Massively open online courses, or MOOCs, bring together students from all walks of life to learn about the topic at hand. Today AMC, Instructure, and the University of California, Irvine have teamed up to announce a MOOC that brings together the walks of the undead with “Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC’s The Walking Dead.”
The university-level class will be taught by a team of instructors across a number of disciplines. The UC Irvine faculty includes Zuzana Bic, public health; Joanne Christopherson, social sciences; Michael Dennin, physics; and Sarah Eichhorn, mathematics. Zuzana Bic often uses pop culture references in her teaching. “There will be something for everyone in this course,” she said, “which will explore concepts as varied as post-disaster nutrition, the foundations of human survival, and stereotypes in a Darwinian environment.”
The eight week online course is free, and kicks off October 14, the day after the season 4 premiere of The Walking Dead. (Canvas Network promises “provisions to help international participants avoid spoilers.”) The course ends December 2.
Students must be 18 years old to enroll, and registration is currently open on the Canvas Network web site.
