# "The Teaching Company": Anybody ever buy any of these CDs/DVDs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038 "2010-01-07T16:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/1 "2010-01-07T16:13:06Z")
About once or twice a year, I get a catalog in the mail from some company called “The Teaching Company”, offering “Great Courses” on CD or DVD. These appear to be college-level courses, covering a wide variety of topics - religion, history, science, math, music, literature, etc. Along with the catalog they send a CD containing a couple of sample lectures. (And yes, as you can probably guess, another one came in the mail this week.) Has anybody ever ordered anything from these guys? What did you think? I’ve listened to the sample CDs a couple times and yeah, they’re interesting, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to fork over a chunk of change (most are in the $60 range for a set of DVDs) for an entire set of discs that I’m likely to not even finish watching or listening to. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/2 "2010-01-07T16:20:00Z")
I do generally like them, though I’ve seen or listened to a few clunkers. I’ve either purchased them from Ebay or borrowed them from the public library, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/3 "2010-01-07T16:24:15Z")
I have most of their DVDs and set aside a budget to continue buying whatever new ones they come out with. You are correct that you have to be committed to watching them to get your money’s worth. If you’re the type of person that enjoyed listening to professors while you were sitting in college class, their products will work for you. If you’re the kind that prefers glitzy fancy CGI graphics History Channel Discovery Channel MythBusters type of production to teach biology, the Teaching Co materials will bore you. They are great for people who want to listen to something during the commute to work besides NPR or morning radio. They are also very popular with home schoolers. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/4 "2010-01-07T19:05:31Z")
I’ve borrowed several from the library. While the information given seems to be of high quality, there is a big difference in my enjoyment/edification factor depending on the instructor. The first set I watched had Professor John Hale who I loved - I would have sat through as many of his lectures as he cared to give. Others had less interesting (or downright annoying) instructors who made it hard for me to want to continue the course. Certainly they are worth looking into, but I don’t think I would buy one without watching at least one lecture to make sure I could tolerate the instructor’s syle. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/5 "2010-01-07T19:25:37Z")
I have “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music”. I have listened to the first eight or so parts, and I don’t particularly like them. It’s just one guy’s idea of what “great music” is, he seems to be excessively interested in the role of the Catholic church in early music, and, I don’t know, his arguments don’t seem especially convincing. And the presentation seems a bit faux academic, too, with audience applause that you soon realise is canned, because it is the same on every installment. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/6 "2010-01-07T20:12:59Z")
I have a few of them, many great, a few clunkers. I picked up the on on Consciousness, which almost made me run off the road due to boredom. I generally like the history courses, but my favorite was on the history and development of jazz. ---
**Author:** ![Clare\_de\_Loone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/clare_de_loone/32/3407_2.png) [@Clare\_de\_Loone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clare_de_Loone)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/7 "2010-01-07T20:13:57Z")
My mother borrowed some from a friend and liked them enough to order them as Xmas presents. I’m the, ah, proud recipient of Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life CDs. I haven’t dug into it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/8 "2010-01-07T20:19:26Z")
I’ve watched a few of the science ones. I really enjoyed the Astronomy overview by Alex Filippenko. The course on dark matter was also good. I took several courses in astronomy in University, but that was 25 years ago and the field has almost completely changed. The overview course helped me get back up to speed, and compared favorably to the original survey course I took in college. It’s essentially like auditing a university course. If you get a good professor, it’s got a lot of value. Get a bad one, and you’re wasting your time. In my limited experience with their product, The Teaching Company generally picks pretty good people to deliver the course material. I’d look for customer reviews specific to the courses you are thinking of taking. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/9 "2010-01-07T20:57:01Z")
Another vote in favor of these guys. Great value for time invested, though do pick your courses carefully. The history ones tend to be especially well done (audio tapes are a good medium for that). I often listen at the gym or on long drives. Most decent public libraries have several if you want to sample and dabble. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/10 "2010-01-08T04:11:50Z")
I’ve listened to several history ones. Some were great, some not so much. I’d be wary of paying full price for them if I didn’t know I’d really enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/11 "2010-01-08T04:32:52Z")
Never pay full price for any of their products. They rotate all of their sets through sales on a regular basis and everything is substantially discounted as least once each year. Some of my favorites: _Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights_ by John E. Finn _Early/High/Late Middle Ages_ by Philip Daileader _History of Ancient Rome_ by Garrett G. Fagan _Long 19th Century: European History from 1789 to 1917_ by Robert I. Weiner _Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication_ by Bart D. Ehrman As you can see, I favor historical topics. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/12 "2010-01-08T05:50:58Z")
I have listened to many of them over the past ten or eleven years. The level of teaching is pretty good in general. I only listen to them while I’m driving. I don’t have time to watch the DVD versions at home. As Little Nemo says, only buy the ones that are on sale at the time. Each of the sets is on sale once per year. They are about $35 for a course set that will last you about two weeks of driving to work and back. (I pass them on to other people in my family when I’m finished, so that I can feel that every tape gets a couple of uses.) If you are not the type that enjoys learning new things when you can fit it into your schedule, you probably won’t like listening to these tapes. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/13 "2010-01-08T06:14:39Z")
Coupla previous threads: [Has anyone bought products from The Teaching Company?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=499856) [The Great Courses](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=521454) (Yeah, **Ximenean** : the canned audience applause that begins and ends each lecture is really cheesy.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/14 "2010-01-08T06:14:48Z")
I confess that I’ve bought and listened to over 40 of them. I listen to them in the car on commutes and trips. I generally love them. Do not listen to the formal logic one when driving (Tools for Thinking). The few I’ve got on DVD for viewing I haven’t finished. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/15 "2010-01-08T06:55:53Z")
Any fans of the Teaching Company should know about this Web site: > **[AcademicEarth.org - Free Online Courses From Top Colleges](https://academicearth.org/)** > > Find free online courses, lectures, and videos from the best colleges in the country. Take online classes from schools like Yale, MIT and Stanford. Same premise, but free. Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/16 "2010-01-08T07:04:13Z")
My local library has a bunch of these lectures. > [@Ximenean](#): > > I have “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music”. I have listened to the first eight or so parts, and I don’t particularly like them. Try skipping to some of the later stuff, like Classical or Baroque. I borrowed that series from the library, but I found the early parts to be dull so I skipped ahead and then went back to some of them afterwards. I also skipped a few parts on opera. One of my teachers in high school wrote ad copy for the Teaching Company, and also served as part of the audience sometimes. He said a lot of their best customers were long-haul truckers. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/17 "2010-01-08T17:31:07Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Try skipping to some of the later stuff, like Classical or Baroque. I borrowed that series from the library, but I found the early parts to be dull so I skipped ahead and then went back to some of them afterwards. I also skipped a few parts on opera. Yes, I find the series well worth listening to, and Greenberg is both knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but he spends much more time than I’d like on early music and on opera. Greenberg’s short courses on the lives of individual composers are pretty good. > [@](#): > > He said a lot of their best customers were long-haul truckers. That doesn’t surprise me. I mentioned this in one of the other threads, but one competitor to the Teaching Company is [The Modern Scholar](http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=scholar.home). In my experience, their courses seem to be comparable in quality to the Teaching Company’s, and most of them are available on [Audible.com](http://Audible.com). I’ve enjoyed some of their courses by Michael Drout, Robert Dallek, Frances Titchener, Deborah Tannen, Alan Dershowitz, Peter Kreeft, and Timothy Shutt. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/18 "2010-01-08T17:47:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I mentioned this in one of the other threads, but one competitor to the Teaching Company is [The Modern Scholar](http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=scholar.home). In my experience, their courses seem to be comparable in quality to the Teaching Company’s, and most of them are available on [Audible.com](http://Audible.com). TMS is good but they don’t offer a lot science, math, and art (obviously) courses. Also, I suspect that many professors would not be comfortable in front of a camera and with TMS being audio only, it provides an alternative outlet for recording their lectures. I notice there is no overlap of professors between TMS and Teaching Company. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/19 "2010-01-08T18:27:07Z")
Any opinions on the math ones? The boyfriend and I would like to understand more of what math is all about (we’re, uh, liberal arts sort of people) and he noticed one about mathematical concepts in our _Archaeology_ magazine. We have a lot of them at the library, so I was going to grab some, but I was hoping somebody had a specific experience with the ones he’s interested in. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038/20 "2010-01-08T18:41:53Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Any opinions on the math ones? The boyfriend and I would like to understand more of what math is all about (we’re, uh, liberal arts sort of people) I’ve seen all the math ones. However, I don’t have a liberal arts background so I may not be on the same wavelength as you to recommend courses. Anyways, for liberal arts folks, you guys might like "[Mathematics, Philosophy, and the “Real World](Mathematics, Philosophy, and the Real World)” where the professor bridges ideas from math and humanities. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-teaching-company-anybody-ever-buy-any-of-these-cds-dvds/524038.md?page=2)