Harrison Middleton University

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by chasisaac, Feb 26, 2009.

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  1. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    Ahhh, don't say that! Anyone who's here is looking for information, which makes them smart, or they're imparting such, so ditto.

    I do agree with several posters that printed GB sets are going the way of the IBM 360 mainframe (my first that I programmed on). You might be able to find one but not for long. So if a college like HMU wants to gain new students, they simply must find alternatives to the print version of the GBs. And with so many different electronic devices out there, the alternatives have to be in various formats.

    Just my not-so-smart opinion.
    :lame:
     
  2. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    Heh. I'll give you a hint, zero images in the GBs. There aren't even any maps, which would have helped in several volumes! Hmmm, I wonder if a PDF file can be zipped? I've never tried.
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes, it can, although it doesn't usually make a gigantic difference.
     
  4. TonyM

    TonyM Member

    The files could be distributed as .txt or html, which can be read on any device or converted to a format the student chooses. It really wouldn't be that difficult to simply collect the most popular translations of all the works from Gutenberg.org and similar site and make that the official list. You could zip the entire package and store it on dropbox or make it available for download from the school's site. Most titles would be only a megabyte or two so the entire collection couldn't take up that much space.

    The King James Bible in 4.4 megabytes: The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Testament Of The King James Version Of The Bible.
     
  5. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    Well ....

    Until or unless HMU changes their method of acceptable forms of the GBs and KJV Bible, this is all an interesting discussion but doesn't apply to HMU, yet. I'm not sure how open they are to changing their ways but thus far they are quite the traditionalists. I have my GBs in print form and even if HMU accepted that students be allowed to use electronic books, I still prefer my sticky notes attached to the real thing. I'm prolly in the minority on that but I've found it's the easiest way to get through the voluminous material, for me at least. Others, maybe not so much.

    I tried taking notes on my lovely little MBA while doing my 2nd course. Sheesh. I ended up with 65 pages of notes, single spaced. Granted, I was reading thousands of pages on "topics," not "an" author in "a" volume. This kind of course is usually done by doctoral students, not master's. Still, that was darn traumatic and wasted a lot of my time. We learn by our mistakes!
    :reporter:
     
  6. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    You could do that, but it wouldn't be an adequate substitute for the Britannica "Great Books of the Western World" edition.

    The problem is that the GBWW is not just a collection of hundreds of famous texts. The editors of the GBWW also carefully reviewed and organized all of the material in those different books into a consistent conceptual framework, with historical overviews and commentaries and detailed page-specific indexing. This was a huge effort; it apparently cost $2 million in 1950s dollars. Their final product, the "Synopticon", covers hundreds of pages over two volumes, and is not in the public domain.

    This is why HMU uses the GBWW edition specifically. Yes, you could get public-domain ASCII versions of most or all of the included books, but you wouldn't have Britannica's conceptual framework or the associated page indexing, and so the collection would be far less useful to students. The GBWW series obviously needs to be available electronically in some way, but it will have to come from Britannica, because the key part to the collection -- basically the "User's Manual and Reference Guide" -- is under their copyright.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 25, 2012
  7. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Or Harrison Middleton could buy the rights to the GBWW.
     
  8. TonyM

    TonyM Member

    Of course, there's always the chance the Britannica will make DVD versions of the Great Books like they've already done with their encyclopedias. I can't imagine that they would let such an important project just fade away.
     
  9. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    Yes indeed, all so very true, plus "The Great Conversation" is also copyrighted by Britannica, required for the 1st course by all college students, along with the 2 vols. of the Syntopicon. You can find print versions of The Great Conversation, including on Amazon, but they're expensive, generally around $35.00.
     
  10. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    I wish! HMU seems to operate on a shoe-string budget. That's what keeps their tuition so low, as well as offering payments for each course spread over 4 months, interest free.

    Hmmm, if they bought the rights to the GBs then they could charge others for using the GBs in electronic form. Ted, you're an unappreciated genius.
    :dance:
     
  11. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    I appreciate your compliments. :dance::dance::dance::dance:
     
  12. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    FYI, if anyone wants to buy a new set of the GBWW ....

    I always check Amazon and several sellers have them and the prices seem competitive, but do check the descriptions because some of them (books, not the sellers!) aren't pristine. Shipping prices seem to be set by Amazon: $3.99 for the entire set. Yikes!

    Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Great Books of the Western World

    -- Carole
    p.s. I have only two courses left to complete, then my thesis. I haven't regretted a single minute of this experience with HMU. Pay no attention to the major listed in my sig, I'm doing philosophy.religion.
     
  13. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    DETC has announced that the accreditation of the following institutions will lapse as of March 31, 2013:

    - Humanities and Sciences Academy of the United States, Tempe, AZ
    - Humanities and Sciences Academy Arizona, Tempe, AZ
    - International Commerce Secondary Schools, Tempe, AZ

    These institutions are all accredited by DETC in the "High School" category. They probably have some connection to Harrison Middleton University, since they share the same Tempe address as HMU.

    HMU is accredited separately by DETC. Their current DETC accreditation is not up for renewal until January 2018.

    The DETC accreditation of Deakin University (in Australia) will also lapse as of March 31, 2013.
     
  14. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    Their high school distance learning program probably wasn't very popular, since nothing is online there -- strictly the old style distance learning. Most students prefer the online method of delivery.

    The college-level distance learning accreditation definitely was renewed for another 5 years. I received HMU's press release this week.

    I've learned that most of HMU's graduate students are in the doctoral programs. Very few of us working on a master's.
     
  15. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Really? I just read on facebook that Harrison Middleton University just graduated its first two DA students, Gary Lockard and Alan Pew.
     
  16. cutedeedle

    cutedeedle I speak Geek. Will translate on request.

    I'm *not* surprised .....

    I don't do FB but it doesn't surprise me they just graduated their first two doctoral students. The newest dean of graduate students, Deborah Deacon, has very tough and high standards. I don't think too many students are willing to tolerate what I've been going through with each essay submission. Endless revisions before they accept each one as "final." And I'm only at the master's level. Yikes. :duh:

    I don't know if I'll live through the process of a thesis. Currently I have only two courses remaining before the thesis. Next course -- John Calvin, beginning June 1. Augustine (of Hippo) was, shall we say, challenging. :thinking:
     
  17. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Couldn't find it.
     
  18. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    And how is it going?
     
  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  20. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    I would assume that the partnership between the Adler-Aquinas Institute and HMU no longer exists (the post referencing it is more than a year old). It is no longer described at either the HMU or Adler-Aquinas websites.

    If you are wondering what it was like, the linked page is archived here

     

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