University of Washington is offering a course about 2020

Thought learning about 1914 was difficult? Try 2020.

The University of Washington (UW) has announced its new online class titled “2020: The Course.”

The online course will review this year’s extraordinary events and societal upheaval and will include lectures from UW professors and special guests, who will discuss the coronavirus pandemic, race in the United States, the state of the environment, the economic recession, civic participation, citizenship, as well as this election season and its outcomes.

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The course is designed with first-year students in mind but is open to UW students on all three campuses.

“2020 has been a year like no other. It will be a year that will be remembered for the ways in which our university, nation, communities and world have been impacted,” said Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and lead instructor for the course, in a news release. “We must also look at 2020 as a year in which we contributed to the betterment of our world and society.”

In addition to over 20 faculty members, about 600 UW students are engaging with a series of talks and lectures to help document their own experiences and create a time capsule for future generations.

The course began asynchronously on September 30 and continues until the end of the quarter in mid-December. Videos of the lectures will be made available online and typically contain three parts: an introduction, a lecture, and a follow-up conversation between Taylor and the other scholar.