Big History Project Website FAQ

About Big History Project
Technical Requirements
Course Information
Threshold Questions and Badges
Social Media and Sharing

About Big History Project

What is Big History?

Big History is an interdisciplinary academic field of study that examines causal relationships across the history of the Universe with the aim of explaining emergent complexity.

YAWN! That sounded boring. It's WAY cooler than that. What is Big History? It's awesome. It's the study of everything, how it's all related, and how stuff got so complicated. Stars blow up. Lava surfing happens. And there's this species of primates who evolve and do all sorts of dumb stuff. You're gonna love it.

What is Big History Project?

Big History Project is a free, self-guided, online course that spans 13.8 billion years of history. It weaves together insights from many disciplines to form a single story that will help you understand our Universe and your place in it. In one four-hour course, Big History Project will help you see where we've been, how we got here, and how to change where we're going. Get ready to sound smarter than all your friends. Did we mention it's free?

For an 18-minute crash course, check out David Christian's TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_the_history_of_our_world_in_18_minutes

Who is David Christian?

David Christian is a historian and Professor Emeritus at Macquarie University, where he was a Distinguished Professor of History. He is the founder and former director of the Big History Institute. David has written lots of books including The New York Times bestsellers Origin Stories and Future Stories. In 2011, with the support of Bill Gates, he helped create a free, online Big History course for schools that over the past decade has morphed into the seven-course OER Project that you might know. The rest, as they say, is history.

Who is the sponsor of Big History Project?

Bill Gates provides program support to develop and maintain Big History Project to make it available for free, to everyone.

Technical requirements

What are the system requirements to run the Big History Project website?

A current web browser: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, or comparable browser
JavaScript must be enabled
Cookies must be enabled if you wish to track progress toward becoming a Big Historian
PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader
Infinite curiosity and the processing power to confront the ineffable

Does the site run on mobile and touch devices like smart phones, iPads, Android tablets, and Surfaces?

Yes, the Big History Project site is optimized for mobile, tablets, and other touch devices. No flip phones, though.

Course information

How is the course organized?

The course covers 13.8 billion years of history in five chapters. Within these chapters, you'll find eight thresholds. The thresholds represent moments in time when just the right stuff combined at just the right moment to allow complexity to increase. Chapter 1 covers the first three thresholds and the cosmic history of the Universe. Chapter 2 zooms in on our humble little star and sloppy mess of a planet. From there, Chapter 3 introduces life, and Chapter 4 sees the arrival of humanity and all our noisy civilizations. Finally, Chapter 5 brings us into the present, in which we start burning fossil fuels and wondering what to do about all the problems this has caused.

This course is a journey from the Big Bang and to the future. On the home page, you'll find a course outline and some more explanation about Big History, in case you're not sated by this awesome FAQ. Oh, and one more thing: Each threshold in the course ends with a set of questions. Complete all threshold questions and you'll get a reward at the end. No spoilers.

Do I have to take the course in order?

Heck no! This is your journey. You do you. We recommend starting with the Intro to get context for the rest of the course, but feel free to skip around to whichever topics interest you first. It's all connected, and no one is watching over your shoulder. Except for Kyle. Look out behind you, Kyle.

How do I switch between threshold pages?

Just click on the name/number of the chapter or subsection in the left navigation bar, or follow the link to the next chapter at the bottom of each page.

Threshold questions and badges

Where can I find the threshold questions?

A set of threshold questions are located after each threshold in the Big History Project course. It looks a lot like a quiz, but our marketing team won't let us call it a quiz because that sounds boring. Anyway, for each threshold, you need to answer a series of three multiple-choice questions based on the stories, images, and videos on that page. See, totally not a quiz.

If you don't have time to complete all the qui…er, sets of questions in one sitting, you can come back later and pick up where you left off.

How do I earn badges?

Once you begin the course, you can earn badges by taking and passing threshold questions. Collect all 8 badges and you'll become a certified Big Historian. And you can lord it over your friends and enemies.

How can I see which badges I have?

Badge icons appear below the course home page. As you pass threshold questions, the badges will light up.