Comments on The Teaching Company

• The Teaching Company
• Posted by Susan , Campus Head Librarian at Suffolk County Community College on January 15, 2010 at 8:30am EST

• There are many people especially in the baby boom generation who are not plugged in to downloading and don't frequent sites like YouTube. Many people commute great distances and need something to listen to. So I think there is still a market for the Teaching Company. They have not lowered their standards and have a very high quality content.

• Access Teaching Company at your Local Library
• Posted by RPM on January 15, 2010 at 9:00am EST

• Numerous Teaching Company products are available in my local library system. Marketing to libraries may not be in TC's business model...but next time you get a sample CD in the mail, check with your library. If they don't have it, and you want it for yourself and others, request that it be added to the collection. It appears that TC courses are in constant circulation at my my library.

• Great selection and flexible use
• Posted by Denise on January 15, 2010 at 9:30am EST

• My husband has ordered many, many tapes and DVDs from The Teaching Company. He also gets the companion books and lecture notes that come with them and incorporates the information into the classes he teaches.

  He watches them while on the treadmill and listens to them (especially the music lectures) on his portable DVD while commuting to and from work. He has also watched them while flying. Putting the content on YouTube or some other online platform might be valuable for some, but doesn't provide the flexibilty that a DVD can.

  And The Teaching Company puts their courses on sale throughout the year, so you can often get a great deal. It's not free, but sometimes free is not worth it.

• More than just listening and watching
• Posted by John Farley , Professor of Physics, Dept of Physics and Astronomy at UNLV on January 15, 2010 at 11:00am EST

• There's more involved in education than just listening and watching to a tape, DVD, or lecture. If that's all that education amounted to, then consider the following alternative:
  why not skip the classroom and just read the textbook? After all, the textbook conveys the same information as the lecture, videotape, DVD, etc. (If "textbook" sounds awfully old-fashioned, then call it "hard copy". )

  Real education means getting the students involved. Listening to a large-enrollment lecture is a passive activity. That's why the use of clickers has been shown to improve student learning.

• Posted by Jwhiz on January 15, 2010 at 12:00pm EST

• 1. Replying to John Farley, I consider myself to fail as a teacher if my lectures do not give the students something that is NOT in the textbook ( I teach music history, not physics).
  2. Seconding many previous comments, I find The Teaching Company's CDs especially well suited to long drives. I use them for fields other than my own, and often wonder how I'd feel about a series in a field I actually know something about.

• Good while knitting, etc.
• Posted by MeToo on January 15, 2010 at 12:30pm EST

• Glad to see that others support The Teaching Company's output. I listened to a literature series while on the treadmill, enjoyed a great series on DVD on geology, benefited from a lengthy series on intro to music while knitting and doing floor exercises, and am now enjoying one on The Confessions of St. Augustine. I spend too many hours each day in front of the computer and certainly would not want to torture myself with any more time on pleasurable learning via the PC. So, Teaching Company: bash on!

• Teaching Company Excellence
• Posted by Tom , Library Director at Kaplan University on January 15, 2010 at 1:45pm EST

• I also am devoted to the Teaching Company. They send me at least one catalog a week and I'm not sure I have bought enough to cover their postage. They do pick excellent teachers. Most of them have won awards for teaching and I think this is one of their strengths which can hold up in the online competition. Their courses hang together very well. I only get the audio, never the video, since I only listen to them in the car. My commute is very short now, 10 minutes, but it is amazing how much you can learn in that short amount of time and how much you retain from session to session. And it is easy to backtrack and repeat sections. Maybe, they would be comparable to the radio versus TV format difference and take on the strength of the radio.

• A few problems with The Teaching Company
• Posted by Laura Hoopes , Professor of Biology at Pomona College on January 15, 2010 at 2:00pm EST

• I've bought a couple of this company's products on sale and they are very much what is advertised. But they seem to me out of touch with today's university/college methods and ideas. Almost no diversity exists among their professors,essentially all older white males. Today's faculty includes the perspectives of younger professors, women and people of color.
  Also, many studies have shown students learn a great deal more via active learning, involving the students in trying to think through issues and problems during the class. I didn't see any evidence of such active learning in the programs I received. Their format would make this difficult but not impossible to include. Perhaps since there's no exam, the company doesn't need maximum learning so they omitted this aspect.

• More portable...and repeatable
• Posted by Beth on January 15, 2010 at 2:00pm EST

• I listen to the lectures (many on CASSETTE tape) when traveling. I have an iPod, I use computers and high speed internet regularly, and have used Open Yale. I am a HUGE fam of lynda.com. But these are easier to use for a 5-10 hour drive across the Midwest. Easier to replay and use over and over. Easier to pass on to friends and family. And cheap -- I sometimes buy them used online or at Half Price Books. Don't need an internet connection or laptop to access, update, or change them. I keep them in Ziplocs on the passenger seat. Low tech ain't so bad sometimes.

• TTC vs. iTunesU
• Posted by George on January 15, 2010 at 3:30pm EST

• I too have listened to several TTC courses. I think that, given the potential limitations of a recorded course (as others have already noted), they do a fantastic job.

  I do expect them to survive for several reasons, even competing with free lectures offered elsewhere. (a) There is a difference between lectures and a carefully constructed, cohesive course. TTC supplies the latter. iTunes, youtube, et al. tend to provide more of the former. (b) By virtue of its format, TTC content starts with the assumption of a non-responsive audience, zero class interaction. This changes presentation considerably from a podcast and can make it more rather than less effective in the commuter environment which they target. (c) TTC is not exactly in the dark ages technologically. They do offer content in MP3 format from their website, often at a steeply discounted rate. (d) For better or for worse - and I am have mixed feelings here - TTC has embraced the idea of education as the marketing of a commodity called specialized knowledge. In other words, I see them sharing cultural space with the University of Phoenix and its kin, but with a more rounded curriculum. I think the market for such knowledge is unlikely to dim.

  All that said, I do appreciate TTC. Professionally, I have found it valuable to hear colleagues lecture and expand my knowledge of adjunct fields. Personally, I think it is a great way for people who love to learn about things to channel the ghost of Solon, "to grow old while always learning".

• Teaching CO vs. "Free" formats
• Posted by Mark , N/A at N/A on January 16, 2010 at 10:45pm EST

• As a PhD that never did find a teaching job, I enjoy listening to TC tapes during my hour long commute to and from my job. The advantages of the CD/DVD versions is they come with course booklets that include outlines and additional reading. As for the professors, I've either been personally taught by them (Daniel Robinson was a Georgetown prof when I was an undergrad) or I'm often intimately familiar with their monographs (if American historians). It's the additional reading that's key for me, since it gives me a reason to order some books and stay in touch with my field. I don't know if "free" versions could ever provide that level of service to spark further exploration.

• The Teaching Company
• Posted by Jonathan Phillips on February 1, 2010 at 5:30am EST

• I definitely have purchased lectures from the Teaching Company. They've had the best product out in the market for years. Superior teaching + interesting topics + high production quality = a darned good product. As for not being online??? They offer downloads in both MP3 and Audiobook formats - great for iPODs or streaming from your computer.

  All of their teacher and their topics are carefully chosen. I've answered several of their surveys and I'm glad I did, because I got exactly the course I wanted.

  As for their pricing and the free lectures offered by others such as iTunesU, TTC has nothing to worry about yet. I'm not even sure they're trying to compete with each other to be honest. iTunesU effectively offers an individual a chance to audit a class. However, TTC is not reproducing a classroom environment. There are no questions from the audience and the lectures while not exactly read are clearly scripted.

  If you haven't listened to a lecture from TTC you should. Guaranteed you'll come out believing that no one does it better - yet.

• questionable choice of teachers and ridiculous pricing
• Posted by doug chapman on February 4, 2010 at 1:00pm EST

• I've watched and listened to some of TTC's offerings. The prices (at least for some of Filippenko's lectures) are absolutely ridiculous and arbitrary. Education is a business, and that's deplorable too, especially when it's marketed as something more. One of the Google video lectures even shows Filippenko biting off the head of a student who brought a video recorder to class. But today I was shocked to find that the Great Ideas of Philosophy series was being "taught" by a psychologist--Daniel Robinson--and I couldn't get through the first lecture. He begins with Minos and the Minotaur, and all I could think about was how this guy is half man and half bull. Honestly...it seems all we're producing any more are talking heads.

• Posted by Howard on June 4, 2010 at 11:00am EDT

• I have personally bought many many classes from the Teaching Company. So far I have learned a lot, enjoyed the classes and am a satisfied customer. I also watch and listen to many of the other online classes. (I think Berkeley may be the best, but there are certainly others.) I have found the Teaching Company to be complete and professional presentations. The written materials are extremely useful and also complete. (I admit that I buy the recommended books and generally keep up with the reading as I move through the course.) The online freebies do not provide nearly as much information (Yale Open classes being the exception.) I have emailed professors for the syllabus, but that is truly a hit or miss proposition. I personally hope that the Teaching Company can continue to make a go of it.

• Lovely Products :)
• Posted by David on June 24, 2010 at 1:30pm EDT

• Some time ago, I bought the original VHS version of Daniel Robinson's "The Great Ideas of Philosophy" for next to nothing on Ebay. I fell in love with the course and have since bought many Teaching Company courses, both used and new and including courses in quantum mechanics, calculus, music, religion and philosophy, etc. Some are better than others, but all are worth owning. My mind has been expanded by these courses and they have become a habit.

  Driving to a college, finding parking space and sitting in a classroom in uncomfortable chairs is not very attractive at this stage of my life (63). I also want to be stimulated by the instructors to want to learn their subject. This doesn't happen very often in the normal college setting. Most Teaching Company teachers are the best in their field and the classes hold your attention.

• Teaching Co. DVD's helped me
• Posted by Student , student on June 24, 2010 at 3:45pm EDT

• I found The Teaching Co. DVD's at my local library, and they were a God send!

  Not everyone is lucky enough to have good college professors. I had one in particular that was a lecturer and not a teacher. His method of teaching was reading the examples straight from the book. This is no way to learn Chemistry! I saw the DVD's in the library one day and checked them out. Whenever we came across something that I was having trouble understanding, I watched the disc and I was able to learn the concepts and apply them to the book and what we were doing in class. I must have watched the segment on balancing chemical equations four times!

  I also used the Statistics DVD series and plan to use the Anatomy and Physiology courses. My view is to use these in addition to going to class to get further understanding of concepts that I'm having trouble grasping. Also the repetition is helpful for memorization. I love these DVD's, and I love using them for free by going to the library.

• Quality is the Difference
• Posted by Jack , Undisclosed at Undisclosed on September 15, 2010 at 4:15pm EDT

• The discussion here is interesting. The one thing that can make the Teaching Company thrive is if it consistently offers better and more inspiring teaching from that offered elsewhere.

  Since education should teach critical thinking, i.e. the ability to examine concepts without being swept up in them, it's shocking to read here how many educators seem to lack critical thinking.

  The Teaching Company lectures can supplement reading, and inspire reading, and help to elevatte the teaching experience above what is available in many classrooms and lecture halls.

  What's missing is the opportunity for cogent, focused discussion and for learning to write coherently on the topics developed in the courses?

  Unfortunately, too, the mastery that people gain through the Teaching Company lectures can not be credentialed since there is no credentialing structure for most of the topics explored outside of the tuition funded classrooms of conventional and potentially archaic universities.

• great courses: should be online
• Posted by paul on November 8, 2010 at 1:15pm EST
• I found the teaching company about 5 years ago when I went back to school to study nursing I bought their anatomy dvd's. While I don't think it was a total substitute it gave me such a good overview I think it helped alot with making me ace my anatomy class. I bought a few classes and recently just picked up some cheaper $20 courses. I do wish they would go online though. I would have no problem paying like $20 a month for access to what is a very large selection of courses now and probably alot more money would come in to them if they did that. Instead of people going on e-bay because the cost is too high for some of their bigger courses or not on sale items.

• excellence
• Posted by Bill Anderson at self-employed on March 18, 2011 at 4:00pm EDT
• For many years I have listened to/watched the Teaching Company lectures. I have yet to find a single one I didn't think was worth the money. They are all superb. That is, if one is open to teaching and learning.
  
  My particular favorite lecturer is Robert Greenberg, the composer, teacher, musicologist. He is about as gifted as a teacher can be: tremendous knowledge of his and related fields, wonderful passion for his and others' works, ability to magically interweave music with the societal context of the time, personal "openness", gentle affection for contemporary pop culture, and his extraordinary sense of humor, which is good enough probably for him to make a living as a stand-up comedian. Start with him and you will be hooked on music, Greenberg, the Teaching Company, and the appreciation of life itself.