The Renaissance has met cyberspace in a university philosophy and literature course that will be taught completely online.
Two professors, one at Mississippi State and one at Centenary College of Louisiana, are collaborating to team-teach a spring semester course titled "History of Ideas Online."
While cyberspace is a recent concept, the course takes as its subject the idea of space as it was defined in the 16th and 17th centuries.
"Many ideas we take for granted--such as a mental space we call consciousness--were formed during this period," said philosophy professor Lynn Holt of Mississippi State. He developed the course in collaboration with literature professor Steven Shelburne of Centenary.
Students will read a variety of sources, including 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and philosopher G.W. Leibnitz, among others. Topics will include astronomy (celestial space), cartography (terrestrial space) and psychology (mental space).
Images and texts are being scanned into a hypertext format and will be accessed electronically. Classroom discussion will be by electronic mail, with students graded in part on their rate of participation, said Holt.
"Lectures will be posted at our World Wide Web site," he explained. "Students will read these as well as assigned texts and will post to a discussion list answering questions we raise."
The two professors are trying to create the sense of classroom discussions using the computer, he said. The online discussions will assure that students are "in class."
Off-campus students may register through the Division of Continuing Education at Mississippi State.
"As far as we know, there's not another such class being taught by professors at different universities," Holt said. "It's a way for students who enroll to take advantage of expertise from professors at two campuses and to discuss materials with students who may live anywhere in the world."
For more information about the course, contact Holt at (662) 325-7518, or by e-mail at
This World Wide Web version of MSU Memo was modified and updated by Chris Brown.
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Last modified: Friday, 14-Jun-2002 15:59:00 CDT.
URL: http://msuinfo.ur.msstate.edu/msu_memo/1995/12-11-95/webclass.htm
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