I took this (free) class from Coursera last spring semester and raved about it nonstop. It is tremendously informative -- I learned a lot -- as well as entertaining. It is presented by Prof. Philip Zelikow of the University of Virginia, frequently called Professor Z by his hordes of admiring students. I have read a couple of newspaper/magazine articles about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and he is featured in both of them. Highly recommended. The course will be offered again starting next week and goes for 14 weeks.

https://www.coursera.org/course/modernworld

Coursera's estimate is you should expect to spend 4-5 hours a week on it. I think I spent a bit more than that. I was making lots of notes in a Word doc, or maybe I am just a slow learner.

If you do sign up I recommend that you not buy the books on the reading list. The books are pretty expensive and only a fraction of the material is assigned reading. The weekly quizzes cover only the video presentations, not material in the books.