Jul
‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds’: An Ocean of Online Learning
For students who just can’t get enough, the University of Southampton offers what are commonly referred to as MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses, free and available to anyone in the world. Current MOOCs offered are ‘Web Science’, ‘Exploring our Oceans’ and ‘Exploring Portus’ and so far, have been very successful.
This week the university unveiled the latest addition to the MOOC scheme: ‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds (Maritime Archeology)’. The course will offer the chance to analyse humanity’s relationship with the ocean for the last two and half billion years, and the website (link available at bottom of article) gives an insight into what exactly that entails:
“This will see us discuss the impact of changing sea-levels on the geography of our planet, the development of seafaring technologies and the emergence of globalised economies. We will explore the traditions of seafaring that gave birth to such diverse historical phenomenon as Polynesian exploration and colonisation, Viking age expansion and the ‘Golden Age of Sail’. We will examine the transformative impact that levels of preservation found on wrecks such as the Mary Rose and Vasa have had on our understanding of past societies, through to what can be learned from more modern maritime sites such as the Titanic. The science and technology behind data collection will be explained, from diver based research to cutting edge remote sensing techniques. We’ll also consider the key questions and that continue to challenge researchers today and shape the future direction of the discipline.”
Words: Caitlin Hobbs
For more information on how to register for the course, click here: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/moocs/shipwrecks_and_submerged_world.shtml
In the meantime, you can follow updates on Twitter at @UoSShipwrecks.
Tags: MOOC, societies, Southampton, Words Caitlin Hobbs