I'm interested in subscribing to 'The Great Courses Plus', which has a monthly subscription fee. Has anyone watched any of 'The Great Courses' lectures before? Which ones? Is it worth the price? Are the lectures in depth or do they dumb them down?
I have a wide variety of interests, which is why I'm considering getting the monthly subscription instead of purchasing courses one at a time. Anyone tried this?
Anonymous
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I really like the Great Courses overall. I borrow them from the library, for free. Some are more in depth than others (more lectures, obviously, more depth). Some are better than others depending on the professor. Make sure you read the description so you know what you're getting. Some of the short ones like "turning points in history" are too brief/truncated to bother. The ones that spend 24 lectures on a single topic are worth it. I recommend John W. Lee's 'The Persian Empire,' Dale Hoak's 'Age of Henry VIII,' John Renton's 'Nature of Earth.' I'm half way thorough Steven Strogatz's 'Chaos' right now. It's fascinating, more about the history than the math, but I'm enjoying it. My personal favorites are Edwin Barnhart's 'Lost Worlds of South America' and 'Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed.' I'm wary of some having to do with Biblical 'history' or American history, they tend toward propaganda, apologia, and bullsh!ttery... but that's the fault of the academic fields, not GC. Yes, they are worth the time/money.
Anonymous
haven t done the subscription, but have bought some videos
some are good
some are boring
I think most of them are not really designed for in depth learning
I think they re designed for people who want to have something to listen to while they commute to work
so most are not really in depth and are just geared towards casual listening
however some really require concentration
the neuroscience one is quite involved as is the one on electronics
you should visit a local library and see if they have any courses for loan (and sometimes a library can borrow from another library if they don t have it)
that way you can try them out before you subscribe
I got this DVD set on sale for $99 a while back and I think its awesome
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/theories-of-human-development.html
of course so much is available on youtube and edx and coursera that if you just want to watch something at home for free those might be better choices