Online Around the World
Discovering the Benefit of Distance Learning
With more than 100 Harvard Extension School and Harvard College classes available online, it’s not surprising that each semester people all over the world register for a distance course or two. The added benefit—aside from the convenience, the portability, and the academic rigor—is that they are taught by world-class Harvard faculty and industry experts, a huge draw for individuals looking to advance their careers, begin a degree program, or simply enrich their knowledge.
Gaining a Global Experience
Sheila Chung Hagen was looking to make a greater impact in her career. After working in San Francisco as an immigrant rights advocate, she decided to explore her passion for environmentalism and its connection to the work she was already doing. After hearing about the Extension School from a friend, she decided to apply to the graduate program in environmental management. With the many online offerings, the program seemed to be ideal, especially because she had decided to travel around the world for a yearlong honeymoon trip.
The ability to study and see the lessons in the cities and countries she visited was invaluable. “I studied China’s water woes and its winning green Olympic bid while living in Beijing. In Argentina, I witnessed firsthand the impact of the emerging biofuel industry on the local population. And in France, I watched course [videos] from an organic farm where I worked for a month,” says Chung Hagen. To see these struggles and environmental changes in person added a new dimension to the online courses she was taking.
“I was looking at the world through a green lens,” she says. “So anytime I did a report it was on a topic focused on one of the regions of the world where I was living.” She also gained practical tools, like how to conduct a lifecycle assessment, how to write a grant proposal, how to use geographic information systems, and how to conduct scholarly research, all of which she could put into practice immediately while she studied and traveled.
Back in the United States, Chung Hagen says that in the short term she is planning to use her new knowledge to approach immigrant rights on a more holistic level—considering not just people’s civil rights, but their environment and health, too. ”In the longer term, I’m interested in both green building issues, particularly with schools and affordable housing, as well as food issues, particularly organics and the ‘buy local’ movement,” she says.
Glimpsing Greek Heroes in Cambridge and Athens
Nikiforos Galanis, a partner in an engineering firm in Athens, Greece, was looking to understand his environment better and decided to take the classics course Introduction to Greek Literature: Concepts of the Hero, taught in spring 2008 by Gregory Nagy, the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature, a professor of comparative literature, and the director of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC.
The course explores the meaning of heroism, dialogue, and memory throughout the history of Greek civilization, requiring students to read and analyze many of the major works of the ancient Greek classics, from Homer to Plato. And while it might seem odd that a person living in the heart of that history would take a class all the way in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Galanis says he just knew the Extension School was the right choice for him.
“The course title Concepts of the Hero appealed to my personal interest in heroic history and cinema,” Galanis says. “Of course, my being Greek and the fact that the course is about Greek civilization made it an even better match.”
The class was enhanced for Galanis by the e-mail conversations he had with the teaching fellow, Kevin McGrath, an associate in Sanskrit and Indian studies at Harvard University. “It is easy to e-mail someone concerning a topic that is interesting to both of you,” Galanis says.
However, he found the writing to be the most challenging aspect of the course, especially because English is a second language for him. Whereas he usually uses English in some conversations and in technical meetings for work, Galanis says, he now had to use it to express literary and philosophical concepts.
While he plans to take another distance class to explore his interest, this time in computer science, Galanis says he often uses what he learned in the Greek heroes course. “When I watch a movie and find something that interests me or reminds me of the concepts that Nagy provided for deciphering the heroic ideal, I write it down and try to relate it with passages referenced during the course,” he says.
The class allowed Galanis to gain a deeper appreciation for Greek history and culture, especially as it relates to Greek life in the twenty-first century. “When you follow a course that demonstrates the interconnections across centuries of Greek civilization, important elements of the ancient corpus are explained and revealed in the modern world,” he says.
Finding Happiness in Brazil
André Monteiro was also looking for a way to interpret modern life and decided to take the Extension School’s most popular online course, the Harvard College lecture Positive Psychology, taught by Tal Ben-Shahar, lecturer, consultant, and author of the book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment.
Although initially skeptical of online courses, Monteiro soon realized that the classes provided by the Extension School were as rigorous as one would expect from an Ivy League institution. Additionally, he had read about Ben-Shahar in a weekly Brazilian magazine, and seeing that the very same individual was offering the class, he knew he had to take it. “I decided to register and put myself in the stretch zone!” he says.
Like the other students who had tried an online course, Monteiro found it had an impact on his daily life. “It made me think about ordinary and simple things in life like relationships, friendships, and the way I deal with myself. Today I see the world in a different way. I pay attention to the simple things and I try to make the most out of each situation,” he says. And without a doubt, he says, “I am a happier person now.”
After his experience with one online class, Monteiro, who owns a software development start-up in Brazil, plans to take several more courses on finance and writing, and even apply to the Extension School’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program. These steps, he says, will help him run his quickly growing company.
Studying from Iraq and Back
Captain Dan Hilferty began taking online courses and pursuing the master’s degree in information technology to benefit his rapidly evolving career and his assignments with the US Air Force. Although obtaining a master’s degree is a common prerequisite for those in the Air Force looking to become a major, Hilferty says he “wanted a degree that was more than something to check the box.”
However, taking courses became challenging each time Hilferty was deployed to Iraq. He needed permission to watch the streaming video, and one winter had to watch the videos outside or in a small smokers’ hut because the wireless signal would not work in his room.
At home in Little Rock, Arkansas, his schedule is not much easier than it was in Iraq. “My work weeks vary between 40 and 60 hours. I have taken two courses each semester, so that put the academic workload at roughly 20 hours a week,” Hilferty says. “After a while, you just become used to giving up your weekends to knock out projects.”
The hard work and long hours will be worth it, he says, when he can use his degree to more efficiently integrate software tools and flying operations. “The Air Force is consistently streamlining operations, and our ability to handle large amounts of information between multiple organizations is key to that efficiency. My degree experience arms me with the language to tell the programmers exactly what kind of tools we need to improve our operations.”
Hilferty, like the other students, enjoyed interaction with professors and teaching assistants via e-mail and message boards. And because of the residency requirement for his degree, he was able to come to campus for a semester to interact with faculty and students in person. “I was amazed at the depth of experience and knowledge rooted in Harvard,” he says. “When an instructor talks about when he designed a particular Internet protocol, it is hard not to listen with interest.”
Ultimately, for Hilferty and the other students, the distance education experience has been one that engages them in enjoyable and sometimes surprising ways. When asked what they would say to other students who are thinking about online courses, Chung Hagen advised students to embrace the tools the courses provide, Galanis praised the convenience and the offerings, Hilferty recommended that students “jump in head first,” and Monteiro similarly replied: “Take advantage of this technology and challenge yourself to study in a first-class university at an affordable price at home. It could not be more convenient. It could not be more challenging.”