Academic Studies The Open University of Israel
Homepage > Academic Studies > Horizon-Expanding Courses
 A + 
 A - 

Horizon-Expanding Courses

One of the goals of a university education is to provide students with a broad education, not only for professional purposes. Conferring a Bachelor's degree also signifies the graduate's completion of an "initiation" period and entrance into the academic community. The OUI deems it important that students pursuing an academic degree expand their horizons, develop their intellectual abilities and justify their status as educated members of society.

Accordingly, the Open University has decided to require its students to include a horizon-expanding course in their program of study towards a Bachelor's degree. The intent is that students will take a course in a discipline that is not in their field of specialization towards a degree, providing them with some academic experience, although minimal, in an additional field of knowledge.

Degrees that include a horizon-expanding course requirement

A horizon-expanding course need only be included in programs of study in which students have free choice of courses, i.e., those in which not all the requirements are taken up by required and elective courses in the discipline of the degree.

List of horizon-expanding courses

The list is arranged by three areas: courses in the Humanities, in the Social Sciences and in the Sciences. In the Hebrew Course Catalog, horizon-expanding courses are marked with an icon of a bird  that appears at the beginning of the course description.

Humanities
Hero and Anti-Hero in the Modern Novel (10107)
Introduction to the Modern History of the Middle East (10109)
Classical Greece (10110)
Problems in Moral Philosophy (10122)
Art in the Technological Era (10124)
Introduction to Linguistics (10143)
Music at First Sight (10148)
Experiencing Theater: Introduction to Drama and the Theater (10154)
Music at First Sight II (10158)
Jews in an Era of Transition (10204)
Jerusalem Throughout the Ages (10208)
Shakespearean Drama (10215)
Basic Conventions of the 19th Century Novel (10221)
Renaissance Art in Italy (10232)
Greek Philosophy: Thales to Aristotle (10248)
Fiction and Reality: Genres in the Israeli Short Story (10259)
Philosophy in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Rationalism and Empiricism (10266)
Jews and Christians in Western Europe: Encounter between Cultures in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (10275)
Introduction to Biblical Literature (10278)
The Culture of the Enlightenment in 18th Century Europe, I: France (10282)
Ashkenazi Hasidism in the History of Jewish Thought (10297)
Spatial Experiments: Settlement Geography of Israel (10298)
Europe - Cradle of Nationalism (10403)
Opera (10411)
Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages from Sa'adiah Gaon to Rambam (Maimonides) (10412)
From Exile to Independence: From the Babylonian Exile to the Fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom (10419)
From 'National Home' to a 'State in the Making': The Jewish Community in Palestine between the World Wars (10423)
Israeli Poetry of the 1950s (10429)
Islam: Introduction to the History of the Religion (10432)
The Beginnings of Europe: Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages (10436)
Midrash and Aggadah (10446)
Rome: Imperialism and Empire (10473)
Myths in Israeli Culture (10487)
Art History: An Introduction (10489)
Philosophical Aesthetics: An Introduction (10496)
Landmarks in Western Literary Criticism (10639)
Understanding Movies: Introduction to the Art of Cinema (10640)
Language, Culture, Society (10641)
Film as History: Imagining and Screening the Twentieth Century (10655)
The Book of Genesis (10667)
Still Life: From Represented Objects to Real Objects (10675)
Myth and Ethos in Israeli Cinema (10693)
The History of Israel during the First Temple Period (10700)
Introduction to Logic (10703)
The Rise of the Monarchy in Israel: Studies in the Book of Samuel (10710)
Modern Literary and Cultural Theory: An Introduction (10734)
Theater and Society (10738)
The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Empire (10742)
Art in the Technological Era (10766)
Philosophy of Science (20202)
Midrash and Aggadah (in Russian) (42117)
Jerusalem Throughout the Ages (in Russian) (42142)
Jews and Christians in Western Europe (in Russian) (42143)
Introduction to Biblical Literature (in Russian) (42144)
From Exile to Independence: From the Babylonian Exile to the Fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom (in Russian) (42145)

Social Sciences
Social Psychology (10104)
Reading - Theory and Practice (10123)
Educational Psychology (10125)
Introduction to Macroeconomics (10126)
Introduction to Microeconomics (10131)
Introduction to Sociology (10134)
Introduction to Psychology (10136)
Fundamental Issues in Special Education (10139)
Critical Thinking: Statistical and Intuitive Considerations (10145)
Introduction to Anthropology (10153)
Introduction to the Social Sciences (10161)
Introduction to International Relations (10205)
The Emergence of New States in Africa (10206)
Personality: Theory and Research (10269)
Psychology of Gender (10293)
Organizational Behavior (10430)
Sociology of Education (10485)
Developmental Psychology (10493)
Introduction to Political Thought (10611)
Challenges of School Management (10635)
Language, Culture, Society (10641)
Democracies and Dictatorships: Ideas, Contexts, Regimes (10660)
Genocide (10664)
Language and Communication (10668)
Introduction to Gender Studies (10680)
Giftedness and Special Talents (10711)
Introduction to Law (10735)
Philosophy of Education (10765)

Sciences
Introduction to Mathematics (04101)
World of Chemistry (20116)
Secrets of the Earth (20117)
Secrets of the Universe (20120)
Introduction to Life Sciences (20121)
Fundamentals of Physics (20125)
Human Genetics: Medical and Ethical Aspects (for Non-Biologists) (20468)

Application of the horizon-expanding course requirement

The requirement to include a horizon-expanding course in the B.A. study program applies to students who begin their studies at the OUI in the Fall 2007 semester, and onwards. However, we strongly recommend that veteran students include such a course in their programs of study as well.

Exemptions and Exceptions

Detailed requests for exemption from the horizon-expanding course requirement owing to prior studies, or requests to enroll in a horizon-expanding course not included in the above list, should be submitted to the Study Program Approval Committee. The Committee has the exclusive authority to approve or deny such requests. The Committee is also authorized to approve a course from the student's area of study, provided the course is not from the student's major study discipline.

back