GOOD THING THEY’RE not going to need a lecture hall for this.
Trinity College Dublin’s first free online course has already attracted more than 10,000 students, with still one week to go before it begins.
The university said today that more than half of the applicants are from outside Ireland, with particularly strong demand in countries with high numbers of Irish emigrants such as the UK and the US.
The course is titled ‘Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912-1923′. It is what’s known as a MOOC – a Massive Open Online Course – and is the first of its kind at TCD.
Anyone with internet access can do the six-week course, which will have content delivered by Trinity’s history lecturers.
Students will learn about the lives of the people living through one of the most turbulent times in Irish history, and the contradictory viewpoints about what life was like back then.
“Our aim with the course is to question that there is a single narrative or an easy explanation of the past,” said Professor Ciarán Brady from Trinity’s School of Histories and Humanities.
We want to challenge the silent assumption that there can be one authoritative voice claiming to have all the answers.
The course even has its own hashtag for social media discussions: #FLirishlives.
Students don’t get a qualification at the end, but can pay for a statement of participation.
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