Open Source

Open Yale Courses - http://oyc.yale.edu/

This website is an example of Open Source software that can be used by anyone just for the sake of learning, for free.  This fairly new concept is free in use but there are costs involved with developing and maintain these courses. In the case of Open Yale course, Yale University covers the expenses and posts the course and the material that corresponds with each course. This site offers course in all fields of study and multiple options for each field.

Since my field of interest and undergrad degree is in history, I concentrated my efforts in this subject area.  Each of the courses offer an overview of the class, information about the professor, a syllabus, necessary downloads, a list of class sessions and a survey. These elements generally align with the critical components for a successful learning system, which are “the learners, the content, the method and materials, and the environment, including the technology.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Albright, 2009, p. 127) With the addition of the survey, it also offers an opportunity for evaluation which is also “Another critical part of the (distance learning) process.” (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 127) These course offer video, audio and lecture transcripts for the learners to absorb the material in various ways that would suit their preferred learning style. This site takes advantage of lectures that were given to a live audience or class and uses that as the basis for the online materials. The content is quality university level with qualified professors giving the lectures. It also uses the most common software to allow the students to view or hear the lectures.

Since these courses do offer those components, it does appear to be pre-planned and designed for distance learning in several ways. Even though the lectures were given to a face to face audience, a distance learner could still get the information from the various sources this site provides. The class sessions are methodically planned out in a logical manner and easy for the distance learner to stay with the natural progression of the course as well as backtrack or advance to other class sessions. The technology used to provide the learners with the lectures is also distance learner friendly since they use the most common formats that most computers can use.

These courses only follow some of the recommendations for online learners.  In the book, Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education, Simonson provides a list of 12 “golden rules” to designing and developing a quality distance learning environment. (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 147.) Some of the rules such as, “Each medium has its own aesthetic” and “Make all four media available to teachers and learners,” are indeed used. (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 147) However other rules such as “Good teaching matters,” “Interaction is essential,” and “Student numbers are critical,” are not closely followed.

From the time I spent in this site, I could not find any genuine interaction with the other students as well as the instructor. Some of these class sessions were done many years ago, so these classes are truly for those who just want to learn the material without being actively involved with the class and have a collective learning experience.  There are no learning activities to participate in and the required assignments do not have a place like a “drop box” to submit the student’s work. If someone is just getting some quality information about a certain topic in any field of study without the added requirements of a true distance education, then this specific Open Source site provides that type of experience as and it is easy to use.

Reference
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and
learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.