University of Oklahoma launches website offering lectures on American government

Kyle Harper, director of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, said the site will help the institute fulfill its public outreach role.

OU President David Boren established the institute in 2009. Since then, the institute has created about 30 courses in subjects related to American government, Harper said. He recently gave a presentation about the institute at an OU Alumni Association event in Dallas, and several people in attendance said they were sorry the institute didn't exist when they were in school.

The site offers a way for the institute to reach those people, he said. Universities tend to deliver a different kind of content than other media, such as television, he said, and many alumni and other Oklahomans are interested in that kind of content.

“I'm thinking of this as a kind of extended campus,” he said. “There's a demand for this. People are eager to continue learning.”