UC Irvine Offers Free Online Course On AMC’s The Walking Dead

Did you know everyone around the world can register to take a real online college course based on AMC’s hit zombie TV series, The Walking Dead? The best part is it’s FREE! No I’m NOT kidding and no it isn’t for any actual college credit. It’s coming this October and is a real course taught by real UC Irvine Physics, Public Health and Social Sciences professors.

The University of California Irvine is offering a multiple discipline course using The Walking Dead as a jumping off point for examples and discussion. The 8 week long course, entitled, “Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC’s The Walking Dead” starts Monday October 14th which is the day after the Season 4 premiere here in the United States. It finishes on December 20th, 2013.

Here’s a portion of the official course description:

From understanding social identities to modeling the spread of disease, this eight-week course will span key science and survival themes using AMC’s The Walking Dead as its basis. Four faculty members from the University of California, Irvine will take you on an inter-disciplinary academic journey deep into the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, exploring the following topics:

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—is survival just about being alive?
Social order and structures—from the farm and the prison to Woodbury
Social identity, roles, and stereotyping—as shown through leaders like Rick and the Governor
The role of public health in society—from the CDC to local community organizations
The spread of infectious disease and population modeling—swarm!
The role of energy and momentum in damage control—how can you best protect yourself?
Nutrition in a post-apocalyptic world—are squirrels really good for you?
Managing stress in disaster situations—what’s the long-term effect of always sleeping with one eye open?
Each week we’ll watch engaging lectures, listen to expert interviews, watch exclusive interviews with cast members talking about their characters, use key scenes from the show to illustrate course learning, read interesting articles, review academic resources, participate in large and small group discussions, and—of course—test our learning with quizzes. We recommend that you plan on spending about two (2) to four (4) hours per week on this course, though we believe the course is compelling enough you’ll want to spend more time.

The course is part of a growing trend of MOOC’s or “Massive Open Online Courses”. With last season’s Walking Dead season finale boasting over 5 million viewers this is likely to be one of the largest MOOC’s in history if even a fraction of viewers sign up. This is a cool little experiment that is most assuredly a way to gain exposure for both AMC and UC Irvine, but we’re all for it. It has to be fun and what zombie fan can’t use a little good old fashioned higher edjumuhcation with their favorite zombie TV show? I’m registered already and can’t wait! You can sign up for free HERE.