Announcing: Ordinary University
Starting tomorrow, we will be launching a new periodic feature to Ordinary Times: Ordinary University.
The thought behind OU is to drill down into academic topics in a non-confrontational manner, based more on communal learning than hashing out the Internet topic-of-the-day. In most cases the ones leading each course will be someone with a deep and professional knowledge about the subject matter; however, we will at times also have courses led by those with a desire to learn along with the community. As is our mantra here, those leading any particular courses will be given a wide latitude to proceed as they see fit.
Our first course, which will start tomorrow, will be on the American Presidency and will be taught by long-time commenter and returning contributor Dr. James Hanley. James is an associate professor of political science at Adrian College, and a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
It appears we already have another contributor who is planning a course on poetry starting in February; I will hold off saying more and leave you with that teaser for now.
I should note that in our perfect vision of OU, course leaders will not be restricted to regular contributors. So if you have a topic you would like to see covered — or if you know of someone not accosted with OT you would like to see us approach to teach a course — please let us know in the comment sections, or send me or one of the other editors an email.
Classes start tomorrow.
Follow Tod on Twitter, view his archive, or email him. Visit him at TodKelly.com
Do you want anything on theatre?
I am officially qualified to teach at the university level.Report
Don’t see why not. What specifically might you want to teach?Report
I’ll mull. I also take requests/suggestions from the gang. Kazzy wanted an essay on casting.Report
Can you teach an interactive improv theater class on-line? 😉
More seriously, I think a theater course could be cool.Report
I am not an improv guy. I’m slughtly perplexed by the improv renaissance that does not seem to end.
I will look at yours and see what I can do that is not a book club. This could be interesting.Report
ND,
My model shouldn’t necessarily restrict different approaches by others.
As to improv, I love it. Best class I took as an undergrad.Report
I vote for a course on set design. I always found the limited space management and sight lines and whatnot to be a fascinating geospatial problem.Report
Hey! You got math on my liberal arts!Report
Not just math, set theory.Report
Is this a symposium or a periodic feature, like the fiction feature (which, I’m sad to say, I haven’t been reading much of).Report
Pierre,
As I broached the idea to Tod, not a symposium. I have an actual syllabus, which will post tomorrow. But of course anyone else can offer a guest post on the topic being taught–all that takes is, I believe, Tod’s approval. E.g., if someone thinks I miss something important on the presidency (and I can’t cover everything), or has a post-length disagreement/alternative explanation, “guest lectures” would presumably be a legitimate guest post to offer.Report
If anyone would like me to cover any science/engineering/software topics in greater detail, please let me know. While I know the detailed subject matter can be dry, I do seem to have a talent for making it less so (at least, that is why my managers keep telling me when they ask me to take over training new employees).Report
Yes! I imagine one of the goals of OU will be to make the seemingly dry less so (or not dry at all). Your earlier post was great.Report
Thanks
Just let me know.Report
Likewise, I’d be glad to write about any math/software topics that might be of general interest.Report
You know you have at least one fan.Report
MRS, are you a Ham?
I’d really love to be able to distribute an online course designed to teach the basic physics and electronics you need to know to pass the technician’s exam.Report
I did the study for it, but the test times never worked for me, then it fell by thewayside, so I’ve never gotten a call sign.Report
What is our football team’s mascot? What conference are we angling for? The WAC probably would have taken us, but I’m not so sure anymore…
Anyway, I like the idea. I won’t be able to participate as much as I would like, but I hope it really works out.Report
The mascot will be revealed tomorrow.Report
Oops! Posted the answer, and then saw your comment.
I will say that the decision was made long ago.Report
I’ve got three or four poems that I’d love to explore. I don’t know that I can do it on a professional level, but I’ve got the passionate amateur thing down.Report
Could I teach robot sexuality?Report
Woohoo! Sexy robots! Just like all my favorite SciFi novels promised in the cover art!Report
Only if the robots have permission slips from their parents.Report
Sorry, I believe robosexuality is a sin and I don’t want The Children being exposed to that filth.
Oil, crankcases, pistons pumping; it’s all too much. I need to lie down just thinking about it.
[gets caught in a Motel 6, in a compromising position with a Roomba.]Report
I’ve been mulling over a guest post for some time now on global warming / climate change. A sort of primer on the subject particularly for the less science-minded that cuts through the political bs.
But maybe that’s too political anyway despite my intentions?Report
The topic has political implications, but the laying out of the spectrum of literature doesn’t.Report
What Patrick said. It’s all in how you approach it.Report
Something about the science would be both fascinating and worthwhile, even more so because the subject has been so politicized.Report
So how would this work? Would a course consist of a series of posts like James K.’s series on trade, for example?Report
Mine will be a series of 10-11 posts covering different aspects of the presidency, but all geared toward one general question about the institution.
But that’s just me. OU’s an amorphous thing right now, and will become whatever contributors come up with that meets the approval of Chancellor Kelly. I doubt anyone should feel compelled to follow my (really old-fashioned, stick-in-the-mud) model. (E.g., I think it would be cool if someone did video lectures along the lines of what Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok are doing at Marginal Revolution University. And for the record, I thought of OU a couple months before I stumbled across MRU; great minds think alike, I guess (*grin*).)Report
Ok… Well, I’ve never taught a course, obviously, but I’ve taken my share of them. I was originally going to draft a post that outlined the foundational science behind the whole AGW/GCC thing. My motivation is that I find that most people, regardless of which side the debate they’re on, tend to hold their positions for not the best of reasons. You may recall Murali’s post on that meta subject a few months ago.
I think my approach would be to explain the subject in such a way that my wife, a Mensa level intellect but unschooled in STEMy stuff, not unlike someone like our Newdealer, could get a decent grasp on the subject.
The legitimate political debate is about the societal response.Report
And I meant to add, I’m currently lacking the means (a laptop) to do this, but if I use part of my tax refund for that maybe by that time I’ll have some idea of how to go about it from your example.Report
Interestingly I was considering a post on the problem of inflammed rhetoric with a focus on environmentalism/climate change.Report
If you need any help with regard to systems modeling, let me know
madrocketsci@gmail.comReport
That would indeed be helpful. I’m pretty strong on the foundational physics and, to a lesser degree, chemistry and biology. But the modeling is where I start to take it on faith that they’re doing it close to right.
In fact, I’d be grateful and happy to make the whole thing a collaborative effort. If for no other reason than to have a decent reviewer keep me from embarrassing myself.Report
I took a graduate level course in Policy Analysis that I think the general commentariat might enjoy, but Nob/James are the actual political scientists, I just dabble.
A crisis management course might be interesting. Hm. Hmmmmm.Report
Patrick,
Maybe you, Nob and I collaborate on that at some point?
And a crisis management course would be great. I pitched a crisis management minor to my administration last year, and they seemed interested (which only means they were interested last year; we’ll see). However it’s not an area I personally know well, and I’d love to learn more.Report
Sure, for the collaboration. We used the Weimer book in my course, I liked it quite a bit but it’s slanted towards the, “Okay, you’ve decided to do an intervention” standpoint, and it basically doesn’t cover normative principles, just political economics, really. What’s your introductory text for that course?
As far as the crisis management goes, I can take four angles: crisis response organizations, organizations in crisis, management of crisis, or the psychology of crisis. They all tie in together, of course, it’s more a question of what you’d want the emphasis to be.Report
I don’t get to teach it anymore, since I made enviro politics a regular course, but I used Birkland, which is short, intelligent, and readable (a good combo for an undergrad class). It’s a process oriented book, but I’m a process oriented guy.Report
@james-hanley @patrick
Either of you done the CERT course?Report
I have, yes. Pasadena’s emergency preparedness is bad, but Altadena’s is really good; they have a very active CERT group with Hammies through the LA County Sheriff’s office (Pasadena more or less relies on LAFD’s CERT courses, which are taught downtown, but Altadena doesn’t have a police force and the sheriffs are right there, which helps).
If you’ve taken adult/child CPR with the Red Cross, the first aid part is pretty rudimentary. The triage training is really good, though. The fire suppression is fun, of course, and the USR training part was good for getting untrained and non-security-aware avergage Joes and Janes to think about how to clear a building without getting themselves into trouble.
I’m going to try and convince my employer to spring for the EMT I course at PCC for me.Report
The whole CERT program is pretty active up here in the Puget Sound (what with Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and the occasional nasty wind storm). I did it a few years back & try to stay pretty active with it (been hard since my son was born, just not enough time…). We also have a very strong workplace disaster response culture, with companies getting volunteers to keep supplies stocked & arrange regular training for employees.
It really is good for getting people to just think & prepare themselves for the short term emergencies, and to get trained in the basics.Report
I’ve done first aid/cpr, but not an actual CERT course. I think I’d enjoy it, though, so maybe I’ll look around for one. My county and town are, overall, really unprepared for dealing with emergencies. I had a student who did an internship with the relevant office here in town, and her reports were disheartening (although not surprising, given how little history of crisis we have and how cash strapped we are right now).Report
@james-hanley
Check with your local Fire Department, they should know who offers the course, if they don’t.Report
Umm… when do I get my syllabus?Report
Tomorrow.Report
But I want to start the readings early! And I want to be able to decide whether I’m taking it pass fail before the deadline!Report
1. There are no tuition refunds if you drop.
2. There is no pass/fail option; we’ve found that with grade inflation failure is no longer an option, so the default grade is an A. Plagiarism or other violations of academic integrity will reduce your grade to a B+ (following the Harvard model).
3. For the over-achieving student, the first readings are Federalists 69 and 70, and Anti-Federalists 67, 70, and 74. Tomorrow I’ll provide links; today you’ll have to figure out how to use Google on your own.Report
Fishing virtual universities! How the hell are we supposed to occupy the administration building?Report
The free speech zone is between comments 101 and 150.Report
@mike-schilling
I think you, of all people, would be able to figure out how to invade and control the architecture of the virtual university. 😉Report