The Great Courses Signature Collection Now Available Through Apple TV Channels

[name99]

This is not just absolutely false but dangerous as well. Sciences from anatomy to zoology have had many important changes in the past 20 years. I am sure that topics such as music theory and interpretation of classic literature have also changed as well.

Medicine textbooks are the most useless resources because they are out of date before they ship, and lectures more than a year or two old are often filled with errors. A 23 year old lecture about science is going to be filled with mistakes.

Spoken like someone who has never taken a series of university level science courses...
Please tell us what *important* has changed since 2000 in, eg anatomy, let alone thermodynamics, that would appear in a 101 level course.

Look, you can believe whatever nonsense you want how understanding the basics of a subject is equivalent to tracking leading edge changes that have only just appeared in journals. But as someone who actually knows something about these subjects, I feel an obligation to inform other readers that this opinion is considered ridiculous by at least one other person on earth.

 

[nt5672]

that's really interesting - i was going to comment that this company always seemed a little scammy and overpriced to me, based on where their magazine ads were placed and the tone of those ads. the VC/Hedge fund thing would go a long way toward explaining that.

The early content was very very good. Even subjects that a person was not interested in were presented in an interesting way. If you ever get a chance, try one of the old ones.

They had a full time crew that visited universities setting in on courses, interviewing staff and talking to students, identifying the best (most interesting and best story telling) professors. Then they worked with these interesting professors (not necessarily the most senior, the most well known, or the top of the field) to get courses that presented the material in an interesting way. They had their own recording studio, staff, producers, and editors. At the time professors had to be invited to participate and most that inquired were turned down. If you went to college you know why!

Their original target audience were people that just wanted to learn interesting things in a fun and interesting way. They never targeted cheap. After the sale the original founder stepped back and the cost accountants took over.

Haven't listened to any recent courses so can't comment on that.

 

[4jasontv]

Spoken like someone who has never taken a series of university level science courses...
Please tell us what *important* has changed since 2000 in, eg anatomy, let alone thermodynamics, that would appear in a 101 level course.

Look, you can believe whatever nonsense you want how understanding the basics of a subject is equivalent to tracking leading edge changes that have only just appeared in journals. But as someone who actually knows something about these subjects, I feel an obligation to inform other readers that this opinion is considered ridiculous by at least one other person on earth.

Well, besides the human intraosseous vascular bundles, comparative anatomy of organ descriptions involving the interstitium and mesentery, and unexpected rise in humans with significant median artery blood flow there are dozens of anatomical structures found within animals that have either chanced function or names in the past 20 years. Even at the gross level, there are still mammalian and non-mammalian structures that we don't understand what they do. Likely the most well reported but persistent error is the reporting of peroneus structures but make no mistake there are many more. It's bad enough that we don't have the resources to update teachers on all these details, but allowing out-of-date resources to be sold as new content is generally dishonest.

It would probably be better for most if we leave the dispersion of information to people that are concerned about lessons being factually correct instead of good enough for most low-level courses. Otherwise, we run the risk of thinking that knowing something makes one an expert with any sort of authority.

 

[FloatingBones]

I assume you like that? I was thinking about it, not very expensive

It's even a better deal if you get the offer that Rene Ritchie, MKBHD, or many others have. You get Curiosity Stream bundled with Nebula, and nebula hosts private video channels for many top-shelf tech bloggers.

 

[matrix07]

Would love to have Criterion Collection as an Apple TV channel. That's the only thing prevented me to subscribe to it at this point.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Would love to have Criterion Collection as an Apple TV channel. That's the only thing prevented me to subscribe to it at this point.

Speaking of film snobbery I used to collect all of their films and had all but a few. It got rather pricey.

 

[JoeShades]

It's even a better deal if you get the offer that Rene Ritchie, MKBHD, or many others have. You get Curiosity Stream bundled with Nebula, and nebula hosts private video channels for many top-shelf tech bloggers.

How do I get that?

 

[matrix07]

Speaking of film snobbery I used to collect all of their films and had all but a few. It got rather pricey.

Wow! Now you need to show me a photo of your collections.. ?

 

[iDento]

I assume you like that? I was thinking about it, not very expensive

I like it. It’s not expensive but I can’t seem to subscribe annually directly from the channel which is 20$ a year while you can do that with the app. With the channel you have to pay 2.99$ a month.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Wow! Now you need to show me a photo of your collections.. ?

Unfortunately, I can't show a pic. I sold my collection off in large lots a few years ago.

 

[PaloAltoMark]

I'm a heavy user of the Great Courses and own 39 video courses and 34 audio courses. For those interested, here's information and my perspective on the Great Courses

As others have commented, the company has made it very confusing for users by offering different ways of accessing the content -- The Great Courses, The Great Courses Plus, The Great Courses Signature Collection, Great Courses on Audible etc. The below refers to my experience using "The Great Courses", not the other variations.

• Most lectures are 30 minutes long and a typical course has 24-36 such lectures. There are a few that have 12 lectures and some that have as many as 48 lectures.
• Selection is enormous, art, music, science, history, philosophy, religion, literature, self help, technology. The range of courses is outstanding.
• Overall, I've found the content to be very, very good and equal to what one would get in a college level course at a good university. Of the 73 courses I've purchase, I only regret buying 3 of them.
• Full retail prices for the courses are usually $200-$500, but this is a price anchoring strategy to get you to believe that you're getting a great deal when they're on sale --- which is pretty much always. There is no reason to buy at full retail price. Wait and the course will be on sale soon enough. On sale you're more likely to pay $19-$69 for a course depending on whether it's audio or video and the number of lectures in the course. Realistically, you're paying about $1.50 per lecture, or put another way, $3/hour for entertainment. Cheap in my opinion.
• I think you'd be insane to buy the physical media (CD/DVD) nowadays. The "Instant Video" or "Instant Audio" options are less expensive and more versatile. You can steam these to your computer or iPad, or view them on your TV if you have Roku. Audio files get played on your phone or iPod or even on your computer if you desire.
• While I find it most convenient to stream video to my Roku, buying the "Instant Video/Audio" courses also give you the ability to download the files to your computer in MP3 and M4V format. I always do this. If at some point the Great Courses goes out of business, I still have access to the courses I've purchased. This is one upside to buying vs subscribing. Having said that, I think it's fair to say that there will be courses that you'll only enjoy once and I don't think you'll play any of them more than a few times in your lifetime.
• Almost all courses are offered in both audio and video formats. For some courses, the video format is a must. A course on the "Art of the Renaissance" isn't all that good if you can't see the artwork the lecturer is discussing. Likewise, there isn't a particularly good reason to buy "How to Appreciate Great Music" as a video course when the important content is all audio.
• While the content might make it critical to buy the Video version of the course, NONE of the video courses I’ve purchased really takes advantage of the visual format to present the materials. “Video” in this world means you see the instructor in front of a podium delivering the lecture with an image or video clip thrown in as if they were presenting off of a Powerpoint slide. This can be very dull and it is so much less than what it could be. My greatest criticism of the Great Courses is that they have their origins in tape and CD format and the company has never really learned how to make a great video course. Even a course like “Traveling to Greece and Turkey” which would greatly benefit from excellent visuals, is saddled with pretty pedestrian video and still photography.
• The lecturers are knowledgeable, but like many college professors, they are not necessarily gifted entertainers. This is most apparent in the videos. Some lecturers are clearly not comfortable on camera. Don’t expect these to be wildly entertaining. You will enjoy them and you will learn from them, but at times you’ll wish the lectures were more condensed or that the lecturer would be less idiosyncratic in their presentation.

The bottom line..... yes, I'd recommend the Great Courses. If you consider yourself a lifetime learner, listen to lots of TED talks, etc. you'll find these enjoyable.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I'm a heavy user of the Great Courses and own 39 video courses and 34 audio courses. For those interested, here's information and my perspective on the Great Courses

As others have commented, the company has made it very confusing for users by offering different ways of accessing the content -- The Great Courses, The Great Courses Plus, The Great Courses Signature Collection, Great Courses on Audible etc. The below refers to my experience using "The Great Courses", not the other variations.

• Most lectures are 30 minutes long and a typical course has 24-36 such lectures. There are a few that have 12 lectures and some that have as many as 48 lectures.
• Selection is enormous, art, music, science, history, philosophy, religion, literature, self help, technology. The range of courses is outstanding.
• Overall, I've found the content to be very, very good and equal to what one would get in a college level course at a good university. Of the 73 courses I've purchase, I only regret buying 3 of them.
• Full retail prices for the courses are usually $200-$500, but this is a price anchoring strategy to get you to believe that you're getting a great deal when they're on sale --- which is pretty much always. There is no reason to buy at full retail price. Wait and the course will be on sale soon enough. On sale you're more likely to pay $19-$69 for a course depending on whether it's audio or video and the number of lectures in the course. Realistically, you're paying about $1.50 per lecture, or put another way, $3/hour for entertainment. Cheap in my opinion.
• I think you'd be insane to buy the physical media (CD/DVD) nowadays. The "Instant Video" or "Instant Audio" options are less expensive and more versatile. You can steam these to your computer or iPad, or view them on your TV if you have Roku. Audio files get played on your phone or iPod or even on your computer if you desire.
• While I find it most convenient to stream video to my Roku, buying the "Instant Video/Audio" courses also give you the ability to download the files to your computer in MP3 and M4V format. I always do this. If at some point the Great Courses goes out of business, I still have access to the courses I've purchased. This is one upside to buying vs subscribing. Having said that, I think it's fair to say that there will be courses that you'll only enjoy once and I don't think you'll play any of them more than a few times in your life.
• Almost all courses are offered in both audio and video formats. For some courses, the video format is a must. A course on the "Art of the Renaissance" isn't all that good if you can't see the artwork the lecturer is discussing. Likewise, there isn't a particularly good reason to buy "How to Appreciate Great Music" as a video course when the important content is all audio.
• While the content might make it critical to buy the Video version of the course, NONE of the video courses I’ve purchased really takes advantage of the visual format to present the materials. “Video” in this world means you see the instructor in front of a podium delivering the lecture with an image or video clip thrown in as if they were presenting off of a Powerpoint slide. This can be very dull and it is so much less than what it could be. My greatest criticism of the Great Courses is that they have their origins in tape and CD format and the company has never really learned how to make a great video course. Even a course like “Traveling to Greece and Turkey” which would greatly benefit from excellent visuals, is saddled with pretty pedestrian video and still photography.
• The lecturers are knowledgeable, but like many college professors, they are not necessarily gifted entertainers. This is most apparent in the videos. Some lecturers are clearly not comfortable on camera. Don’t expect these to be wildly entertaining. You will enjoy them and you will learn from them, but at times you’ll wish the lectures were more condensed or that the lecturer would be less idiosyncratic in their presentation.

The bottom line..... yes, I'd recommend the Great Courses. If you consider yourself a lifetime learner, listen to lots of TED talks, etc. you'll find these enjoyable.

Excellent and informative posts that may help those who have never tried GC before.

 

[PaloAltoMark]

Excellent and informative posts that may help those who have never tried GC before.

Thanks Robert. I recognize your avitar and have read and learned from many of your posts in the past as well.

 

[MacBH928]

I'm a heavy user of the Great Courses and own 39 video courses and 34 audio courses. For those interested, here's information and my perspective on the Great Courses

As others have commented, the company has made it very confusing for users by offering different ways of accessing the content -- The Great Courses, The Great Courses Plus, The Great Courses Signature Collection, Great Courses on Audible etc. The below refers to my experience using "The Great Courses", not the other variations.

• Most lectures are 30 minutes long and a typical course has 24-36 such lectures. There are a few that have 12 lectures and some that have as many as 48 lectures.
• Selection is enormous, art, music, science, history, philosophy, religion, literature, self help, technology. The range of courses is outstanding.
• Overall, I've found the content to be very, very good and equal to what one would get in a college level course at a good university. Of the 73 courses I've purchase, I only regret buying 3 of them.
• Full retail prices for the courses are usually $200-$500, but this is a price anchoring strategy to get you to believe that you're getting a great deal when they're on sale --- which is pretty much always. There is no reason to buy at full retail price. Wait and the course will be on sale soon enough. On sale you're more likely to pay $19-$69 for a course depending on whether it's audio or video and the number of lectures in the course. Realistically, you're paying about $1.50 per lecture, or put another way, $3/hour for entertainment. Cheap in my opinion.
• I think you'd be insane to buy the physical media (CD/DVD) nowadays. The "Instant Video" or "Instant Audio" options are less expensive and more versatile. You can steam these to your computer or iPad, or view them on your TV if you have Roku. Audio files get played on your phone or iPod or even on your computer if you desire.
• While I find it most convenient to stream video to my Roku, buying the "Instant Video/Audio" courses also give you the ability to download the files to your computer in MP3 and M4V format. I always do this. If at some point the Great Courses goes out of business, I still have access to the courses I've purchased. This is one upside to buying vs subscribing. Having said that, I think it's fair to say that there will be courses that you'll only enjoy once and I don't think you'll play any of them more than a few times in your lifetime.
• Almost all courses are offered in both audio and video formats. For some courses, the video format is a must. A course on the "Art of the Renaissance" isn't all that good if you can't see the artwork the lecturer is discussing. Likewise, there isn't a particularly good reason to buy "How to Appreciate Great Music" as a video course when the important content is all audio.
• While the content might make it critical to buy the Video version of the course, NONE of the video courses I’ve purchased really takes advantage of the visual format to present the materials. “Video” in this world means you see the instructor in front of a podium delivering the lecture with an image or video clip thrown in as if they were presenting off of a Powerpoint slide. This can be very dull and it is so much less than what it could be. My greatest criticism of the Great Courses is that they have their origins in tape and CD format and the company has never really learned how to make a great video course. Even a course like “Traveling to Greece and Turkey” which would greatly benefit from excellent visuals, is saddled with pretty pedestrian video and still photography.
• The lecturers are knowledgeable, but like many college professors, they are not necessarily gifted entertainers. This is most apparent in the videos. Some lecturers are clearly not comfortable on camera. Don’t expect these to be wildly entertaining. You will enjoy them and you will learn from them, but at times you’ll wish the lectures were more condensed or that the lecturer would be less idiosyncratic in their presentation.

The bottom line..... yes, I'd recommend the Great Courses. If you consider yourself a lifetime learner, listen to lots of TED talks, etc. you'll find these enjoyable.

great post!
Would you say their courses are better listened to? I am interested in that. How would you say they compare to other services like Curioisty Stream, Udemy, or Master Classes? Especially in the quality of the content. I would rather get something at college level and not more like a premium YouTube video.

How would you say it will compare next to an audio book? I mean audio books are only $14 or so and they cover a lot of these topics maybe even in more detail?!

The prices are completely absurd and those severe discounted prices only makes the company look like a scam. Who would want to pay $400+ for a course and then finds it for $30 on sale? I feel sorry for those who paid full price.

 

[name99]

great post!
Would you say their courses are better listened to? I am interested in that. How would you say they compare to other services like Curioisty Stream, Udemy, or Master Classes? Especially in the quality of the content. I would rather get something at college level and not more like a premium YouTube video.

How would you say it will compare next to an audio book? I mean audio books are only $14 or so and they cover a lot of these topics maybe even in more detail?!

The prices are completely absurd and those severe discounted prices only makes the company look like a scam. Who would want to pay $400+ for a course and then finds it for $30 on sale? I feel sorry for those who paid full price.

1) I'd say most Great Courses are better organized than any alternative courses. Even for the courses I abandoned (because the subject matter just did not interest me) I could see the care put into the set and sequence of topics.

Modern Scholar are a close equivalent and also pretty good, but generally substantially shorter (and so go into less detail).

2) There are many free courses available via iTunes U. Some of these are very good (most of Yale for example, some of UCSD or Berkeley, most of the [very few] Harvard). But they all waste 10% or more of the time on class overhead: announcements, schedule changes, stuff non-students don't care about. And most of the free courses are just awful in terms of their value-add -- they're just like a boring droning read of a textbook.

Point is: Great Courses are providing some value-add beyond just taping a university course.

3) Great Courses tend to be at about 1st year level, sometimes 2nd year. Not senior, certainly not grad school. This is not a criticism, that's just the target audience. If you know a subject well you'll probably find a course interesting as a good refresher/reminder, but you won't learn anything new.
BUT
If you don't know a subject well, they are the best way (for me anyway) to learn the subject. For me wanting to learn about large areas of history, sometimes in detail (why are the Tudors such an obsession in English history?), sometimes at the broad level (how have the Asian Steppes influenced all known history?) they do a really good job of putting things in context, choosing the right subjects to concentrate, omitting details that aren't important the first time round.
Audiobooks can be very good, but most non-fiction authors are not that great at making a subject compelling (of course some are, but few) and they tend to have their obsessions so rather than writing a book on "The Tudors -- why are they important" they will write "The Tudors -- why my theory and book are different from 10,000 other books on the subject".

If detail is what you want, you need to go to books and audiobooks. But when you first want to learn about The Hapsburgs or Sumeria or Thermodynamics, you probably don't want detail, you want the OPPOSITE of detail, you want the big picture so that you understand, when you later encounter them, why the details are interesting and significant.

4) If you are worried about wasting your money (and it is a reasonable worry; there are so many choices, and at first you won't know what interests you) look into what your local library offers. Most libraries have Great Courses (and many other audiobooks) available as CDs or DVDs, but more important, most libraries now belong to one of the big eLibrary services like Overdrive or Hoopla.
Once you belong to the library you can download tons of audiobooks/courses for free at home and don't have to bother with the hassle of going to the library to pick up and return items. Even if your local library is small you may be able to arrange with a friend or family member who is in a larger city to have them join, and use their credentials to stream via Overdrive or Hoopla. Both services have large selections (Hoopla seems to offer same selection to every library; Overdrive varies by library, but for city libraries the collection is huge) and include a fair bit of Great Courses.

 

[cr2]

The early content was very very good. Even subjects that a person was not interested in were presented in an interesting way. If you ever get a chance, try one of the old ones.

They had a full time crew that visited universities setting in on courses, interviewing staff and talking to students, identifying the best (most interesting and best story telling) professors. Then they worked with these interesting professors (not necessarily the most senior, the most well known, or the top of the field) to get courses that presented the material in an interesting way. They had their own recording studio, staff, producers, and editors. At the time professors had to be invited to participate and most that inquired were turned down. If you went to college you know why!

Their original target audience were people that just wanted to learn interesting things in a fun and interesting way. They never targeted cheap. After the sale the original founder stepped back and the cost accountants took over.

Haven't listened to any recent courses so can't comment on that.

Ah! This explains a lot. The newer courses are bad compared to the earlier ones. You should try some new get a feel. It feels that they just want to keep producing the new content to get as much money as possible.

 

[name99]

Ah! This explains a lot. The newer courses are bad compared to the earlier ones. You should try some new get a feel. It feels that they just want to keep producing the new content to get as much money as possible.

I wouldn't say I've noticed newer courses as bad compared to older (neither in content nor in production values).

What is new is that there are many more courses on items that are less "liberal arts". Some of these are subjects that interest me but weren't covered earlier ("professional school subjects" like law or medicine) some of them are less "university" subjects that mostly don't interest me, like aspects of gardening or photography. I think I may even have seen some cooking ones.

Doubtless there are snobs who see this as degradation, but honestly I have no problem with it as long as standards are maintained, and they appear to be, so far in my experience. We all have different interests, and it's absurd to demand or expect that Great Course do nothing but cater to my personal tastes!

 

[MacBH928]

1) I'd say most Great Courses are better organized than any alternative courses. Even for the courses I abandoned (because the subject matter just did not interest me) I could see the care put into the set and sequence of topics.

Modern Scholar are a close equivalent and also pretty good, but generally substantially shorter (and so go into less detail).

2) There are many free courses available via iTunes U. Some of these are very good (most of Yale for example, some of UCSD or Berkeley, most of the [very few] Harvard). But they all waste 10% or more of the time on class overhead: announcements, schedule changes, stuff non-students don't care about. And most of the free courses are just awful in terms of their value-add -- they're just like a boring droning read of a textbook.

Point is: Great Courses are providing some value-add beyond just taping a university course.

3) Great Courses tend to be at about 1st year level, sometimes 2nd year. Not senior, certainly not grad school. This is not a criticism, that's just the target audience. If you know a subject well you'll probably find a course interesting as a good refresher/reminder, but you won't learn anything new.
BUT
If you don't know a subject well, they are the best way (for me anyway) to learn the subject. For me wanting to learn about large areas of history, sometimes in detail (why are the Tudors such an obsession in English history?), sometimes at the broad level (how have the Asian Steppes influenced all known history?) they do a really good job of putting things in context, choosing the right subjects to concentrate, omitting details that aren't important the first time round.
Audiobooks can be very good, but most non-fiction authors are not that great at making a subject compelling (of course some are, but few) and they tend to have their obsessions so rather than writing a book on "The Tudors -- why are they important" they will write "The Tudors -- why my theory and book are different from 10,000 other books on the subject".

If detail is what you want, you need to go to books and audiobooks. But when you first want to learn about The Hapsburgs or Sumeria or Thermodynamics, you probably don't want detail, you want the OPPOSITE of detail, you want the big picture so that you understand, when you later encounter them, why the details are interesting and significant.

4) If you are worried about wasting your money (and it is a reasonable worry; there are so many choices, and at first you won't know what interests you) look into what your local library offers. Most libraries have Great Courses (and many other audiobooks) available as CDs or DVDs, but more important, most libraries now belong to one of the big eLibrary services like Overdrive or Hoopla.
Once you belong to the library you can download tons of audiobooks/courses for free at home and don't have to bother with the hassle of going to the library to pick up and return items. Even if your local library is small you may be able to arrange with a friend or family member who is in a larger city to have them join, and use their credentials to stream via Overdrive or Hoopla. Both services have large selections (Hoopla seems to offer same selection to every library; Overdrive varies by library, but for city libraries the collection is huge) and include a fair bit of Great Courses.

thanks this was great info and tips!