UFOs 101: Hype, uproar, disinformation and mystery: 'Here we go again.'

A university history professor developed a virtual classroom lecture series that probed the history, evolution, and impacts on society of the Unidentified Flying Object phenomenon.

The intent of the five-part course was not to prove true believers or skeptics of ET visitation are right. Rather, the series goal was to develop a deeper understanding of the UFO enigma and the social, political, and cultural developments that now shape it and not pick sides.

As the course description explains, UFOs are making headlines again, with U.S. intelligence services and NASA announcing they're studying more recent reports of sightings. 

"And as has always been the case, the public response has focused on the question of what's going on, a discourse dominated mostly by the believers and the skeptics. But lost in the hype and ruckus is the question of when this all started and how we got to this point," states the course outline.