One result of having graduated this spring is that I find myself craving scheduled and organized active learning. One way I have decided to keep myself focused and on track is to revisit the universe of online courses available for free, otherwise known as MOOCs–Massive Open Online Courses. The popular and often fascinating web site Open Culture maintains a listing, updated monthly, of current and ongoing MOOCs that is quite useful for exploring free internet-based distance learning.

Such courses have been around for quite a while and I have taken a number of them over the years. Mostly they aided and bolstered my decision to return to school to get my degree, as well as focusing my interests in ancient history and philosophy. One of the first MOOCs I took, and one of the most popular ever in terms of enrollment, was Gregory Nagy’s HarvardX/EdX course The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours. The Greek Hero is no longer running as an interactive course, but the book upon which the course was based is still available and is highly recommended.

Another, that I have decided to enroll in this summer, also offered by HarvardX/EdX, is entitled DH101: Introduction to Digital Humanities. I intend to use this course, not only as an introduction to topics that I will need to explore in continuing towards a Masters degree, either in history or library science or both, but as a springboard for exploring topics here on my blog, Mundus Patet. So consider this as an introduction to the idea that I will comment here upon this course as well as an invitation to come along for the ride and enroll in the course. It is free and of some general interest to writers, historians, and creatives of all types.