[AstroNet] Free Introductory Astronomy Course

[Maciej Soltynski]

Prof Robert Nemiroff (Michigan Tech) is teaching an astronomy course available freely online through iTunes or learnoutloud.com (or available as downloadable .mp4 files). The lectures are freely available from 

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Science/Astronomy/Introductory-Astronomy/23871 

Currently, learnoutloud.com lists this course is the most popular astronomy download! 

He writes:

The course originates at Michigan Technological University where I am a Professor. Many MTU students are taking this exact class for credit, but anyone with a browser can take it for free. Not only are the lectures free, but this semester no textbook is needed for the course since I am exclusively using the web: mostly APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) and Wikipedia. The idea of teaching without a formal textbook is to make the course as inexpensive to students and un-registered web-viewers as possible. APOD is used because I am so familiar with it, and because the liberal use of APOD images makes the course really beautiful, in my (biased) opinion. The lectures occur live at Michigan Tech on Mondays and Wednesdays, and are released to iTunes and learnoutloud.com shortly after. 

Every Wednesday, at the end of class, I can be seen reviewing the previous week's APODs. Polite criticisms and general feedback are welcome!
 
Regards,
Maciej Soltynski
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