Week 5 - The Impact of Open Source

While Open Source courseware, such as Moodle, is popular these days, another phenomenon referred to as Open Courses seem to be catching on as well. The differences between the two are vast and the only thing they really have in common is the word “open” in their name.

Open Source courseware is a Learning Management System (LMS) whose source code is openly available for download and modification by everyone. That means the actual software can be customized to work with various institutions and users. The courses prepared in the Open Source LMSs are mostly independent of the code used to present them. Open Courses however are instruction that is created and presented to the public for free, using any variety of LMSs and is not tied to any LMS. These Open Courses, though free, are usually copyrighted and have specific terms of use that do not allow them to be altered.

This week I selected an Open Course from Yale entitled PHYS 200: Fundamentals of Physics I (©Yale University, 2012) to evaluate. It is taught by Professor Ramamurti Shankarm, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics at Yale.

I gravitated towards this course for three reasons. First is the fact that it is from Yale, of all places. Secondly, I have seen the same course on iTunesU ® and have had some time to study its content and its delivery. Last, but certainly not least, I have a keen interest in Physics, though I completely lack the math skills to do the coursework.

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·        Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment? How so?

 

Below is a screen shot from the actual course homepage.

   © Yale University 2012.

As you can see the layout of this open course was very clean. From the beginning you can see that the Web page is not flashy and does not have a lot of distractions going on in the background. Simonson et al. (2012) point out that when creating online instruction the actual online time for delivery is often limited and inflexible. Therefore weeding out extraneous and nonessential information to make room for the essential content is a must (Simonson et al., 2012).

 

Pre-planning for distance learning was done very carefully here. The links from the home page are few but carry a lot of weight. There are links for the syllabus, the recorded video classroom sessions, information on joining a study group, and the Yale bookstore to buy books for the course. One of the best features is that you can download all of the course Web pages (10MB ZIP file) which allows you to view the entire course offline and includes all of the course materials. The course materials also include full transcripts to help with the note taking! Lastly, the video and audio content are also available from YouTube and iTunesU. Once caveat, be sure to read the Terms of Use for all of the Open Yale courses (UYC). The interesting part of those terms to me was the age restriction, where use of OYCs are restricted to those individuals over 18 years of age, emancipated minors, or those who possess legal parental or guardian consent.

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·        Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in the course textbook Teaching and Learning at a Distance from Simonson et al. (2012)?

While it would seem that Yale had committed the ultimate sin of dumping a face to face design onto the Web and presented it as an online instruction, a method Simonson et al. (2012) referred to as “shovelware”, that is not the case (Simonson et al., 2012). While is it true that the course consist largely of videos recordings of the professor lecturing his students, it does still contain activities that are specific to the online environment (Simonson et al., 2012). Yet Yale sort of gets a pass on this requirement since the course is not actually and active course led by a real live instructor who will hold you to commitments and actually grade your course work. For example, the syllabus states that homework is assigned on Wednesday and is due the following Wednesday before class. The problem is that there is no one to turn the homework into, there is no one to grade it for you and there really is not a class to attend synchronously or asynchronously.

 

Below is the YouTube verision of the first class session.

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·        Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?

Piskurich (n.d.) states that a good online design based on ADDIE will result in a very complete Syllabus that tells the students exactly what they will learn, how they will learn it, and what is expected of them Piskurich (n.d.). While the course is adapted from a face to face class that was videotaped and it followed the design of that class in the form of course work assignments, the work is highly applicable in the online environment. However, were this to be  a real class that one could actively participate in, there would be a few things that would need to be changed.

First of all, interactive sessions could take place synchronously between students and the Professor at least once a week to help explain key concepts and hold a question and answer session. The remainder of the course could be asynchronous in the form of interactive Web pages that allow for the student to try various solutions to problem in a multiple choice type quiz. However, given the nature of this Open Course it does deliver a slam dunk on content and is very educational. Unfortunately, like all Open Courses, there is not any earned college credits available. If you have the time or need to learn and do not need credits this may be the course for you. I would personally shy away from Open Courses unless I just had nothing better to do with my time. Personally, I like being able to have some ting to show for my efforts.

The Yale Open Course entitled PHYS 200: Fundamentals of Physics I mentioned in this blog is available: http://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200

The course videos can also be viewed on YouTube® at: http://www.youtube.com/yalecourses#g/c/FE3074A4CB751B2B

 

References

 

Piskurich, G. (n.d.). Planning and Designing Online Courses. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/Walden/EDUC/6135/05/downloads/WAL_EDUC6135_05_A_EN-CC.zip

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.