I’ve seen ads for The Teaching Company. It looks like things I’d be interested in. Has anyone bought products from them?
I’m specifically interested in hearing comparisons of their DVDs vs CDs. The DVDs cost more obviously. Is the visual content worth the extra cost? I’m also considering the fact that I’d be most likely to use these in my car which would make CDs the better choice. So are the audio-only versions okay or are they really dependant on the visual material?
I’d also like to hear recommendations for any specific titles.
From the few DVDs I’ve seen, they add precisely nothing to the value of the lecture. When listening to the CDs, there is the occasional “Look at this!” moment, but 99.99% of the time, it’s not a problem. The only exception I can think of would be a series of lectures on art, which might be a little challenging without pictures of paintings etc.
My favourite title is The Origins of Life which was challenging, but really needs the listener to have a bit of a chemistry background
Looking at some of the descriptions I was leaning towards that conclusion. I saw a series of lectures on Beethoven for example in which the DVD version included 50 images. But it was eight lectures that are 45 minutes long apiece. That works out to seven minutes per image - not exactly a visual cornucopia.
I see some of the art and mathematics subjects are only available on DVD for this reason.
It sounds like we have similar interests. I’m looking at historical subjects. But I’ll admit I plan on going with one of the titles that are currently on sale. The company apparently rotates its complete inventory through sales each year.
Yes, I’ve listened to and watched many Teaching Company courses.
Always buy on sale. You’ll find that once you become a customer, you’ll also receive plenty of special offers with other courses which are on sale in addition to the ones that are on the website.
In the catalog and website, there is usually plenty of information about how the DVD version is enhanced. For most of the older courses, there isn’t enough visual content to make a difference. These courses were originally sold on VHS and were very expensive. Libraries were the main customers for these VHS sets.
Since the advent of DVD technology, the Teaching Company has produced several courses which are designed to be watched on DVD. These are mainly science and art courses.
One thing to also consider is MP3 download versions. These are usually 10-15 dollars cheaper than the CD version.
There is a book which comes with each course. For most of the older courses, these will reproduce maps which are shown on the screen in the dvd version. The course books are quite useful because they will give a summary of each lecture.
Many libraries have Teaching Company courses. You might try there. Also, their website will usually have a free course you can listen to.
I got a catalog yesterday, and a lot of science courses are 75% off right now. Might be a good time to sample. They always have something at a huge discount; makes me wonder if anyone pays full price.
I discovered these at my local library a couple of years back and absolutely love them. the quality of the lectures can vary substantially (as one might expect, not all professors are created equal). It had actually never occurred to me to buy one though the sale prices are such that I might if there’s a particularly fun topic that the library is missing.
I’ve listened to several that I’ve bought cheap off ebay. In my experience, they range from quite good indeed to rambly and tedious. My favorite series, of those I’ve listened to, is Patrick Grim’s on Questions of Value.
As to the CD vs. DVD issue, I think that, unless watching a person talk helps you focus on what they’re saying, the audio-only version is just as good whenever it’s available.
For what it’s worth, one competitor to the Teaching Company is the Modern Scholar. Some of these are available from Audible.com, and some have been repackaged and sold by Barnes & Noble as their “Portable Professor” series, though it looks as though they may be discontinuing them: only a few are still available through the B&N website, and those few are deeply discounted. Anyway, of these, I’ve enjoyed series by Michael Drout, Deborah Tannen, and Frances Titchener, and there are several others I hope to get around to listening to soon; they’re a worthy competitor to The Teaching Company.
I’ve listened to several, and found some winners and some losers. Ancient Egypt was probably my favorite, and I ran across one or two Ancient Rome ones that were great as well. The one I tried about Ancient Greece was terrible, though. Vague, I know. Sorry.
I’ve listened to over 40 liberal arts courses, and I’ve got some DVDs on technical stuff, but I don’t watch them as I do other things when at home in front of a TV with others. I listen to them while driving and sitting in traffic. I have lent them to people who cannot tolerate listening this way because it is distracting.
I love them. They make me a much better educated annoying know it all than I was when I started. And I was pretty bad before I started. So beware. Even I find me annoying at times.
You have nothing to lose. Pick a favorite subject and listen while driving and argue with the tapes. It is the best thing next to sex.
I’ve been listening to them regularly since 1999 while driving. I don’t know anything about the visual ones, since I don’t have time to watch them. If your car has a cassette player, buy the versions on cassette rather than on CD. They are about a third cheaper on cassette than on CD. That makes no sense, since it’s actually cheaper to manufacture CD’s than cassettes, but that’s the way it is. It doesn’t make any sense either that music CD’s are more expensive than the comparable cassettes. Of course, you should always buy only the courses that are currently on sale. Each course is on sale once a year. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either.
I don’t know what to say about recommending particular courses. Some professors are a little better than others. I think it depends on what teaching styles you like and what subjects you like, so I don’t think my preferences would be relevant.
I think the cassette versions are cheaper because they were produced years ago. So, they’re selling off old inventory. You’ll notice that most catalogs will have a ‘last time on cassette’ mention for some courses. For the past year or so, the audio download has been the same as the cassette version.
I went with the CD version of Lost Christianities and the DVD version of History of Hitler’s Empire. Two subjects that interest me (and I’ve read Ehrman’s book) that were lower priced so I figured they’d be good to check out the series and compare the formats.
I bought a couple of those when I saw them on sale at B&N: One God, Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Frank Peters and Six Months That Changed the World: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. I highly recommend Peters’ work. But MacMillan’s isn’t all that good - she repeats herself frequently and often gets sidetracked.
But thanks for telling me that B&N was discounting the line. I just hit the website and snapped up a bunch of them at $7.18 apiece.
If you get one Teaching Company course, go for John McWhorter’s History of Human Language or anything else by him for that matter. I’ve heard lots of Teaching Company courses, but this is the only one that I’ve actually gone back and heard over and over for the sheer pleasure of it.
Recently on Charlie Rose, Bill Gates talked about the courses. He said he loved Big History, which goes from the big bang to today, and gives him a framework on which to hang new things learned about the world. I’m intending to purchase next time it’s on sale.
I’m a huge fan of the Teaching Company, and I heartily recommend any of the music courses by Prof. Greenberg. He’s incredible: smart, enthusiastic, funny.
The course on Ulysses (the Joyce novel) was also wonderful.
I also like to listen to them while I drive. I’m very pleased with their quality in general, although some are clearly better than others. (I also recommend Kenneth Harl.) I prefer the cassettes to CDs, because I can rewind just 20 seconds of them, or whatever I’ve missed due to traffic situations. (I’ve never bought a DVD, because I don’t have time to watch them.) However, cassette players are headed the way of the dodo, so I’ve started to buy CDs. I thought of trying to burn mp3s, with lots of breaks so I get the best of both worlds, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
I’ve mostly concentrated on history and philosophy lectures, because I find those easily digestible in an auditory format. (I also have a Ph. D. in physics, so the science courses don’t have much appeal for me.) I’ve listened to (titles approximate):
The History of Philosophy (The Long Conversation)
Byzantine History
The History of the English Language
Great Minds of Western Civilization
St. Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Hellenistic Civilizations
World Religions (I found this one to be relatively weak. There is just too much to cover in any reasonable time period.)
Argumentation (This won’t help you win arguments with your wife. It might help in a trial, though.)
The Historical Jesus
I’ve bought, but not yet listened to,
Greco-Roman Civilization
The Emperors of Rome
The Early Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages