Favorite Great Course?

[GAPeachie]

I stumbled upon a giant list of Great Courses, which rather shocked me.  I guess I thought that there were only a few. 

 

Which one(s) are your (or your students) favorite(s) and why?

[Julie of KY]

My math geek loves Discrete Mathematics and anything by Arthur Benjamin.

 

My second son loves the physics videos and everything else by Richard Wolfson.

 

"My" new favorite is Everyday Engineering, though we like all the other engineering videos as well.

 

My oldest also likes all the Vandiver lectures.

[regentrude]

We love everything by Elizabeth Vandiver, but especially Iliad and Odyssey. I own all her courses.

Robert Greenberg's How to listen to and and understanding Great Music is outstanding.

Very good the three courses on the Middle Ages by Philipp Daileader.

Currently listening to History of English Language by Seth Lehrer - another win.

 

DS liked Rufus Fears' Famous Romans.

Good: Italian Renaissance by Kenneth Bartlett; Vikings by Kenneth Harl .

 

Utterly disappointing: Chemistry with Cardulla; this is  the only course of the many I bought that I ever returned for a refund.

 

I found Particle Physics boring and uninspiring.

 

ETA: Why? The best lectures have gifted lecturers who have strong subject expertise and manage to transmit their excitement about the subject to the audience; the lectures are just FUN to listen to. Subtle (not heavy handed) sense of humor, lively presentation, enough in-depth treatment so that listener does not feel patronized while at the same time not assuming specialized prior knowledge.

Edited March 15, 2016 by regentrude

[theelfqueen]

We've only recently started using them and are ao far focused on those available from our library. Bexause i am cheap amd they have dozens.

My son has loved the "Think like an Economist" class. I have done a couple of history ones that I enjoyed.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've mostly liked the Great Courses I've used, but there have been a few misses.

 

for humanities, I like Vandiver's courses, as well as Aldrete's History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective.  I also liked Nobles Western Civilization courses. For a lighter coverage than Daleider, Dorsey Armstrong's Medieval courses are very enjoyable.  I also like The Skeptic's Guide to American History and the two Shakespeare courses, Comedy History & Tragedy and How to Read and Understand Shakespeare.

 

I really disliked Rufus Fears and his Life Lessons from the Great Myths is the only course I've returned.

 

For science, it's been more hit and miss.  Joy of Science is getting a little outdated. For a shorter, more modern survey of science I prefer 12 Essential Scientific Concepts.  

 

I bought the Geometry and the Meaning from Data: Statistics made clear, but neither of them will work for my student - she doesn't learn math from listening to lectures and they are pretty dull to just listen to.

[SEGway]

Adding my vote for anything by Vandiver (Illiad and Odyssey, especially).

 

I enjoyed Philip Daileader's medieval history lectures. Dorsey Armstrong on medieval history, too.

 

Kenneth Harl's Barbarian Empires of the Steppes. 

 

If you're looking for something linguistic-y, I really enjoyed Ann Curzan's Secret Life of Words.

 

Anything Robert Greenberg on music.

 

[g1234]

History of the Ancient World by Greg Aldrete

Your Deceptive Mind by Steve Novella

[hornblower]

Meaning from Data: Statistics made clear, but neither of them will work for my student - she doesn't learn math from listening to lectures and they are pretty dull to just listen to.

We found him fun! He told some funny stories and explanations and was so excited about the tv show Numb3rs (imagine! a show where a mathematician is the hero!)  It was a good intro to the subject for dd and she aced intro to stats in college after it.... 

 

We like Stephen Nowicki's Biology. Dd did it & now ds is. Nowicki doesn't bug me so long as I don't look at him lecturing - he pets his facial hair too much & once I noticed it it started driving me batty :P  

 

We like Wolfson's Physics course but his electronics one moves too fast for ds. He's stopped & re-started it several times now. 

 

Everyone liked Phillip Daileader's Middle Ages set

 

Ds who struggles with writing is listening to Analysis & Critique and claims to be learning things 

 

We did WW 1 & 2 with TTC but I'll have to look up which ones they were. We all enjoyed them. 

 

We have Top 10 Hubble images for a fun one right now. The prof loves his work and loves the HST and does a good job of explaining it. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

We found him fun! He told some funny stories and explanations and was so excited about the tv show Numb3rs (imagine! a show where a mathematician is the hero!)  It was a good intro to the subject for dd and she aced intro to stats in college after it.... 

 

 

 

I will have to give Meaning from Statistics another try - I know at the time I looked at it, I thought dd wouldn't be ready. But I'll look again!

[Brad S]

Anything by Vandiver is great (although I don't think I used her mythology one due to cost and not being available at library).  If you have to narrow it down, I think that the Illiad and Odyssey ones would probably be more beneficial than the full Herodotus set (maybe just the first 4 lectures of Herodotus would be enough), for example.  Aldrete's History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective is also excellent and was perhaps my DS's favorite.

 

The only one we ever returned was Algebra 1 by Sellers; IMO only useful for an adult who wants to gain a superficial reaquaintance with algebra without much work.

 

IMO "Great Mythologies of the World" was dreadful.  I could not stand the first professor, who seemed to be just telling a story about myths rather than a solid academic presentation: I think of it as "myths about myths."  YMMV.  I did not listen to the following two or so professors.

 

I enjoyed "Early Christianities" myself and thought it was well done, but we didn't use it with DS because there's so much else to do with him.

[katilac]

We loved the following:

 

 The Art of Reading. We all really liked Professor Spurgin's presentation, it was a good introduction to close reading, and it piqued interest in a variety of works - youngest dd read War and Peace after watching. He's not flashy but we fan girled him pretty hard, my kids clapped at the end of each lecture and counted down the last few with sadness, lol. FYI, his other course, The English Novel, was clearly his first  :laugh: and, while it is worthwhile, he is much more awkward and less engaging in it. 

 

Analysis and Critique, Dorsey Armstrong. Good lecturer, clear presentation of topics, good information. We would definitely buy another one of her courses. 

 

Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century, Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius. Clear and understandable presentation of complicated material. Very organized. Professor Liulevicius is adorable  :001_tt1: we would buy another one of his courses and have his babies. 

 

Birth of the Modern Mind, Alan Kors. We didn't love the way he talked, kind of a Jersey accent, but we got used to it and very much enjoyed the lectures. A great overview of many of the ideas and people of the Enlightenment. 

 

How to Become a Superstar Student, Michael Geissen, is a good overview of note taking, study habits, etc. Junior high or early high school, although I may have my rising junior watch it again as we have it. I thought his style was a bit much but my kids thought he was very funny and engaging. 

 

We had less luck with the math and science, nothing we have loved. 

 

We had a complete fail with Ancient Civilizations, Kenneth Harl. Interesting information and a topic we like, but the man spoke soveryfast that we couldn't understand him (monotone as well, it was like he was racing through it as fast as possible). 

[SilverMoon]

DS/11th adored his Vandiver lectures! He also really enjoyed the Canterbury Tales series, Augustine, Daileader medieval trio, pretty much anything for ancient or middle ages.

 

DD/10th's favorite has been Food: A Cultural and Culinary History.

 

All of us have enjoyed parts and pieces of the large literature collections. Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, Classics of American Literature, Shakespeare, etc.

 

I've been listening to Joy of Science lately and rather enjoy it. (Humanities mom attempting to keep up with STEM geek middle schoolers)

[Lawyer&Mom]

The Cathedral with William Cook. Who knew there are so many gorgeous cathedrals?

[Pronghorn]

American Religious History is what my daughter loves best. The professor is interesting and "has a cool accent."

[Penelope]

I really enjoyed Mathematics, Philosophy, and the Real World. I am not sure most high school students would, though. This was on my own. I also really enjoyed Cary's Luther course, and Holy Land Revealed.

 

Anything Vandiver is good.

 

There have been a bunch I listened to and did not think were very good. One recently is Scientific Secrets for a Powerful Memory.

 

The Rise of Hitler's Empire and History of the U.S. are very good and very accessible for students. I have liked all of the history-related ones I have ever listened to, though (Greek, Roman, American, medieval, religious history). Of course they are limited because of the format (Great Courses lecturers tend to repeat themselves a lot in the lectures and sometimes skim the surface more than I would like as an adult learner, which makes them good for high school IMO) but for most of them I haven't treated them like a course and done all the recommended readings, either.

 

Greenberg's intro to music course is one the whole family can listen to and get something from.

[yvonne]

My daughter and I are enjoying some of the lectures in "Turning Points in American History" alongside her US history course. That's our latest find.

We enjoyed listening to some lectures from Rufus Fears' "Famous Greeks" alongside the reading she was doing in Plutarch's Lives. We like Rufus Fears's focus on biographies as a way to study history.

Edited March 17, 2016 by yvonne