Someone Explain How They Use Great Courses

[pineapplehorse]

DS is really interested in cosmology/planetary science right now and wants me to investigate "advanced" astronomy classes (he is taking ES Earth Science and Geology now).  The Great Courses has "explore the universe" and I am really looking at it while it's on sale for use next year.

 

We've never used a "Great Course" before so I am interested how you use them and award the credit.

 

TIA!

[SA Homeschooler]

I'm interested as well!!

[regentrude]

I have mainly used the courses for history and literature as part of the credit. For this, we simply listened to the lectures, talked about some of them. Assessment was done through essays.

 

I do not believe that one could learn a science by simply listening to audio lectures. When we used the GC astronomy lectures, we used them in conjunction with a textbook, and I had my student take notes. We did not use the course for high school credit.

For a for credit high school course, I would have my student take notes on either the lectures or a textbook, because I do not think there is enough retention otherwise.

[Orthodox6]

For a Christmas goft, I bought my daughter two courses (bundled) on photography. Next year she will use this as an elective one-semester class. Portfolio and some writing should be good support of the class, I hope.

[KarenNC]

FYI, if you have Netflix, they have Neil deGrasse Tyson's "The Inexplicable Universe" and Laird Close's "Life in our Universe" from the Great Courses streaming.

[Hoot]

For the most part, we use them the same way as Regentrude. We use them primarily for history and literature. DS watches or listens, sometimes takes notes, we discuss, and then he writes essays on a topic of interest. Sometimes we add other resources like books and movies. I would never use just the lectures for science, though we have used them to supplement an existing science class or text.

[pineapplehorse]

I was not implying that we would use the lecture for the complete course; maybe I was not clear in my question.  I am trying to figure out how some of you who have used it integrate it with other sources to create a complete course and how you decide what percentage of the grade to assign to say "quizzes" from the lectures or writing assignments versus the other sources you use.  Also, what exactly is in the "guide book" with "recommended readings"?  

 

I am truly looking to create an "Adavanced Astronomy/Cosmology" class as I have not been able to find any class that would meet his interest (other than CTY summer classes in cosmology).  I was thinking of combining "Understanding the Universe" (96 lessons), with several Hawking books, Richard Feynman's quantum mechanics lectures, and other items.   My son has exceptional retention so I am not worried about that at all.   Simply trying to figure out how to balance all of the items, account for them on the transcript, and weigh each portion of the class without completely overloading one subject and turning it into much MORE than a single high school credit.   

 

And KarenNC, thanks :) We watched both of those right after we watched the new Cosmos this fall.

 

 

[klmama]

The guide books include an outline of each lecture with some questions to be used for discussion or writing prompts.  There is a suggested reading list for each lecture, but it is not necessary to understand the material presented. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jilly]

My son has watched all the astronomy courses from the Great Courses. His favorites were the ones with Alex Fillippenko. :)

 

The first few courses he watched when he was younger, so he basically just watched them. We also ordered some of the recommend books, and he read a few. These lectures spurred a love of astronomy in him, so one summer he went to astronomy camp in Arizona. The camp gave him a college-level astronomy text, so he worked through that while watching more courses on astronomy. Now he is a member of our local astronomy group, and he attends the monthly lectures by professors from all over the world who come and discuss a wide variety of topics. 

 

I never tested him or quizzed him on the lectures. We used them primarily to gain knowledge and, in this case, to inspire my son. 

 

ETA - He did write several essays on some of the topics found in the lectures. 

 

 

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I tend to match them to our readings and then watch them during the corresponding week for history/social studies.  For the literature series we watch them after the discussed work has been read.  I try not to get a lecture before my kids own impressions of the work have been formed.  For science I haven't used them with a course-just as concept reinforcement when needed.

 

Matching them to readings does, on some occasions, take the courses out of order.  On the whole that hasn't been a problem.

[sdobis]

We are using the psychology lectures with a college text and essays. We're using it as a one semester credit although I could easily extend it into a full credit.