Vanderbilt University is offering a free online class in MMO’s and literature, starring Lord of the Rings

Feel free to call me a mook for this, but I don’t know a lot about MOOCs. Despite my own personal ignorance on the subject, they’re revolutionizing the education industry. MOOCs, or “massive open online courses,” provide everyday people the opportunity to take university courses online for the low low price of (usually) nothing.

So why are you reading about this on a gaming website? Because in my own personal search for self-improvement, I’ve stumbled across a MOOC that every gamer can get behind.

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative – a course taught at Vanderbilt University and offered to the world (for free) through the MOOC service Coursera, will explore the relationship between literature and online gaming. More to the point, it explores how we transition from one to the other.

To do this, students will read The Fellowship of the Ring, watch the Peter Jackson film, and play The Lord of The Rings Online; a free-to-play MMO.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for the course here, grab the game here, and snag the book here. Classes starts on Monday September 9^th.

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.