This week I took a look at a couple Open Courseware courses offered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MITOpenCourseware website. Open courseware is a collection of free classes and course materials that are available online and shared freely with the world via the internet. Open courseware includes class materials such as syllabi, reading lists, lecture notes, assignments, activities and other documents that were once used in an actual classroom and are now available to the public for free (Littlefield). The offerings have been made available through several universities on their websites as a free service to the public. MIT, the pioneer of open courseware, offers courses across a broad range of subjects and is thought to be the most popular site for free educational materials.
My purpose in looking at a few of MIT’s open courseware course was to critically review them from an instructional design perspective. In particular, I was looking to see how well the courses were designed to meet the needs of distant learners. My first observation was that the courses simply seemed to be online versions of the traditional, face-to-face classes, which as mentioned above, really is what open courseware is. However, for distance courses and learners, traditional face-to-face classes should be reworked. Simonson, Smaldino et al believed that the focus of instruction should shift to visual presentations to better engage distant learners (2009). Visually, the courses were left lacking. In fact, with the exception of one audio clip, the units in both courses were completely print-based. There were no multimedia elements to speak of – no videos, no podcasts, no graphics, no animation, no interactivity, nothing. Just that one small audio clip. In distance education, learner engagement is essential; multimedia packs a powerful punch and has the potential to immediately grab learners’ attention.
Another important element in effective distance education is the inclusion of interactivity. One of the courses I reviewed included a group project for the face-to-students. The project was a well-designed one which seemed fun and engaging. It would be an excellent group project for distant learners working in a synchronous environment. We know from numerous studies that student group work is very important in learning. According to Smaldino et al student group work, “helps construct a supportive social environment. Brown and Adler (2008, p. 3) wrote in their landmark work Minds on Fire,
“ Compelling evidence for the importance of social interaction to learning comes from the landmark study by Richard J. Light, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, of students’ college/university experience. Light discovered that one of the strongest determinants of students’ success in higher education—more important than the details of their instructors’ teaching styles—was their ability to form or participate in small study groups. Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own.”
Group work is just as important for distant learners as it is for learners in traditional environments. While distant learners in synchronous settings could fully participate in the project outlined in the MIT course, the project would probably not work well for those in asynchronous environments who may not have access to other students.
I was pleased to see other types of interactivity as well, namely, assignments that included activities for students. These activities could very easily be incorporated into a distance education course.
Open courseware is a most excellent source of free educational materials; I believe everyone should visit at least one of the websites that offers open courseware. In the quickly-changing world in which we find ourselves, life-long learning will be a much-coveted quality to possess. As Brown and Adler concluded, “We are entering a world in which we all will have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis” (p.1). Open courseware is certainly a wonderfully-rich resource to help you begin your quest for life-long learning.
Here are links to websites through which you can access open courseware offerings.
Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative
The Open University
Open Yale Courses
Open Culture
References:
Brown, J., Adler, R.(2008).Minds on Fire. Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. Educause. Retrieved October 9, 2010 from: http://llk.media.mit.edu/courses/readings/jsb-minds-on-fire.pdf
Littlefield, J. Open Courseware. About.com: Distance Learning. Retrieved October 9, 2010 from: http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/opencourseware.htm
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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