Big History
A timeline from “Big History” shows the scope of the course.

Ever want to learn like Bill Gates? Now you can.

Bill Gates announced today that the course Big History is now available for students who want to take it online. The course, which originated in David Christian’s classroom at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, is divided into 8 segments, starting from the beginning of the universe, and ending at the modern day.

gatesharvard212Gates is personally funding the Big History Project to help bring the course to the masses.

“Big History is my favorite course of all time. It blurs the boundaries between science, geography and history and literally tells the story of the universe,” Gates said in a press release. “David Christian made it so intriguing—I loved his course and wanted to talk to him about how we could make it more available.”

The Microsoft chairman worked with Christian and University of Michigan professor Bob Bain to create a Big History high school curriculum, which is used in over 100 high schools across the country. Up until now, if you wanted a crack at the project, you were out of luck if you weren’t a high school student.

The Big History online course is free. You can work your way through it at bighistoryproject.com, which includes videos, timelines, and course readings. All told, it should take around 6-8 hours to complete, and if you pass all of the quizzes along the way, you’ll be presented with a certificate that says you’ve completed the class.

If you’d rather learn about history from Breaking Bad’s Walter White, the actor Bryan Cranston will be narrating a 10-part Big History miniseries on History Channel’s H2, starting tomorrow at 10 p.m. Eastern Time and 7 p.m. Pacific.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.