Current Course Offering:
Great Big Ideas: An Entire Undergraduate Education While Standing on One Foot
Great Big Ideas delivers the key takeaways of an entire undergraduate education. It's a survey of twelve major fields delivered by their most important thinkers and practitioners. Each lecture explores the key questions in the field, lays out the methods for answering those inquiries and explains why the field matters. The course is a primer in the diverse modes of problem solving essential for success in the 21st century.
All course materials and discussions for the course are presented in an intuitive, self-guided format. There are no tests or written assignments — just straightforward, easy-to-access videos, readings, and discussions that let you learn and participate at your own pace. Learn more.
The Floating University e-learning platform is fully compatible with the iPad.
Assessment and Certification:
Achieve Mastery Over Great Big Ideas Course Materials
The Floating University now offers assessment and certification for the Great Big Ideas course. All enrolled students have the option of completing discussion, quiz, and short answer question benchmarks to receive a certificate of completion signed by the president and provost of The Floating University. Find out more here.
Most Popular eSeminars
Who Wants to be a Billionaire? Everything You Need to Know About Finance and Investing in Under an Hour
William Ackman, Activist Investor and Hedge-Fund Manager
We all want to be financially stable and enjoy a well-funded retirement, and we don't want to throw out our hard earned money on poor investments. But most of us don't know the first thing about finance and investing. In this eSeminar, acclaimed value investor William Ackman, teaches you what it takes to finance and grow a successful business and how to make sound investments that will grant you to a cash-comfy retirement.
Watch a preview and learn more.
The Universe in a Nutshell: The Physics of Everything
Michio Kaku, Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at CUNY
What if we could find one single equation that explains every force in the universe? Dr. Michio Kaku explores how physicists may shrink the science of the Big Bang into an equation as small as Einstein's "e=mc^2." Thanks to advances in string theory, physics may allow us to escape the heat death of the universe, explore the multiverse, and unlock the secrets of existence. While firing up our imaginations about the future, Kaku also presents a succinct history of physics and makes a compelling case for why physics is the key to pretty much everything.
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Say What? Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain
Steven Pinker, Psychologist, Scientist, and Linguist at Harvard University
How did humans acquire language? In this eSeminar, best-selling author Steven Pinker introduces you to linguistics, the evolution of spoken language, and the debate over the existence of an innate universal grammar. He also explores why language is such a fundamental part of social relationships, human biology, and human evolution. Finally, Pinker touches on the wide variety of applications for linguistics, from improving how we teach reading and writing to how we interpret law, politics, and literature.
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Now On Sale For 10% Off
The Authority of Ideas: Decoding the DNA of Education in Search of Actual Knowledge
Larry Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University, Economist, Former President of Harvard
What will historians say about us 250 years from now? Larry Summers, former Harvard University president and economic adviser to President Obama, asks this question in a thought-provoking eSeminar about the evolution of ideas and the critical importance of education in an increasingly multi-faceted world. This will be a moment in history when the world evolved from a world governed by the idea of authority to a world governed by the authority of ideas, says Summers. Then he tells you how to be a part of the next great revolution.
Watch a preview and learn more.
Malthus Miffed: Are People the Problem, the Solution, or Both? An Introduction to Demography through an Examination of the World's Population
Joel Cohen, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations, Rockefeller University, Mathematical Biologist, Columbia University
In the next fifty years the world will face population problems that it has never faced before. Billions will live in mega slums without access to clean water or medical care. In his eSeminar, Professor Joel Cohen teaches you how demography can provide answers to the life or death questions caused by the world's swelling population and dwindling resources. Can we prevent an outcome where wealthy western countries are in permanent population decline, while third world cities into swell into massively overcrowded slums with no access to education, healthcare, or hope?
Watch a preview and learn more.
