Kelly Writers House offers free online course, ModPo
The next session of ModPo (free open online course on modern poetry) begins September 10, 2016 . . .
ModPo is a free, open, non-credit course on modern and contemporary U.S. poetry. It has been hosted since 2012 by the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. The new 10-week session opens on September 10. To enroll, simply go here:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo
For those who register, the site will be open all year, so if you cannot finish going through the week-by-week syllabus in the ten weeks between mid-September and mid-November, you can always go back and finish any time later.
ModPo hosts weekly live interactive webcasts, and there are meet-ups organized in cities around the world as well as virtual discussion groups arranged around a wide range of interests and affinities. Each of the ModPo TAs hosts weekly office hours.
ModPo is fully described—with an FAQ—here:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo
This is the fifth year of ModPo. Some 150,000 people from 191 countries have participated since 2012. It is not like other MOOCs (massive open online courses) because it is entirely interactive.
You can see more information about ModPo below.
MORE ABOUT MODPO
ModPo is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly "difficult." We encounter and discuss the poems one at a time. It's much easier than it seems! Join us and try it!
The next live, interactive 10-week session of ModPo will begin on September 10, 2016, and will conclude on November 21, 2016. Al Filreis will be in touch with you by email before the September 10 start of the course with all the information you'll need to participate.
During the 10 weeks of the course, you will be guided through poems, video discussions of each poem, and community discussions of each poem. And (unique among open online courses) we offer weekly, interactive live webcasts. Our famed TAs also offer office hours throughout the week. We help arrange meet-ups and in-site study groups.
If you are curious about the ModPo team, type "ModPo YouTube introduction" into Google or your favorite search engine, and watch the 20-minute introductory video. You will get an overview of the course and will meet the brilliant TAs, who will be encountering the poems with you all the way to the end.
If you use Facebook, join the always-thriving ModPo group: from inside Facebook, search for "Modern & Contemporary American Poetry" and then request to be added as a member. If you have any questions about ModPo, you can post a question to the FB group and you'll receive an almost instant reply.
We tweet all year long at @ModPoPenn and you can also find ModPo colleagues using the hashtag #ModPoLive.
ModPo is hosted by—and is housed at—the Kelly Writers House at 3805 Locust Walk on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia USA. All ModPo'ers are welcome to visit the Writers House when they are in our area. Our discussions are filmed there. Our live webcasts take place in the famed "Arts Cafe" of the House. To find out what's going on at the Writers House any time, just dial 215-746-POEM.