Category Archives: YouTube courses

Prospecting for free courses in France, Germany & Israel

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

It seems like there are more free courses on the web every day. Here are a few non-English resources that I have been exploring recently. Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany (website) Most of these free video courses are in German, … Continue reading →

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NYU rolls out free course on Ancient Israel

Posted on December 30, 2011 by

New York University recently began rolling out a new addition to its free open education courses on its YouTube channel. The new arrival is Ancient Israel (YouTube) taught by Daniel Fleming. So far NYU has posted only six lectures from … Continue reading →

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Introduction to Behavioral Economics

Posted on September 15, 2011 by

What happens when a bunch of psychologists try to investigate the assumptions about human behavior that underlie the discipline of economics? You get Behavioral Economics, a fascinating mix of economics and psychology explored in the new UC Berkeley class Economics … Continue reading →

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Harvard, MIT & Stanford introduce computer science to the world

Posted on September 4, 2011 by

In the 1970s I worked for a few years as a computer programmer, writing applications in the now obsolete COBOL language on an IBM mainframe that had a whopping one megabyte of memory. It was clearly the stone age of … Continue reading →

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Of tea parties and revolutions

Posted on July 10, 2011 by

Many Americans have the vague notion that the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a dispute over high British taxes on tea. And we all hate paying taxes, right? But as with many historical events that we think we know … Continue reading →

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin: a book that changed history

Posted on May 17, 2011 by

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the rare novel that changed the world. Published in 1852, the book brought the human cost of slavery to the attention of Americans, who by and large preferred not to think about … Continue reading →

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Russia: Empire to Revolution

Posted on March 8, 2011 by

For a brisk, informative introduction to the history of the Russian Empire, check out the Vanderbilt University short course Russia: Empire to Revolution (website, iTunes, Youtube) taught by historian Frank Wcislo. This series of five lectures is from a continuing … Continue reading →

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A great human biology course

Posted on February 8, 2011 by

If you like your science spiced with drama, Robert Sapolsky is the professor for you. In his Stanford University course Human Behavioral Biology (iTunes), he serves up nature in all its gory glory, and narrates the tale of scientific breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic podcasts, Biology, Courses, Five-star professors, Health, iTunesU, Science, YouTube courses | Tagged , | 7 Comments

The Star-Spangled Banner

Posted on December 30, 2010 by

Some things about “The Star-Spangled Banner” you probably didn’t know: 1. The Star-Spangled Banner is a poem originally entitled “Defense of Fort McHenry” and it has 3 additional stanzas which are seldom sung. 2. The difficult, almost unsingable melody was … Continue reading →

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DIY Scholar’s top 10 courses for 2010

Posted on December 24, 2010 by

My favorite courses for 2010: 10. History of the Byzantine Empire (feed), Matthew Herbst, UCSD Historian Matthew Herbst is a masterful lecturer who combines vast knowledge of his subject with dramatic delivery. He answers questions like these: How did the … Continue reading →

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