the workplace. From determining which house to buy to where to invest your money, life requires making smart predictions at every turn.

• Understand what organisational psychology is, its scope of practice and its central concepts
• Gain insights into how the psychology of people impacts the way they think and behave at work
• Learn how to manage teams in the workplace
• Improve the functioning of organisations by understanding systemic issues
• Predict and debate new and exciting trends that affect organisations globally

A basic working knowledge of this profoundly important tool can help us cut through an often confusing clutter of information—allowing us to make better decisions in our own lives or better understand the decisions facing other players in games. In Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond, award-winning Professor Scott P. Stevens of James Madison University has designed a course meant for anyone looking to gain that knowledge. In 24 insightful lectures, he presents you with the fundamentals of game theory in a manner that is both engaging and easy to understand.

What you will learn

• Gain insight into the evolution of omens and oracles in ancient civilizations to the creation of forecasting via computer simulations, epidemiology, and GPS.
• Explore text and images to better understand the process of building new technologies and medical practices.
• Examine efforts to predict the future over recorded history.

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Identify the most important characteristics of the main five religions.
• Describe the fundamentals of the main five world religions.
• Explain the relationship between the different forms of faith.
• Reflect on what dialogue among religions means from a philosophical and epistemological point of view.
• Develop a critical thinking about dialogue among religions and what makes it possible.

• Demonstrate an understanding of how the mind can be studied in a scientific way using experiments
• Develop your knowledge of the psychology of reasoning and thinking
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the psychology of mental imagery
• Perform a simple experiment in cognitive psychology

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Identify the main themes of Europe's encounters and interactions with the wider world.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of European empires through discussion and debate.
• Evaluate relevant primary and secondary sources in European imperial history.

The course was born from Professor Weinstein's conviction that American literature is our "great estate," and that claiming this rightful inheritance—the living past and the lessons we can take from it—should be nothing less than a unique and joyous learning experience. Experience Two Centuries of America's Greatest Works Professor Weinstein explains that America's classic works should be savored as part of our inner landscape: part of how we see both America and ourselves. Discover the Stories behind America's Immortal Writers Consider that:

• Emily Dickinson was virtually unheard of in her own time.
• William Faulkner's books were out of print until the mid-1940s.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing he had been forgotten.

Savor the Joy of Great Reading Dr. Weinstein is the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor at Brown University, where he has been teaching literature to packed classrooms since 1968. Brown University student course evaluation summaries reported: "By far, students' greatest lament was that they only got to listen to Professor Weinstein once a week."

• Evaluate arguments (chains of reasoning) using a formal language as a tool
• Apply an understanding of the concept of validity in evaluating arguments
• Explore the relationships between formal languages and everyday or ‘natural’ languages
• Apply an understanding of the idea of a formal language — a specially created language with key vocabulary having carefully specified precise meanings — in analysing and understanding claims expressed in everyday language

In 60 enthralling half-hour lectures, Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works proves that case, giving you a robust, introductory college-level course in physics. This course doesn't stint on details and always presents its subject in all of its elegance—yet it doesn't rely heavily on equations and mathematics, using nothing more advanced than high school algebra and trigonometry. Your teacher is Professor Richard Wolfson, a noted physicist and educator at Middlebury College. Professor Wolfson is author or coauthor of a wide range of physics textbooks, including a widely used algebra-based introduction to the subject for college students. He has specially designed Physics and Our Universe to be entirely self-contained, requiring no additional resources. And for those who wish to dig deeper, he includes an extensive list of suggested readings that will enhance your understanding of basic physics.

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Reflect on how the First World War affected the heroic ideals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
• Assess WW1 posters and interpret the message that each poster would have given to those signing up during the war years.
• Explore art from WW1 and discuss thoughts with other students.
• Curate an exhibition of paintings of WW1 heroes and heroines to help reflect on the way ideas about heroism has changed from 1914 onward.
• Explore how heroism is represented in post-WW2 German culture.
• Discuss how WW1 and heroism are represented in films produced or co-produced in Germany in the last few years.
• Evaluate a film, book or TV programme which focuses on the men and women who lived through WW1 and consider how they are portrayed in contemporary culture.
• Research and discuss thoughts with fellow learners.

 

After just a few hours of Greek 101: Learning an Ancient Language, you’ll understand why no translation can capture the expressive power of this incomparable tongue. In some ways simpler than English, in other ways more complex, Greek is a delight to study. As you work through these 36 engaging half-hour lessons, mastering the graceful alphabet, the precision of the nouns and verbs, the endlessly flexible syntax, and a vivid vocabulary, you’ll learn words and phrases such as these:

• μῆνιν: Pronounced mēnin, the first word of Homer’s Iliad means wrath, setting the tone for the entire epic, which is about the consequences of Achilles’ anger and how it leads the Greek army to the brink of ruin in the Trojan War. In this course, you read the first 125 lines of the Iliad—in Greek.
• ἥρως: Once sounded out—hērōs—this word is obviously hero, and such larger-than-life warriors from Greek mythology are the chief characters in the Iliad. After learning the Greek alphabet and diacritical marks, you suddenly see the wide influence of Greek on English.
• μαθηταὶ: That’s you, the students, pronounced mathētai, and it’s how Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller addresses you throughout this course. It has the same root (a verb that means “to learn”) as our word mathematics, and in the New Testament it comes to mean disciples.
• μὴ γένοιτο: Pronounced mē genoito, it means literally, may this not happen. More colloquially, it translates, God forbid! and it isone of St. Paul’s favorite expressions, used in Romans 7:13 and elsewhere. In this course, you read many such extracts from the New Testament—in Greek.

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Explore the archaeology of early Roman Britain, in particular Colchester during the first century AD
• Describe Roman attitudes to death and what a funeral would have looked, sounded and smelled like
• Identify osteological techniques used to identify the age, biological sex, status and pathologies of individuals from cremated burials
• Discuss what it means to be Romano-British
• Understand the value of using new techniques to revisit, analyse and learn more from old museum collections.

What will you achieve?

Dr. John McWhorter, one of America's leading linguists and a frequent commentator on network television and National Public Radio, addresses these and other questions as he takes you on an in-depth, 36-lecture tour of the development of human language, showing how a single tongue spoken 300,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 7,000 languages used around the world today.   An accomplished scholar, Professor McWhorter is also a skilled popularizer, whose book The Power of Babel was called "startling, provocative, and remarkably entertaining," by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The London Times called him "a born teacher." And Steven Pinker, best known as the author of The Language Instinct, offered this praise for the book: "McWhorter's arguments are sharply reasoned, refreshingly honest, and thoroughly original."

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Investigate the properties of plasmas and understand their place in the universe
• Explore how materials can be engineered and investigated at the atomic level
• Explain how we can detect and manipulate individual particles
• Describe the link between fundamental research and real world applications
• Discuss the crucial role of physics in solving major societal problems

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Explore how the British Army evolved as an institution between 1815 and 1945, reflecting on its social composition, place in society, and military proficiency
• Debate the importance of command and leadership and how this developed alongside the changing nature of warfare
• Compare the concepts of ‘limited’ and ‘total' war
• Reflect upon the British Army’s changing role in its Empire, Europe and the world
• Assess a range of primary source materials and incorporate their findings into historical debate

• Investigate what the discipline of anthropology is and how it relates to the concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘society’.
• Describe the historical evolution of anthropology, from its foundation to the present day.
• Produce ethnographic field notes related to a field work exercise.
• Identify the significant theorists and theories undergirding anthropology.

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, 2nd Edition is your chance to survey over 70 literary geniuses and masterpieces of Western literature. In 84 lectures taught by five award-winning professors who are experts in particular literary time periods, you explore the vast collection of Western writers and their respective works. With its broad historical scope and its depth of insight, this course is a veritable encyclopedia of Western literature's greatest writers. It's your chance to get a look at their works, styles, themes, and relationships with one another without having to pour through thousands upon thousands of pages of their writing. And you'll see the role they played both within the context of their own time and within the larger span of literary history.

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Reflect on the historical background of your own scientific discipline by tracing it back to its seventeenth-century roots
• Interpret texts about scientific practices of the past
• Engage critically with ideas about the overall role and meaning of scientific disciplines and practices
• Produce a short blog post about the historical background of your discipline

In Math and Magic, Professor Benjamin introduces you to magic, using tools like playing cards, numbers, and geometric figures. For each trick, he first runs through a demonstration. Then, he pulls back the curtain to show how the trick is done, explaining in detail the mathematical ideas underpinning the illusion. In this way, you learn such fundamentals of the magician's art as: •     Parity principle: Promoted by magician Bob Hummer, this idea has inspired a series of tricks in which the cards are treated in pairs according to a systematic procedure. Although the cards seem to be fairly mixed, an inherent order is preserved that, when revealed, astounds spectators. •     Faro shuffle: Devised as a way to beat the popular 19th-century card game faro, this bit of trickery is also known as the perfect shuffle, in which cards from two equal halves of a deck are interlaced perfectly. A sequence of such shuffles can bring the top card to any desired position, creating a truly magical effect. •     Lightning calculations: Dr. Benjamin is famous for his ability to solve problems in his head, often faster than someone punching numbers into a calculator. Naturally, he uses shortcuts, many of which are quite simple. For example, in this course you learn an easy method for determining cube roots that will make you look like a mathematical genius. •     Magic squares: Popular for centuries, magic squares are grids of numbers where each row, column, and diagonal adds up to the same number. It might seem that only a few solutions are possible for a given grid, but that's usually not true. You can impress your audience by building a magic square based on any number, or even based on someone's birthday.