The University of Findlay is teaming up with an Ivy League school to provide students enrolled in the Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing a vivid journey through mythological Greece this spring semester, school officials announced.

Harvard University chose the school UF as one of eight institutions to participate in its "Reading the 'Odyssey,'" course, which brings together approximately 100 students for 12 weeks of intense study. Students are averaging two books each week, responding to writing prompts and working in groups from collaborating institutions.

Each week, a synchronous common session meeting, using Google Hangouts on Air, is connecting professors and students for conversation thread discussions. At the same time, all students are participating in a chat room.

The course is being presented by Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies and its teaching branch, Sunoikisis. The Center's Gwen Gruber, Ph.D., coordinated the effort with faculty members from Classics, English and rhetoric programs around the country, including Christine Tulley, Ph.D., English professor and director of UF's corresponding master's program. Participating faculty helped design the course.

The team-taught course is intended to guide students through methods and approaches using close reading and interpretation.

Anyone can follow the course's progress here. Videos of the weekly common sessions will also be available for free and the course syllabus updated continuously throughout the semester as the writing prompts, supplementary readings and videos are announced.

The other participants include Agnes Scott College, Carthage College, Concordia College, Howard University, Southwestern University, University of Maryland and Warren Wilson College.