It’s almost unheard-of for a university class to spark global press attention 鈥� and offers of book deals 鈥� before instruction even begins. But such is the case with the UW Information School’s new course, “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data.”
The class was proposed by Information School assistant professor and biology professor , and has been approved as a one-credit special topics seminar for about 150 students in spring quarter, which starts on March 27.
“The response has been overwhelming. It seems to have struck a chord across the world,” said West. “We had tens of thousands of users to the class in just a few days of releasing the course.”
West told the Seattle Times the course webpage went live at midnight on Jan. 11. “We woke up the next morning and it was all over the whole planet. I’ve never seen anything like it 鈥� the response has been insane.”
Bergstrom and West say they hope to expand to a 3- or 4-credit class in the 2017-2018 school year. Those not enrolled will be able to watch as well; the two say they will have the lectures videotaped and made freely available on the internet.
West said, “It has clearly struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of people around the world.”
The course’s brief description, atop the online, is as blunt and compelling as its title: “Our world is saturated with bullshit,” it says. “Learn to detect and defuse it.”
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