The Teaching Company
Encyclopedia
The Teaching Company is a Chantilly, Virginia
company that produces recordings of lectures by university professors and high-school teachers. It sells the courses in CD, DVD
, MPEG-4
, and MP3
formats.
, 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 was unable to do so because of legal restrictions. 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 2011 the company offers more than 350 courses, which span more than 5,000 hours of content across several 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 a series for high school
students. Courses include supplemental booklets with outlines of the individual lectures, recommended reading lists, general bibliographies, and questions to consider. Full printed transcripts are also available.
Courses are available in many formats including CD, DVD, and audio and video downloads.
On October 2, 2006, the company was acquired by Brentwood Associates
, a private equity investment firm.
Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly is an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County and southeastern Loudoun County of Northern Virginia. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place , the community population was 23,039 as of the 2010 census -- down from 41,041 in 2000, due to the...
company that produces recordings of lectures by university professors and high-school teachers. It sells the courses in CD, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
, and MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
formats.
Background
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 SchoolHarvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, 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 was unable to do so because of legal restrictions. 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 2011 the company offers more than 350 courses, which span more than 5,000 hours of content across several subject categories: business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, fine arts and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, ancient and medieval history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, modern history
Modern history
Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and intellectual history
Intellectual history
Note: this article concerns the discipline of intellectual history, and not its object, the whole span of human thought since the invention of writing. For clarifications about the latter topic, please consult the writings of the intellectual historians listed here and entries on individual...
, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
.
Course offerings are targeted to adult education and life-learners
Lifelong learning
Lifelong learning is the continuous building of skills and knowledge throughout the life of an individual. It occurs through experiences encountered in the course of a lifetime...
, typical of what would be seen in a University or College undergraduate program for non-majors; there is also a series for high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students. Courses include supplemental booklets with outlines of the individual lectures, recommended reading lists, general bibliographies, and questions to consider. Full printed transcripts are also available.
Courses are available in many formats including CD, DVD, and audio and video downloads.
On October 2, 2006, the company was acquired by Brentwood Associates
Brentwood Associates
Brentwood Associates is one of the oldest private equity firms in the US with groups focusing on both leveraged buyout and venture capital investments....
, a private equity investment firm.
Partial list of instructors
- Patrick AllittPatrick AllittPatrick Allitt is an author and historian who has written six books on religious history, education, and politics. He was born in England in 1956, raised in the Derbyshire village of Mickleover, studied at Hertford College, Oxford , then moved to America and gained a Ph.D. in American history at...
- Kenneth R. BartlettKenneth R. BartlettKenneth R. Bartlett is a Renaissance historian, author, and professor at the University of Toronto, where he earned his Ph.D. degree in 1978. He is the Director of the Office of Teaching Advancement and has served as the president for the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies...
- Arthur T. BenjaminArthur T. BenjaminArthur T. Benjamin is an American mathematician who specializes in combinatorics. Since 1989 he has been a Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College....
- Bob BrierBob BrierRobert Brier , also known as Mr. Mummy, is an American Egyptologist specializing in paleopathology. A Senior Research Fellow at the C.W...
- Edward B. Burger
- Sean M. CarrollSean M. CarrollSean Michael Carroll is a senior research associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is a theoretical cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity...
- Phillip CaryPhillip CaryPhillip Cary is a philosophy professor at Eastern University with a concentration on Augustine of Hippo. He received his Ph.D. from Yale Divinity School under Nicholas Wolterstorff. He has written a number of books, including three published by Oxford University Press...
- Philip DaileaderPhilip DaileaderPhilip Daileader is an Associate Professor of History at The College of William and Mary in Virginia. He received his B.A. in history from Johns Hopkins University and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University...
- Dennis DaltonDennis DaltonFrom 1969 through 2008, Dennis Gilmore Dalton was the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University where he received tenure after two years...
- Malcolm David EckelMalcolm David EckelMalcolm David Eckel is the current Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. He earned two bachelors degrees: one in English at Harvard University and another in Theology at Oxford University...
- Bart D. EhrmanBart D. EhrmanBart D. Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
- John EspositoJohn EspositoJohn Louis Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University...
- Brian M. Fagan
- J. Rufus FearsJ. Rufus FearsJ. Rufus Fears is an American historian, scholar, teacher and author on the subjects of ancient history, the history of liberty, and the lessons of history....
- Alexei FilippenkoAlexei FilippenkoAlexei Vladimir Filippenko is an American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. Filippenko received a Bachelor of Arts in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979 and a Ph.D...
- Sylvester James GatesSylvester James GatesSylvester James Gates, Jr. is a noted American theoretical physicist. He received BS and PhD degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the latter in 1977. His doctoral thesis was the first thesis at MIT to deal with supersymmetry. Gates is currently the John S...
- Steven L. GoldmanSteven L. GoldmanSteven Louis Goldman is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University.-Short Biography:Goldman studied as an undergraduate at Polytechnic University of New York, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics...
- Anthony A. GoodmanAnthony A. GoodmanAnthony A. Goodman is currently an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Medical Sciences and the Microbiology departments at Montana State University in the United States. He was a general surgeon for nearly thirty years, specializing in the surgical treatment of cancer...
- Robert GreenbergRobert GreenbergRobert M. Greenberg , is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, NY. He has composed more than 45 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Teaching...
- Allen C. GuelzoAllen C. GuelzoAllen Carl Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce III Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, where he serves as Director of the Civil War Era Studies Program.Guelzo was born in Yokohama, Japan...
- James HallJames Hall (philosopher)James H. Hall was the James Thomas Professor of Philosophy at the University of Richmond from 1965 until his retirement in 2005. He remains at the university as Professor Emeritus. His philosophical interests include: 20th Century analytic philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and...
- Ken HammondKen HammondKenneth J. Hammond is Professor of History at New Mexico State University.Hammond was a student and Students for a Democratic Society leader at Kent State University from 1967 to 1970. He later completed his degree in Political Science, then studied Modern Chinese language at the Beijing Foreign...
- Kenneth W. HarlKenneth W. HarlKenneth W. Harl is an American scholar, author, classicist and numismatist. He received an undergraduate degree from Trinity College, a PhD from Yale University, and has been Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans since 1978.Although he has a number of...
- Peter H. IronsPeter H. IronsPeter H. Irons is an American political activist, civil rights attorney, legal scholar, and professor of political science. Irons is a graduate of Antioch College, an early incubator of progressive politics after World War II...
- Luke Timothy JohnsonLuke Timothy JohnsonLuke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University...
- Douglas KellnerDouglas KellnerDouglas Kellner is a “third generation” critical theorist in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School. Kellner was an early theorist of the field of critical media literacy and has been a leading theorist of media culture generally...
- Alan Charles KorsAlan Charles KorsAlan Charles Kors is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Dr. Kors graduated summa...
- Edward LarsonEdward LarsonEdward John Larson is a North American historian and legal scholar. He is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University, he was formerly Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law and Richard B. Russell Professor of American History at the University...
- Seth LererSeth LererProfessor Seth Lerer is Dean of Arts and Humanities and Distinguished Professor of Literature at the University of California at San Diego. He had previously held the Avalon Foundation Professorship in Humanities at Stanford University...
- Amy-Jill LevineAmy-Jill LevineAmy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Department of Religious Studies, and Graduate Department of Religion.-Biography:...
- Allan LichtmanAllan LichtmanAllan Jay Lichtman is an American political historian who teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. He ran in the 2006 Maryland senate race for the seat vacated by Paul Sarbanes.-Early life, education, and family:...
- John McWhorterJohn McWhorterJohn Hamilton McWhorter V is an American linguist and political commentator. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His linguistic specialty is creole and the process through which it forms.-Early life:...
- Steven NovellaSteven NovellaSteven P. Novella is an American clinical neurologist, assistant professor and Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine...
- Sherwin B. NulandSherwin B. NulandDr. Sherwin Nuland is an American surgeon and author who teaches bioethics, history of medicine, and medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and, upon occasion, bioethics and history of medicine at Yale College...
- Joseph NyeJoseph NyeJoseph Samuel Nye, Jr. is the co-founder, along with Robert Keohane, of the international relations theory neoliberalism, developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence...
- Robert A. OdenRobert A. OdenRobert Allen Oden Jr. was the president of Kenyon College from 1995-2002, and president of Carleton College from July 1, 2002 until June 30, 2010...
- Daniel N. RobinsonDaniel N. RobinsonDaniel N. Robinson is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University.-Career:...
- Rick RoderickRick RoderickRick Roderick was born in Abilene, Texas, son of a "con-man" and a "beautician". He was a teacher of philosophy at several universities, where he was much revered by many students for a socratic style of teaching combined with a brash and often humorous approach...
- Robert SapolskyRobert SapolskyRobert Maurice Sapolsky is an American scientist and author. He is currently Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and, by courtesy, Neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the National Museums of...
- Benjamin SchumacherBenjamin SchumacherBenjamin Schumacher is a U.S. theoretical physicist, working mostly in the field of quantum information theory.He discovered a way of interpreting quantum states as information. He came up with a way of compressing the information in a state, and storing the information in a smaller number of...
- John SearleJohn SearleJohn Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
- Jeremy ShearmurJeremy ShearmurJeremy Shearmur is Reader in Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He was educated at the London School of Economics....
- Seth ShostakSeth ShostakSeth Shostak is an American astronomer. He grew up in Arlington, VA and earned his physics degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D...
- Robert C. SolomonRobert C. SolomonRobert C. Solomon was a professor of continental philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin in the USA.-Early life:...
- Michael StarbirdMichael StarbirdMichael P. Starbird is a Professor of Mathematics and a University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A from Pomona College and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of...
- Jonathan SteinbergJonathan SteinbergJonathan Steinberg is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Modern European History and former Chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his A. B. from Harvard University and his Ph.D...
- Steven StrogatzSteven StrogatzSteven Henry Strogatz is an American mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University...
- Timothy TaylorTimothy Taylor (economist)Timothy Taylor is an American economist. He is Managing Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, a quarterly academic journal produced at Macalester College and published by the American Economic Association....
- Neil deGrasse TysonNeil deGrasse TysonNeil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, a science communicator, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History...
- Elizabeth VandiverElizabeth VandiverElizabeth Vandiver is a noted professor of classics. She is currently Associate Professor of classics at Whitman College, having previously taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Philological Association in 1998...
- Irwin WeilIrwin WeilIrwin Weil is a Professor Emeritus in the at Northwestern University.He is noted for his work in promoting cultural exchange and mutual understanding betweenthe USA and the USSR/Russia,and for attracting large numbers of studentsto his courses....
- Arnold WeinsteinArnold WeinsteinArnold Weinstein was an American poet, playwright and librettist, who referred to himself as a "theatre poet"....
- Richard WolfsonRichard Wolfson (physicist)Richard Wolfson is the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College. He is the author of numerous articles and books, several of which include Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified and Nuclear Choices: A Citizen's Guide to Nuclear...
- David ZarefskyDavid ZarefskyDavid Zarefsky is an American communication scholar with research specialties in rhetorical history and criticism. He is professor emeritus at Northwestern University. He is a past president of the National Communication Association and the Rhetoric Society of America...