Reviews for The Great Courses Plus

Great content. Horrible app. Audio courses will play for 20 seconds and then stop so you have to keep pressing play every 20 seconds to get through the lecture. I thought the newest update would fix this, but it actually made it worse. Too many times I've opened the app to listen to a course and it simply wouldn't load. For a few days the app said I wasn't a member and didn't have access to the content. Really disappointing. I paid for a 3 month subscription and can't access anything.

Excellent value for the money. I listen to lectures in audio format when I'm driving for work and watch the videos when I have time at home. Seamless transitions between the two make it possible to keep up no matter what you're doing. I've learned so much thanks to these guys from Great Courses and Wondrium is just a step up in content. The only downside is poor app integration across devices. Don't count on seeing this on flex boxes, game consoles, or some other streaming devices.

The content on Wondrium is fantastic, and full of a wide range of interesting topics to learn about. However, the app itself does not always work properly. The app will just randomly pause whatever lecture you're listening to, and then when you go back into the lecture to continue, it has you back about 5 mins from where you were. If they can resolve this issue, then I would happily a give them 5 stars because I really love the service. TLDR: Great content, poor app.

The content is great. The app is a little slow and buggy sometimes but that's not a huge deal. The problem I had was strange and was never resolved. I did the free trial with intensions to renew and pay full price the next month. The next month rolled around and I was charged for the subscription, but my account was deactivated. I emailed the team to try getting this figured out and they still haven't fixed this. They refunded me, and they told me they'd fix it but it's been almost a month.

I love the Great Courses, and based upon the content, I was planning on extending past the 30 day trial. However, I'm not sure I will. On my Samsung phone, it pauses every couple of minutes and gets really annoying to keep pressing play. This could be very dangerous for those that try to listen and drive. Also, on my phone, I have to exit the app a couple times in order for my content to appear. The roku app won't keep you signed in so it takes a while to sign in and it's really annoying.

The service is awesome but this app is an exercise in frustration. I will start a lecture and listen as I clean the house but invariably playback will stop and I have to pull out my phone, pause, then play again. It also never goes on to the next lecture without me having to do the same. It often stops playing new lectures altogether after two or three. Then I have to actually kill the app and restart it. This happens when downloading the lectures, too. It is pretty to look at, but I wish they had put more effort into smooth, reliable operation.

There's so much content, and such a wide variety of lectures and courses to choose from along with guidebooks. Another awesome feature that's extremely useful for me is the ability to quickly switch from video format to audio format whenever I have to go somewhere or do something. My only recommended improvement would be to add something like a monthly credit to buy a singular lecture or course, and own it forever. Similar to Audible. All in all, great app. Recommend it a lot. 👍

I subscribed back when the app was called The Great Courses Plus. The courses were great, but the selection was limited, and the app was terrible. They changed the name to Wondrium, and added a lot of non-Great Courses content that I don't want. I cancelled my subscription, and they sent a confirmation email, but charged me for another year anyway.

First let me say that I really like The Great Courses Plus. However I have one major issue with this new update. The app no longer allows you to store your downloads onto an SD card which is a huge problem. I download several videos at a time for long car rides and travel where I may not have reliable internet. But my phone storage is tiny and often won't hold more than one video. One of the reasons I'm paying a monthly membership is this download feature. I hope this is a temporary problem.

edit: bringing my review down bc there are constant bug issues, won't download or downloads won't play, app freezing etc. Also: A) we should be able to delete individual lectures instead of just entire courses at a time, and B) we ought to be able to download just the audio version of the lectures. If people wanted to watch a lecture they could do so easily on their laptop/computer, this is for on the go so more likely ppl will be busy and wanting to just listen. Also, storage space.

You must enter your card info, & select a plan (monthly or yearly), before getting your "seven day free trial." I can only imagine the hassle of getting your $ back if you can't cancel & subscription charges can go through on locked cards now, sometimes. It's a no from me. 👎🏻 EDIT: Don't play dumb with me, The Teaching Company. That's a lie. People get burned all the time because they're unable to cancel. I learned this working for credit unions.

App won't recognize I have a membership. I have tried to get help for months, and couldn't. They told me that somehow I didn't actually have a membership but was getting the service for free. So they canceled the membership they claimed I never really had. Told me I had to sign up and pay for it again. So I did. Got access to the app, but then lost access again. So I went back into their website, and it says I have a quarterly membership. I changed it to yearly and paid for it. Same problem.....

Good service but app has a major flaw. Nice to have a "continue watching" section but this will always play the last episode you already watched, never the next in the que. The only way to play the next episode is to start the last, stop it to get back to the program list and play it that way, or to go to the watch list, find the program and select the next episode. Too complicated if it could be so easy to watch the next episode with one click. "Continue watching" is there but doesn't work.

Great content as far as I've seen, but the lack of bookmarks and a sleep timer is a serious deficiency. Not having those features means I can't listen in bed before falling asleep, because then I might have to search through hours of content to find the point where I fell asleep. Also, when you resume playback, it doesn't always go back to the same point, or even the same episode,where you left off.

A very unique tool for lecture learning at your pace. Especially great for College students needing personal tutoring. Great variety of topics. Don't just look at basic things. Try looking up a hobby, maybe a new language, and search for an idea. But, the classes are lecture-based. It comes with a guidebook and workbook.

I wish they had never combined their platforms. Great courses plus is unorganized and not nearly as user-friendly as the old Great Courses was. If you plan to do the monthly streaming subscription, this may work well for you. If you intend to buy your courses and keep your own library, I would look elsewhere - I will be as soon as I finish the courses I have already purchased.

Buggy terrible app. It's particularly upsetting, because the old Great Courses app worked pretty well, but in an attempt to constantly market the Plus content I have pretty much lost access to my considerable purchased content. Very poor business decision, and shows a lot of contempt for their customers.

I love the Great Courses' content, but the latest update turned this app is a completely useless piece of garbage. The home page won't load. The search function doesn't do anything. It won't track lecture series I'm watching, let alone what episode I'm on. It deletes anything I download as soon as I close the app. Guess I'm not listening to lectures on my commute anymore.

So.. the content is amazing, of course.. but this is the worst player app I have ever used, by far. It doesn't remember my place properly (it sometimes jumps back a lecture or two), it doesn't work properly in my car (every few seconds it pauses for a few seconds and then starts back up), it randomly deletes my downloads, and many other problems. Great Courses! You are such a wonderful company! I know that you can do better than this garbage.

So frustrated! As far as content, I'd definitely say this app is worth every penny...but unfortunately I can't actually watch much because it's the most unreliable video platform I've used since the 90s. Whether on wifi or 5G ultra wide band with excellent coverage, most videos just spin and buffer for minutes until I give up. I've tried all the usual things with no luck. Probably not gonna make it past the free trial