The Great Courses

I cannot tell you how wonderful the math courses with Dr. Sellers are. My oldest (14) has always struggled with math, and as a homeschooler, I’ve tried different techniques and curriculums to help him. This is the first time I can tell that a real lightbulb has come on and he’s truly getting it. And I’m finally understanding things that I struggled with in school, too! The way he teaches is just fantastic. I love that he talks in a normal conversational tone, not patronizing or as if he’s teaching children. And he explains everything THOROUGHLY and clearly. He gives you the techniques in detail step by step and gives 2 or 3 examples. Then he gives you a problem to figure out. He goes over that problem in detail just like the others, so that if you do make a mistake, you can see where you went wrong. But so far, neither my son nor I (because I started doing it with him because it’s so great) have made mistakes because by that time we are clear on how to do it. Except one time when I made a dumb counting error lol. Thank you so much, Dr. Sellers and Wondrium. You are turning a teenager and middle aged adult who have both always hated and struggled with math, into interested math scholars!

On a whim I tried “The Great Courses” threw the new RoKu TV we purchased. I have learned so much about who I am as a person, my place in history and the history of civilization that I am stunned. The sciences, our universe, the human brain I could keep going. There are so many quality courses to choose from. I intend to master them all. The lecturers are gifted award winning speakers - they are the cream of the crop in their respective disciplines and you can tell that because they articulate so well in a layman’s terms complex concepts especially in the sciences. They definitely are not boring speakers and their sense of humor will keep you glued to your seat with the wealth of information flowing from their style of lectures. This will be a lifetime commitment of learning for me. No political agenda just excellent scholarship of knowledge given as a gift back to you form very talented teachers. It’s the way college should be. So in a way “The Great Courses” is the lost art of teaching revived that will literally bless your socks off no matter what interests you. One more thing. The various courses so compliment each other you really will get a very rich well rounded education if your hungry for knowledge that’s PURE Learning with no political leanings. That is incredible in this politically motivated US culture. Well, after reading my review I’m sure some will think I’m a simple Dotard! Stay tuned! Not for long!

I’ve had this app on all my devices for almost a year now. I love learning new things, and I really like not having to worry about exams or homework. I first saw a lecture by the Great Courses on Netflix. The lectures where by Niel DeGrass Tyson, one of my favorite professors. The format caught my attention, and I decided to look up the company. I found this app and immediately downloaded it. The app on mobile devices is pretty good, but just needs a bit more cosmetic touches because it looks a bit old. On the other hand the Apple TV app looks aesthetically pleasing but lacks features. I often turn on a lecture after a long day to sit down and relax, and more often then not I end up falling asleep. When I wake up I want to resume the lecture, but the player does not have the ability to scrub through and resume where I left off, or at least where I remember leaving off. Then when it gets to a lecture that was playing when I woke up, it doesn’t let me restart the lecture from the beginning. It will always start from the point I stopped the lecture last time. No matter what I do. I have to completely finish watching it in order to restart a specific lecture. The lack of this feature is what makes this app so frustrating. Sometimes I just want to go back and listen to a specific part of a lecture, but without the ability to scrub through a video and find the spot you want to see it makes this app seem very unplanned. Over all I gave it a four out of five because of content. If it was based on the Apple TV app and it’s features this app would only be a one out of five, maybe two.