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Huge Great Courses sale on Audible


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80 Great Courses are on sale for 6.95 each at audible. (Through May 8, I think.)

 

If you have an Amazon account, you can buy them without being an audible member.

 

I'm not an affiliate, but I am addicted. :)

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I am completely unfamiliar with audible.  If you purchase through audible, is the audio only available via streaming or can you download and save and listen offline?  THanks!

 

You can download and save for later.

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What are everyone's favorites from the list?

 

Are you asking for yourself or for your kids?  I don't like them for kids younger than mature 7th/8th graders.  THey are college lectures and most younger kids just aren't into the presentation.  If you are talking about for yourself, it depends on what you are interested in.  My ds purchased every single physics and astronomy lecture they had until he hit 11th grade.  Together with my kids I have have enjoyed several of the philosophy, history, and lit lectures.

 

I am excited b/c we are planning a linguistics course for my rising 11th grader and I have been watching the sales catalogs for them to go on sale and they haven't.  I can get several during this sale for less than even buying 1.  The drawback is that you don't get the course book.  I like using them and I often incorporate the professor's recommended resources.

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Are you asking for yourself or for your kids?  I don't like them for kids younger than mature 7th/8th graders.  THey are college lectures and most younger kids just aren't into the presentation.  If you are talking about for yourself, it depends on what you are interested in.  My ds purchased every single physics and astronomy lecture they had until he hit 11th grade.  Together with my kids I have have enjoyed several of the philosophy, history, and lit lectures.

 

I am excited b/c we are planning a linguistics course for my rising 11th grader and I have been watching the sales catalogs for them to go on sale and they haven't.  I can get several during this sale for less than even buying 1.  The drawback is that you don't get the course book.  I like using them and I often incorporate the professor's recommended resources.

 

I meant for me, as my oldest is only 6. But, who knows, maybe he will listen as well someday. :)

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I meant for me, as my oldest is only 6. But, who knows, maybe he will listen as well someday. :)

 :)  I couldn't see your siggie.  In that case, I would first check and see what your library has before ordering any.  The sale doesn't end until the 8th.  If you haven't ever used any of them, you might or might not like them. 

 

For me they are a great teaching resource for my kids.  I enjoy doing them with them b/c we interact with each other about the lectures.  But, purely for myself, I would be far more selective about what I wanted to listen to than just picking a subject b/c it happened to be on sale. I would want to choose it b/c it was something I really wanted to learn about.  The lectures are good, but I know for myself, I need to use them as part of a course that builds on them vs. relying on them for deep learning b/c names, dates, locations, theories, etc....all of them fly through the lectures and unless you are at least somewhat familiar with the subject, it will be hard to remember long-term without something else to help cement the info in. 

 

I find learning from them easier for some subject than others.  The lit lectures are easy for me, but that is b/c lit is an area of strength.  The physics and astronomy lectures, even though aimed at the non-physicist, go way over my head.  I might think I understand what is being talked about, but in all reality, I only understand it at a kitchen table conversation level.  :)  I would actually need to read books, take notes, etc to really learn something.

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Are you asking for yourself or for your kids?  I don't like them for kids younger than mature 7th/8th graders.  THey are college lectures and most younger kids just aren't into the presentation.  If you are talking about for yourself, it depends on what you are interested in.  My ds purchased every single physics and astronomy lecture they had until he hit 11th grade.  Together with my kids I have have enjoyed several of the philosophy, history, and lit lectures.

 

I am excited b/c we are planning a linguistics course for my rising 11th grader and I have been watching the sales catalogs for them to go on sale and they haven't.  I can get several during this sale for less than even buying 1.  The drawback is that you don't get the course book.  I like using them and I often incorporate the professor's recommended resources.

 

Just a thought - do a search for the course online and you may find the guidebook in pdf form. I have accidentally found guidebooks while researching courses.

 

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Thanks Jackie, So I can buy the mp3 and then listen only through audible app or any mp3 player? Does anyone know? The oldest has an "old" mp3 player ..

 

Sorry, I posted and disappeared. Also, I'm not Jackie, but as I understand it, you can play your audible purchases on any device that does apps (download the audible free app).

 

Unfortunately, the list of dedicated mp3 players that will play their files is pretty small. Alternatively, you should be able to put the file on iTunes and burn it to a cd. (But, I have not been able to do that successfully so I just play them all from cheap phones that I got specifically to use as audible players.)

 

Hope that helps.

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If you're using an mp3 player that is an apple product, you would load your mp3 player with iTunes.  When you buy something on audible, you're able to download and import it directly into iTunes.  You don't have to use the audible app to listen to the files.  I don't know other software, but just google what you use + import audible and see what happens.  You can probably work it out.

 

As far as the guidebooks, you can get them directly from the TC people for about $15 plus shipping.

 

As for ages, well that's really relative.  I'll be getting some for my high schooler, but my gifted (admittedly very nutty) K5er likes them as well.  They automatically load on his kindle and he just tries them.  Your really never know.  But that's INTEREST-driven, not some plan of mine for using them formally, kwim?  And truth be told he has a tendency to memorize chunks of things and not really process or have a clue.  It's part of his mix of issues.  But still, it's a super price.  On the other hand, $7 is only $2 less than the lowest price you can get to by buying credits.  You can buy the courses with a credit at any time, so I guess if you don't have a use relatively soon you needn't bother.

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Just a thought - do a search for the course online and you may find the guidebook in pdf form. I have accidentally found guidebooks while researching courses.

 

Has anyone been able to buy the course books separately without buying the whole course? I find them a good addition to the lectures.

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  :)  I couldn't see your siggie.  In that case, I would first check and see what your library has before ordering any.  The sale doesn't end until the 8th.  If you haven't ever used any of them, you might or might not like them. 

 

For me they are a great teaching resource for my kids.  I enjoy doing them with them b/c we interact with each other about the lectures.  But, purely for myself, I would be far more selective about what I wanted to listen to than just picking a subject b/c it happened to be on sale. I would want to choose it b/c it was something I really wanted to learn about.  The lectures are good, but I know for myself, I need to use them as part of a course that builds on them vs. relying on them for deep learning b/c names, dates, locations, theories, etc....all of them fly through the lectures and unless you are at least somewhat familiar with the subject, it will be hard to remember long-term without something else to help cement the info in. 

 

I find learning from them easier for some subject than others.  The lit lectures are easy for me, but that is b/c lit is an area of strength.  The physics and astronomy lectures, even though aimed at the non-physicist, go way over my head.  I might think I understand what is being talked about, but in all reality, I only understand it at a kitchen table conversation level.  :)  I would actually need to read books, take notes, etc to really learn something.

 

Thank you for this advice. My library has all the ones I was going to buy (along with the course manuals). Great tip!

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Thank you for this advice. My library has all the ones I was going to buy (along with the course manuals). Great tip!

I checked that out too before I decided to buy and I was shocked by how popular many of the Great Courses are at our library. Our large library system might own 5-10 copies of most of the great courses, but there was still multiple people in the reserve queue in many cases. Part of my decision of which to buy ended up being course length and waiting list - it's unlikely I'll get an 18 hour course listened to in three weeks before having to return it to the library (no renewals of course if there is a waiting list). But some are shorter or seem to be less popular, so those ones I just saved for future library checkout. :-)

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We own so many TC lectures I don't even know how many titles.  I have been using them since my oldest was in high school.  The titles we want to use change depending on the student.  

 

This is the first time I have ever gotten audio downloads.  I normally get the CDs or DVDs.  Anyway, to answer your question I order some of the linguistics courses for my dd to use next year for 11th.  She has gone back and forth between linguistics and Russian as a possible career, so we had already planned on a linguistics study next year to help her think things through a little more clearly.

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I completely missed this sale (my email went to my trash and I've not been on the boards lately). Can anyone tell me if this is something that audible runs from time to time or was it a one time thing that I should lament and gnash my teeth over having missed? :) I'm an audible subscriber and have a number of them in my wish list. Sigh. That's what I get from straying from the WTM boards and living IRL. Lol

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I completely missed this sale (my email went to my trash and I've not been on the boards lately). Can anyone tell me if this is something that audible runs from time to time or was it a one time thing that I should lament and gnash my teeth over having missed? :) I'm an audible subscriber and have a number of them in my wish list. Sigh. That's what I get from straying from the WTM boards and living IRL. Lol

Gnash your teeth.  Or you can go buy a year's worth of credits upfront and have them end up $9 each, which is really close to the $7 each that the GC/TC courses were.  :)

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We are REALLY enjoying the Skeptic's Guide to American History. The professor's voice is great, first of all (I know that's not the most important thing, but it's a bit important when you're listening to someone talk for 12 hours LOL) and the content is fascinating and easy-to-follow.

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I completely missed this sale (my email went to my trash and I've not been on the boards lately). Can anyone tell me if this is something that audible runs from time to time or was it a one time thing that I should lament and gnash my teeth over having missed? :) I'm an audible subscriber and have a number of them in my wish list. Sigh. That's what I get from straying from the WTM boards and living IRL. Lol

 

 

There is now a 3 for 2 sale for members. Letting you know so you don't need to gnash about missing that after it is over (which is May 22).

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We are REALLY enjoying the Skeptic's Guide to American History. The professor's voice is great, first of all (I know that's not the most important thing, but it's a bit important when you're listening to someone talk for 12 hours LOL) and the content is fascinating and easy-to-follow.

 

I considered that one, but didn't get it. Will stick it in my wish list for the next time such a sale comes round.

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