Race and Ethnicity inFilm, Linux Essentials, the Vietnam War and Intro to Christianity are just a handful of the new online classes ASU is offering free to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Patricia Feldman, interim executive director for the school of extended education, said the endeavor was started by a division of the Sloan Foundation, a national organization that has become a clearinghouse for assisting students who were displaced by the hurricane.
"This is to help students uprooted from the Katrina catastrophe," Feldman said. "It is for those students whose studies were interrupted."
According to the Sloan Consortium Web site, ASU is one of 154 institutions around the country offering online classes to displaced students.
Feldman said 43 students from around the nation have registered for the online classes through ASU.
Most of the classes began Oct. 10, but a few more will begin Monday,Feldman said.
Because of the late start, the classes are accelerated to incorporate a full semester's work into the shortened period, she added.
Among these classes is Introduction to Film, taught by Aaron Baker, an associate professor in the English department.
"The online version is perfect to help these students because they can take it wherever they are," he said.
This course will run from Monday to Nov. 30, Baker said.
If hurricane victims don't fill the classes, they will be offered to ASU students and community members for the price of in-state tuition.
"We're offering this version to try to help these students displaced by Hurricane Katrina," he said. "But if other ASU students want to take the course, they are welcome to take it."
Paul Morris, a director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said he is taking this opportunity to teach a class he has been thinking about for more than a year -- the literature of storms.
This class will require students to read six different books about storms -- from "The Perfect Storm" to "Big Weather," a novel about tornado chasers he likened to the movie Twister -- and then respond to questions on ASU's Blackboard, Morris said.
"It's all about how poetic language can relate to science," he said.
Reach the reporter at tara.brite@asu.edu.
