What is exceptional about this course, is that it is a new media course to begin with. The lecturer, Dr. Duncan Shaeffer, records the course from a studio, without an audience. From the explanations in the first podcast, I understood, that this course can be followed and credits can be acquired following, by iPod or video, in your own time. I assume there are some access requirements, but I did not pay attention to that. If you are just interested in the study credit, but just the content of the course, skip the first lecture.The course is very long, some 60 lectures and goes over the following subjects in consecutive chunks of lectures: the physical environment, population, languages, religion, economy, tourism and services and geopolitics. This allows for you to pick out a section by theme. No matter which subject you take up, the speed at which the lecture proceeds is very slow. The course operates on a low level and each lecture takes a long time, a lot of arguments, to make a point. For example, the entire second lecture is dedicated to arguing Europe is not a separate continent from Asia.
For me, the course was too long winded. I am a European and consequently, most data were trivial to me and I couldn't stand to go through hours and hours of these basics. For those unfamiliar and in need of a comprehensive and complete introduction to Europe, this may serve quite well.
(Picture by NASA)
More GeographyMore geography:
Economic Geography of the Industrial World,
Global Geopolitics,
Geography of World Cultures,
Natural Resources and Population,
Plate Tectonics.
1 comment:
Sure, but what defines Western Europe and what Northern Europe? Is Scotland part of Northern Europe? Is Denmark part of Western Europe? Does Berlin lie in Western Europe? Where does Eastern Europe begin? I think whatever answers you give to those questions, you will draw upon cultural and historical definers. Nothing geographical. The continental plate doesn't end on the Elbe, the Poland - Belorus border or the Ural mountains.
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