free Yale courses online

December 14, 2007 7:43 AM

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University:Astronomy, English, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies: a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video, syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets.

The lectures are available as downloadable videos, and an audio-only version is also offered. In addition, searchable transcripts of each lecture are provided.

posted by nickyskye (30 comments total)

Sounds great... if you want a Yale education.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:47 AM on December 14, 2007

Sounds better than a Harvard education:

A Harvard man and a Yale man are at the urinal. They finish and zip up. The Harvard man proceeds to the sink to wash his hands, while the Yale man immediately makes for the exit.

The Harvard man says, "At Harvard they teach us to wash our hands after we urinate."

The Yale man replies, "At Yale they teach us not to piss on our hands."

(shamelessly copied from this comment)
posted by grouse at 7:52 AM on December 14, 2007

Faint of Butt: Nope, just an education in philosophy. Whether it's from Yale or not is just a minor detail. :-)
posted by the cydonian at 7:58 AM on December 14, 2007

Well, cydonian, there's plenty of that at MIT.
posted by grouse at 8:03 AM on December 14, 2007

This the the point where the Caltech man notes that they didn't have to teach him not to piss on his hands.
posted by Upton O'Good at 8:04 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

And the Johns Hopkins guy notes that pissing on your hands might actually make them cleaner...because the problem is the fecal coliform bacteria coating your entire midsection, not piss.
posted by DU at 8:17 AM on December 14, 2007 [4 favorites]

Excellent. I was hoping to see a class by Harold Bloom (literature). Yale has more history majors than any other but sadly no history classes listed. Kind of unusual, most schools have more business/economics majors, history is not the typical undergrad choice unless you want to go into law (duh.. Yale Law School)
posted by stbalbach at 8:18 AM on December 14, 2007

And the guy from Hampshire has no idea this conversation is even taking place, because, stoned, he accidentally wandered into the janitor's closet instead of the bathroom, and he's engaged in an earnest dialog with a mop bucket and girl from Bard who made the same mistake. Later, they will have sex, but neither will actually remember anything about it except the mop bucket.
posted by dersins at 8:21 AM on December 14, 2007

DU: If that link were accurate then oral sex would be fatally toxic.
posted by rocket88 at 8:22 AM on December 14, 2007

If only there were a way to scroll down and see that very question being asked. Alas!
posted by DU at 8:26 AM on December 14, 2007

Washing your hands doesn't really matter if you're going to open the door on your way out, now does it?
posted by Crash at 8:27 AM on December 14, 2007

Well, if everyone washed them it would be OK....

But seriously--use the paper towel. Can these be adults that are so confused about how and when to wash your hands.

When: Any time you touch anything icky, plus maybe 2 or 3 times a day at a minimum anyway.
How: Thoroughly. With hot water. And soap.
posted by DU at 8:30 AM on December 14, 2007

I haven't watched the videos, but I highly recommend Charles Bailyn. When I was there for undergrad, he taught the course we called "astrogut" -- astronomy for people who wanted an A. By the end of the semester, half the people in my class wanted to be astronomers. I was nearly seduced, myself.
posted by gurple at 8:45 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

... er, seduced by Bailyn's enthusiastic teaching and the fascinating subject matter, that is. Just to be clear.
posted by gurple at 8:50 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hey, I had a poetry course with Lanny Hammer years ago when I was in college. He was pretty great. This and the course on "Death" look really interesting to me, too ("There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?") -- thanks for the heads up.
posted by onlyconnect at 9:08 AM on December 14, 2007

Wish you could stream them. I wanted to watch one over lunch, but took me all lunch to download the thing.
posted by zeoslap at 10:11 AM on December 14, 2007

Great post. Thanks!
posted by RenMan at 10:17 AM on December 14, 2007

As grouse notes, this is really limited compared to MIT's OpenCourseWare. More than half of all the courses at MIT from engineering to the humanities are posted in their entirety.
posted by bumpkin at 11:06 AM on December 14, 2007

DU: If that link were accurate then oral sex would be fatally toxic.

No, it would increase the risk of death by the same level as not washing your hands. But only if people don't wash their genitals before Oral sex, which they probably do.
posted by delmoi at 11:33 AM on December 14, 2007

I know this is looking the gift horse in the mouth and all that, but it would be nice if they put their MP3s in the form of a podcast.

UC Berkeley has also been doing this somewhat, though it is nowhere near as comprehensive as MIT's courses, or as flexible as Yale's.
posted by Weebot at 12:08 PM on December 14, 2007

How about, just wash your hands all the time, constantly, compulsively. That way, none of the germs will ever get you. *scrub scrub scrub*.... What?
posted by MythMaker at 12:24 PM on December 14, 2007

Weebot, they do have podcasts. It's just a different kind of thing than the courses - less structure, as far as I can tell.
posted by bassjump at 1:30 PM on December 14, 2007

Great topic to post. Drat - I wish I'd thought of it. For more Ivy-covered or Bare-walled University Open Course Programs check out this Lifehacker post called Get a free college education online.

Onlyconnect, You may also like Thanatology.org as a resource for studying the Philosophy of Death & Dying.
posted by goml at 1:35 PM on December 14, 2007 [4 favorites]

grouse: I'd agree that this is limited in scope compared to OCW, and also, the UI/navigation is rather irritating (wanted to jump straight into the coursework, instead of the lectures), but can I express some amount of hate for that building shown in your link. It's disgusting, and makes me think that not studying all this in MIT could be worthwhile afterall.

[Thanks for the link, anyway! ;-) ]
posted by the cydonian at 7:18 PM on December 14, 2007

But only if people don't wash their genitals before Oral sex, which they probably do.

Huh? Seriously?
posted by miss tea at 5:17 AM on December 15, 2007

As grouse notes, this is really limited compared to MIT's OpenCourseWare.

I never understood all the hype about MIT OpenCourseWare. If I'm not wrong, it's just a collection of class syllabi and assignments, which you can find at pretty much every university website. At least the Yale thing has actual videos of lectures.
posted by pravit at 10:07 AM on December 15, 2007

pravit: You're wrong. But you're right about it not being available for every class.

But I wasn't trying to put down Yale's offering. Only trying to address the cydonian's request for an education in philosophy, specific university be damned.
posted by grouse at 10:13 AM on December 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is why we have contacts, as otherwise I would have missed this wonderful post. Thanks so much nickyskye.
posted by caddis at 6:37 PM on December 15, 2007

Sorry, am I missing something? These courses are available now and not past, as the dates indicate?
posted by etaoin at 7:56 PM on December 15, 2007

Never mind, I was looking at the wrong thing...
posted by etaoin at 8:04 PM on December 15, 2007