Welcome, and thank you for creating your free account with Hillsdale College’s online courses.

I’m Jeremiah Regan, the Executive Director of Online Learning at the College. I’m humbled that you have chosen to invest your valuable time and energy in learning some of the greatest ideas of Western Civilization with us. 

Online education is supposed to follow a particular set of rules.    

The arguments have to be simple, the videos as short as possible (preferably no more than 5 minutes), and the learning designed, first and foremost, for career credentialing and advancement. And you must avoid, at all costs, any reference to Aristotle, Euclid, Dante, Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers.  

To violate any of these rules assumes a great deal of risk. To violate all of them guarantees banishment to the back recesses of Internet Siberia—  

except in the strange case of Hillsdale’s online courses.  

And the reason is because of our incredible online students. Our students are willing to buck every modern educational trend and devote themselves to the serious study of old and complicated books that have long since been removed from most of America’s classrooms.  

If this is your first time hearing of Hillsdale College, I invite you to watch this short video that tells a little bit about the College and why we do what we do.

https://youtu.be/3yGh-1rOjhI

Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” In pursuit of this mission, the College started online courses in 2011, hoping to share the learning that takes place in our classrooms with anyone who wishes to learn.

The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law. For this reason, you will find courses on philosophy, theology, literature, history, economics, religion, and politics on our site.

By training people in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares them to become well-educated and virtuous citizens willing to defend the blessing of civil and religious freedom we have inherited from our Founders.

Thank you for joining us in this fun and rewarding work exploring life’s most important questions.

Best regards, 

Jeremiah Regan, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Online Learning 
Hillsdale College