If you"re like most internet users, you"ll watch a few YouTube videos per week; now imagine if you could earn college credits while watching YouTube videos. Before you begin laughing, let me refer you to Pitzer College, which has begun offering such a course just this fall. About 35 students meet in a classroom but work mostly online, where they view YouTube content and post their comments. Class lessons also are posted and students are encouraged to post videos. One class member, for instance, posted a 1:36-minute video of himself juggling.
Alexandra Juhasz, a media studies professor at the liberal arts college, said she was "underwhelmed" by the content on YouTube but set up the course, "Learning from YouTube," to explore the role of the popular site. Class members control most of the class content and YouTube watchers from around the world are encouraged to comment, Juhasz said. She hopes the course will raise serious issues about YouTube, such as the role of "corporate-sponsored democratic media expression."
Update: According to our good news moderator neufuse, this is not the first course of its kind, as his school in PA also has a similar program, so the article has been updated accordingly.