New Course Offerings
HIS1995 – Life Before the Internet
This history course covers the dark period of mankind's existence during the late 20th century, prior to the development of the World Wide Web. Students will learn about the primitive techniques utilized by early man for his daily survival and entertainment – including such legendary "lost arts" as standing, walking, communicating face-to-face with others, reading paper-based media, writing by hand, and watching video programming only at times and intervals dictated by broadcast television authorities.
Prerequisite: HIS1979 – Life Before Cell Phones
LIT1284 – English Literature Twitter Feed
This course introduces students to the some of the greatest works of English literature through a series of easily digestible tweets of 140 characters or less. Texts are enriched with emoticons to ease comprehension: "It was the best of times. J It was the worst of times. L". The use of numerals, letters, symbols and abbreviations in place of words helps speed the reader along: "2B/2B? TITQ".
Prerequisite: LIT241 – Famous Dramatic Soliloquies as Facebook Status Updates
GEO2012 – The World According to GPS
This course replaces all of our former geography courses, now that the ability to read a map is no longer a required skill in contemporary civilization. Students will practice a range of basic GPS-based driving skills – such as the ability to clearly say the name of their destination while having a mouthful of food, understanding the difference between "turn right" and "turn left", and how to avoid panic when the GPS system says "recalculating".
Prerequisite: GEO2011 – A World Outside of Your Home: Reality or Myth?
MAT1234 – Those Number Buttons on the Right Side of Your Keyboard
What would you do if your voice-activated accounting software failed? This course introduces students to the mysterious numerical keypad located on their computer keyboard and shows how it can actually be used to do basic mathematical calculations – such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and…well, we don't want to give the whole course away now, do we?
Prerequisite: MAT123 – Counting on Your Fingers and Toes
COM1221 – Rewriting Wikipedia Entries
This composition course guides students through the process of rewriting information found on Wikipedia to seem like an original text based on the student's own research.
Take the following Wikipedia entry, for example: "William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes as William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087."
This could easily be rewritten as follows: "William I was king of England from 1066 to 1087. The reason he decided to stop being king was that he died. Most people called him William the Conqueror because that was a really cool nickname. Some people called him William the Bastard, but probably not to his face. What 's weird is that his real name was Norman."
CKG1000 – 1,000 Instant Noodle Recipes
This cooking workshop prepares students for surviving their college years through the preparation of a vast array of Ramen noodle-based meals. Practical tips include using dorm room leftovers – pizza crusts, nacho crumbs, Subway shredded lettuce – to give added flavor and bulk to noodle concoctions.
Prerequisite: CKG212 – Fundamentals of Boiling Water
SOC500 – Making the Most of Your 500th Job Interview
This social studies practicum helps prepare students for making their 500th job interview the one that finally gets them the job they've been desperately seeking for the past 20+ years since their graduation from college. The course covers such valuable techniques as: looking younger than your age, padding your resume with fictional experience, cutting the brake lines of competing candidates' cars, and offering effective bribes to interviewers.
Prerequisite: SOC499 – Making the Most of Your 499th Job Interview
