For Alums, ‘Justice’ Served Online

More than 4,000 Harvard alumni will join the roughly 1,000 undergraduates enrolled in Moral Reasoning 22, “Justice,” this fall, making the class the first College course available to alumni via online video streaming.

Alumni will watch 24 hour-long lectures given by Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel in fall 2005, the last time the course was offered, and they can discuss the course through blogs specially set up for alumni.

Sandel will also hold a two-hour long virtual office hour session, according to “Justice Online,” the Harvard Alumni Association’s Web site for the course.

Twenty-one participating Harvard Clubs—from Shanghai to northeast Ohio—will also hold monthly discussion groups for alumni to talk about the course reading.

Sandel, who has taught more than 12,000 students in his years offering “Justice,” wrote in an e-mailed statement that he intends to hold a video-linked class discussion with undergraduates and alumni taking the class this fall.

“If the technology works, we will be one step closer to creating a global classroom,” he wrote. “It is an exciting opportunity to use new technology to extend the reach of the Harvard classroom.”

While “Justice” is the first semester-long Harvard course to be filmed in its entirety and made available to alumni, it is not the first to utilize the Internet for distance-learning.

Knafel Professor of Music Thomas F. Kelly’s Literature and Arts B-51, “First Nights: Five Performance Premieres,” is one of several College courses that have been taught simultaneously through online streaming video with courses at the Harvard Extension School, Kelly said in an interview yesterday.

Since March 2001, lectures and presentations from Harvard faculty members have been available free of charge to the general public through Harvard@Home, a Web site featuring more than 50 video-based programs on academic subjects.

“There are lots of ways in which faculty and others have been using their teaching expertise at the larger service of the University and the world,” Kelly said.

Though alumni enrolled in the course will not have to worry about grades or assignments—since they receive neither—Kelly said that “Justice Online” will be missing a few core elements of a Harvard class, such as attending regular sections, taking exams, and receiving feedback on papers.

“The Harvard experience is not easily duplicated online,” he added.

A few alumni, however, will get a real-life taste of a Sandel classroom this fall. The Harvard Alumni Association is sponsoring two kickoff events for the course, one last Wednesday at Sanders Theater—where the College class is held—and another this Thursday at the Harvard Club of New York City.

—Staff writer Jamison A. Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.