The Great Courses

The Great Courses (TGC) is a series of college-level audio and video courses produced and distributed by The Teaching Company (TTC), an American company based in Chantilly, Virginia. The courses are available in audio and video form in various formats and on mobile devices.

The courses differ from most online learning platforms in that they are produced for enrichment purposes only and offered without schedules, homework, exams, or certificates. Many of the courses deal with quite narrow topics such as The History of Christianity in the Reformation Era, and Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

The company was founded in 1990 by Thomas M. Rollins, former Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Rollins had been inspired by a 10-hour videotaped lecture series he watched while at Harvard Law School, and began recruiting top professors and experts based almost entirely on customer feedback. On October 2, 2006, the company was acquired by Brentwood Associates, a private equity investment firm.

In 2012, the company produced the first of several cooking courses in partnership with The Culinary Institute of America, and announced an expansion of that partnership in 2013. In 2014, the company announced a partnership with The National Geographic Society to jointly produce courses on photography and expedition travel, and a ten-year partnership with The Smithsonian to produce courses on history, science, travel and the arts. In 2016, the company announced a partnership with Mayo Clinic to jointly produce courses about health and wellness.

In 2015, the company began offering its video courses as part of an unlimited subscription streaming service called "The Great Courses Plus". In 2016, the company introduced a subscription channel on Amazon Video.

In January 2017, The Great Courses launched a content website, The Great Courses Daily, — a free newsreader-style site that hosts articles, interviews, and videos that highlight course content.

As of 2016, the company offers over 600 courses ranging in length from six lectures to over ninety lectures in several subject categories: business, economics, fine arts, music, ancient and medieval history, modern history, literature and English language, philosophy and intellectual history, religion, science, mathematics, social sciences, professional development and better living (health, wellness, food, photography, etc.).

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