# The Great Courses — Play Your Purchased Courses > Play purchased educational video and audio courses with offline access. (iPhone/iPad app by TEACHING COMPANY, LLC.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-great-courses/id636818505 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [TEACHING COMPANY, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/636818508) - Category: Education, Lifestyle - Price: Free - Rating: 4.20/5 from 1,303 App Store ratings · 247 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 13.0 · 37 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2013-04-29 - Data updated: 2026-06-10 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-great-courses/id636818505/reviews.md ## What is The Great Courses? The Great Courses App enables you to play courses you have purchased from us. The Great Courses brings the world’s greatest professors to millions who want to go deeper on the subjects that interest them most. No exams. No homework. No schedule. Just a world of knowledge available anytime, anywhere, via video or audio. Use this app to: • Stream any course you have purchased (Internet connection required) • Seamlessly toggle between video and audio versions of lectures • Download your lectures to enjoy later when not connected • Access course guidebooks included with most courses Your Digital Library includes digital editions purchased directly from The Great Courses, and does not include courses purchased from other retailers. More than 800 courses available at TheGreatCourses.com. ## Key features - Stream purchased courses - Toggle between video and audio - Download lectures for offline use - Access course guidebooks - Digital library of purchased content ## What do users think of The Great Courses? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Convenient offline access - 🎨 Great course content - 📚 Comprehensive library - 🖥️ Seamless streaming - 🗓️ Saves progress **Cons** - 🐛 Buggy offline functionality - 🔍 Difficult to navigate/search - ⏱️ Slow downloads - 🔌 Requires internet connection - 📱 Suboptimal mobile experience **Commonly reported bugs** - Lectures randomly skip or stop - App crashes when switching between courses - Inconsistent login/authentication issues - Downloaded content disappears - Playback issues when switching devices **Most requested features** - Add Apple TV support - Improve offline playback controls - Implement bookmarking/note-taking - Provide better course organization - Add variable playback speed ## Recent user reviews (10 of 247) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-great-courses/id636818505/reviews.md ### 2/5 — Flawed *2025-06-24, version 8.2.5* The app does not have at least 1 course I purchased, although the purchased course is available on their website. Since it’s unreliable, I cannot recommend it. ### 1/5 — Dr. Wayne Isom *2025-06-20, version 8.2.5* I have purchased over $ 1000 worth of your courses over the years and find it very difficult to stream the courses on my phone. I would need better service to subscribe to your Great Courses plus. I think you will go out of business! Wayne Isom, MD ### 2/5 — Glitchy *2025-05-28, version 8.2.5* When offline it will work fine for a while then start asking for you to log in again and will not accept the login data until it reconnects to wifi. Will stop a downloaded file midway. Basically not much use in airplane mode. ### 1/5 — Does Not Play Nice with Apple Car Play *2025-04-25, version 8.2.5* Great Courses has made this app even worse. They should fire the people involved. Or maybe they already did, and have just abandoned it. Nothing works. I can’t log in. It don’t let me play downloaded courses without logging in. I don’t want to stream and should not need to log in. Miserable experience. SECOND UPDATE: After spending time with customer service, I learn that the problem is even worse than I thought. The app is not sequencing through the lectures in order because I previously listened to them on the app many months ago. Now the app automatically skips every lecture that it thinks I finished — no matter how long ago — and jumps to the next place it finds that it thinks is incomplete. So I end up jumping from the end of lecture 5 to somewhere in lecture 14. It does not seem to occurto these morons that a customer might want to listen to a lecture series a second time. There is no way to reset the “finished” flag on the lectures in order for auto play to work properly. Deleting and re-downloading the lectures also makes no difference. I just cannot believe how stupid this is. END SECOND UPDATE. // UPDATE: I have lowered the rating to one star. The technical shortcomings are appalling. Most annoying is that it will not sequence through downloaded lectures in order - it jumps randomly. The Great Courses is not so great when it comes to technology. END UPDATE. // One obvious place to listen to these lectures is in the car. Unfortunately, this app does not function properly via Apple Car Play. The “play” button shown on the car’s screen does not do anything. Sometimes there is no audio. Other times, after trying to start playback, two or more out-of-sync instances of the lecture start playing at once. This is really frustrating, and makes this app pretty useless. ### 3/5 — I hope you like typing your password! *2025-04-16, version 8.2.5* The great courses is great. The app is mediocre at best, unless you really like logging back in after taking a week or two off. ### 2/5 — No Split Views *2025-03-17, version 8.2.4* Doesn't support basic Split View or pop out video player which makes it difficult to take notes on lectures ### 3/5 — Sorta functional *2025-01-03, version 8.2.4* I use the app often but I never know what it’s going to do. I keep reinstalling it but it keeps coming up with new glitches. ### 4/5 — Off line app poor *2024-12-26, version 8.2.4* I’ve tried to use this app many times while travelling when I don’t have access to wifi to play courses I’ve bought in my library. The app kicks me out of the lectures constantly. Time consuming to re-open and sometimes couldn’t even re-open until I was able to get wifi which can be many hours on a long haul flight. Very frustrating. ### 5/5 — Great content, lousy streaming model: no Apple TV for bought courses. *2024-11-10, version 8.2.4* Forcing TGC buyers to use a subscription (TGC Plus, exWondrium) is just a money grub. Fix it. ### 3/5 — Spyware? *2024-11-01, version 8.2.4* Find it odd that I haven’t used this app in months yet this app consumes more cellular data (2.93gb in the past month) than apps that I regularly use and that is including some audio/video apps. Concerning. ## Frequently asked questions about The Great Courses ### What does The Great Courses app do? The Great Courses app allows you to play courses you have already purchased from The Great Courses. It provides access to lectures in both video and audio formats, enabling you to learn on your own schedule. ### Can I watch courses offline? Yes, you can download your lectures within the app to enjoy them later when you do not have an internet connection. This feature ensures you can continue learning even without Wi-Fi or cellular data. ### How much does The Great Courses app cost? The app itself is free to download and use. It serves as a player for courses you have already purchased directly from The Great Courses. There are no in-app purchases or ads mentioned for the app's functionality. ### What kind of content is available? The app provides access to a vast library of educational courses taught by world-renowned professors. You can stream or download lectures and access course guidebooks included with most purchases. ### Does this app include courses purchased from other retailers? No, your Digital Library within this app only includes digital editions of courses purchased directly from The Great Courses. It does not include courses bought from other retailers. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 8.2.5 — 2025-04-09 Maintenance ### 8.2.4 — 2024-09-18 - Performance improvements. ### 8.2.3 — 2023-03-28 Added new crash diagnostic code ### 8.2.2 — 2023-03-09 Bug fix for video crashing associated with specific courses ### 8.2.1 — 2023-03-02 Minor Bug Fixes ## Apps similar to The Great Courses | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [全脑教育-左右脑智力潜能开发](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id866932020) | 1.0 (1) | Free | Education | | [Craftsy](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/craftsy/id1579483240) | 1.8 (230) | Free | Education | | [MasterClass: Online Classes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/masterclass-online-classes/id1273867416) | 4.8 (8,220) | Free | Education | | [edX online learning](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/edx-online-learning/id945480667) | 4.8 (10,600) | Free | Education | | [Teachable online courses](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/teachable-online-courses/id1177062376) | 4.6 (9,296) | Free | Education | | [BrainHQ](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/brainhq/id537452201) | 4.6 (21,938) | Free | Education | ## More apps by TEACHING COMPANY, LLC - [The Great Courses](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-great-courses/id1017813651) All apps by TEACHING COMPANY, LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/636818508 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*