Archaeology, Ancient/Medieval History, Heritage et al - distance & interdisciplinary

Hi all!

Although I work in IT/education, one of my long-time interests is in archaeology, history (mostly ancient & medieval), comparative and historical linguistics, ethnology etc. As there is little chance of quitting work to go pursue it in the traditional way, I have spent the last year or so assembling various DL options, some of them more affordable, some of them less, but generally what my pocket could handle.

There are some other advantages to going DL in this sort of field, at least according to me.

Having a solid background in more than one discipline is sometimes essential to understanding complex issues and evaluating problematic evidence where different sciences/disciplines have different interpretations. History could say one thing, archaeology another, about the same thing, both working with their own evidence and their own methods. Hence, the need to be aware and capable of handling this.

Also, DL would also enable one to study English history from the English, Swedish history from the Swedes, Scottish history form the Scots etc., plus to assemble a portfolio of credits and credentials from top institutions, theoretically ending up with a truly interdisciplinary education.

In this topic I will list some of my findings (some were directly found on this board, others elsewhere). I will most certainly welcome any additions to the list that you may want to suggest.

So here goes, assembling the affordable interdisciplinary track:


1) American Military University / American Public University
MA Ancient and Classical History
Graduate Certificate in Ancient and Classical History

2) University of Leicester
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/dl
They seem to have started offering their third year undergraduate courses, so that means they would be offering entire undergraduate, master's and PhD via DL. My particular interests are in the Master's level prograqms, both PgCert and MA; many undergraduate level courses are also interesting, and for those who do not have a Bachelor's in history/archaeology, at least two of these courses are necessary as bridging modules for admission to graduate programs.

3) New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Online undeergraduate and graduate certificates,
http://www.nobts.edu/OnlineSeminary/Online%20Certificate%20Programs.html

I find the Greek studies and Hebrew studies graduate certificates particularly interesting for the language component of this interdisciplinary track of mine.

4) University of London External System
Diploma in Theology / Bachelor of Divinity
I like them for the language component as well as church history.
http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/undergraduate/heythrop/divinity/structure.shtml
There are some other interesting affordable options at London External, say in Geography for the geography component of the track.

5) San Juan College
http://www.sjc.cc.nm.us/cuht
Cultural Heritage Technician Certificate, undergraduate, online, cheap. Should be nice for the heritage (management and interpretation) part of the track.

6) Oxford University
Postgraduate Certificate in Historical Studies, not yet offered, in the planning stages
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/pc-history.php
Also, their DL Advanced Diploma in Local History and DL courses in archaeology look interesting

7) University of Dundee
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/history/distancelearning/
Medieval Scottish history

8) Harvard Extension, courses in anthropology, history and historical linguistics (courses offered vary, but interesting things to be found, and not terribly expensive if taken for undergraduate credit)

9) General introductory courses (Western Civ I and II, introductory anthropology courses) can be found in many places. I'm liking LSU for this, especially since they also have Latin and some other interesting courses (Greek & Roman Mythology for example)
http://www.is.lsu.edu/courselist.asp?nid=102&Level=CO&Online=0

10) Swedish universities offer some archaeology / history courses, and also some in the heritage management field. More on
http://www.studera.nu

11) CSU Dominguez Hills offers several interesting courses in its HUX program's Interdisciplinary Courses phase, but I'm not sure if paper-based would work for me on account of the physical distance and associated shipping costs. Still, interesting:
http://www.csudh.edu/hux/courses.html

 

I know of someone in Northern california who earned this degree entirely on line. That was a few years ago so maybe things have changed.

 

A related area is museum studies - a few years ago I looked into these programs when I was a volunteer docent in a museum – they may be of interest to you:

http://www.ou.edu/cls/mals/malsglmus.shtml

http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/study/museumstudies(dl).html

 

Not likely. I attended CSUDH's HUX program from 1997 to 2003 (left without completing the degree). When I began the program in 1997, they had none of their classes online. By the time I washed in 2003, they had all five Phase One courses (Defining the Humanities: History; Defining the Humanities: Literature; Defining the Humanities: Music; Defining the Humanities: Art; and Deefining the Humanities: Philosophy) online with the announced intent that all courses would eventually be offered online. So, I'm thinking that if your friend did the program online a few years ago, it's probably still available online.

 

Thanks Ian!

I remember reading somewhere on the HUX program site that only certain courses are available online, but I may be wrong or might have missed something. Their faculty list does seem to include lecturers with Master's / PhDs from top schools and what is more important, 3-4 of them have compatible interests to mine. An interesting program indeed.

Thanks for the museum studies tip, yes, that is interesting as well, I think I might even have a few of those among my bookmarks, I'll try to find them.

Few more interesting programs:

University of Birmingham, Ironbridge institute
http://www.ironbridge.bham.ac.uk/programmes/heritagedistance/index.shtml
MA and P/G Certificate in Heritage Management by Distance Learning

The really nice thing is that it seems their international rates for the DL Heritage programs are the same as UK/EU rates. At least for now.

http://www.ironbridge.bham.ac.uk/programmes/fees.shtml


Same thing goes for the MA Archaeology and Heritage Management offered at the University of Exeter.

http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/heritage_management/apply.shtml

Northumbria University also has Museum and Heritage Management (MA) and several other interesting DL programs but I can't find the price.
http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=DTDMHM6


Another interesting program from the University of Birmingham, but more expensive I believe.

Distance Learning: Landscape Archaeology, GIS and Virtual Environments
http://www.alpg.bham.ac.uk/prospective/distance/landscape.shtml

My main concern about these programs and the reason I didn't list them along with Leicester in the first list is not being sure how long the international rates would be the same as UK/EU rates. Leicester seems to be doing this for a while now and I guess the fees, while increasing, are not likely to dramatically increase for internationals. I'll just have to send them an e-mail.

 

It seems that either things haven't changed that much since you were there, or their web-site is out of date.


http://www.csudh.edu/hux/huxfaq.html

http://www.csudh.edu/hux/online.html

 

From their web site http://www.ironbridge.bham.ac.uk/programmes/fees.shtml

Heritage Management by Distance Learning
UK / EU Students
Overseas Students

Part-time MA course
(180 credits, over 24 months) £2925 per year
£925 per year

This seems amazingly low cost - an MA for 2 years x 925 UK Pounds per year = 1850 UK Pounds (I suspect the cost is 2925 UK Pounds - still a great price).

I have visited Ironbridge on many occasions (we have friends who live there) and, as an engineer, I enjoy visiting the bridge, canals, and other sites that were significant during the industrial revolution.

 

Yes, me too, they probably forgot a 2 there. Around 6000 pounds is still pretty affordable to me too. Too bad it can't be taken as PgCert + pause + the rest of MA.


http://www.ironbridge.bham.ac.uk/programmes/heritagedistance/certificate.shtml

 

You've left out one of the gems. The University of Wales-Lampeter:

http://www.lamp.ac.uk/courses/distance_learning.html

 

True!

I vaguely remember sending them an e-mail once regarding their short/foundations courses and not receiving a response, I'll have to try again some time. Exeter on the other hand was very prompt when I asked them about their non-credit archaeology courses.

Probably a major issue with most of them will be getting accepted with an engineering degree. That is also one of the reasons why I liked Leicester the best initially, they confirmed that two undergraduate bridging modules would do the trick.

However, with the bridging modules the price goes to around 8500 pounds for the MA, so Exeter and Ironbridge are looking interesting, if only for a PgCert. I'll still probably end up doing those bridging modules anyway, if only to strengthen the portfolio.

 

Since I'm mentioning Exeter, besides the above mentioned MA Archaeology and Heritage, they also offer a separate MA Archaeology by DL.

http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/prospective/maarch.shtml

I must remember to check the details for this one.

Oh, another note. I have already listed the University of Dundee above. While I have not yet personally contacted them, they seem to admit students from all over the world. Now, both of the courses they offer carry 60 credits (SCOTCAT / SCQF I presume). That would be 30 ECTS per course, or around 15 semester hour credits if we use the standard conversion ratios. Since the price per course is £1000 pounds for non-EU students, or around $1,665.02, that would be around $111 per sh credit. For those of you in the US, I guess that would be pretty cheap for third-year / upper-level undergraduate, if they could be transferred.

Plus this.

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/history/distancelearning/books.htm

 

Far Eastern National University, Russia, DL, in English (some of it). I don't know much about this university, but they seem both legit and interesting. They seem to offer online degrees in history and such and some interesting short courses (Russian language, culture, history)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Eastern_National_University
http://www.fenu.ru/?a=page&id=208
http://en.openuniversity.ru/

I will have to contact them to inquire about some details (they don't seem very cheap)

Another discovery in Russia, Tomsk Polytechnic University, also in English:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsk_Polytechnic_University
http://www.iie.tpu.ru/pages_en/3_online_learning.php

Not much in terms of history / archaeology, but a few short courses could be interesting (Russian Language and Philosophy of Science).