Expanding Hindu studies online

Thursday, 5 August 2010

In 2009–10 we expanded our online course offering to four courses per term to a total of 146 students compared to 78 the previous year. These courses are ‘Understanding Hindu Identity’, ‘Vedas and Upanishads’, ‘Mahabharata and Ramayana’, and ‘Bhagavad-gita’. It is expected that at least two new courses are to be added in 2010–11: ‘Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess: Readings from the Puranas’, and ‘A History of Yoga’.

Each course consists of lecture notes, audio, and video materials, and discussion forums. Tutoring has been led by Dr Nick Sutton along with Dr Rembert Lutjeharms and Dr Jessica Frazier.

The courses continue to be well received and feedback is overwhelmingly positive. We currently have capacity for at least twice as many students and can scale easily with extra tutors. The great need is advertising. The courses are currently advertised on a shoestring budget through Google Ads, however the positive response suggests that better advertising could multiply our enrolment numbers.

For more information, visit www.ochs.org.uk/ced.