The excellent free online course about Chinese history
(ChinaX) offered by Harvard (the instructors are Professors Peter Bol and
William Kirby) has just posted a new module on the Silk Roads, under the
section devoted to the Tang Dynasty.
You can access this without charge by doing the
following:
1. Register an account on edX.org: <https://courses.edx.org/register>
2. Provide the necessary information (e.g. email address,
Full Name, Username, password, country) 3. Click ChinaX Part 3: Cosmopolitan
Tang: Aristocratic Culture (<https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:HarvardX+SW12.3x+2016/info>)
and click “Enroll Now.”
4. You will then be taken to your student dashboard (<https://courses.edx.org/dashboard>).
Click on “ChinaX Part 3”
5. Under “Course” you will find the module “The Silk
Roads with Dan Waugh" (<https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:HarvardX+SW12.3x+2016/courseware/3bcb90f57d4e4d9993937899dc50dacd/fabce5df12314b42983ad24334ef7e88/>).
The ChinaX course as a whole is worth your attention if
you are new to the subject and/or if you want to see a model for what online
instruction might involve when it is done well. Regarding the Silk Road module,
you should be aware that it was not formally scripted. The interview/dialogue,
divided here into several video segments, was led by Peter Bol, the responses
spontaneous, not based on notes. I mention this just in case you see some place
where you think I mis-spoke in the responses and would need correction. We
collaborated closely in editing the video (the raw footage was done in a single
take). I provided many of the images they used; we tried to coordinate them
closely with the discussion.
Dan Waugh
