9.19.2007

The Teaching Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Teaching Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Teaching Company is an American company that produces recordings of lectures by nationally top-ranked university professors. The professors create courses for the company in a special studio located outside of Washington DC; they are then offered for sale in audiotape, CD, DVD, MPEG-4, and MP3 formats. The company was founded in 1990 by Thomas M. Rollins, former Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and a graduate of Harvard Law School, who noticed the effectiveness of videotapes in learning during his study. He initially tried to create a government program to produce tapes for the public, but due to Constitutional constraints was not able to. After leaving office the idea stayed with him and he started seeking out top professors to create courses for sale to the public. As of 2007 the company offers more than 260 courses, which span more than 3,000 hours of content across nine subject categories: Business and Economics, Fine Arts and Music, Ancient and Medieval History, Modern History, Literature and English Language, Philosophy and Intellectual History, Religion, Science and Mathematics, and Social Sciences. Course offerings are targeted to adult education and life-learners, typical of what would be seen in a University or College undergraduate program for non-majors; there is also "