Open Course Analysis

Open Course Analysis

The open course site I have chosen to analyze for the Walden 6135 Distance Learning assignment is Open Yale Courses: A free open course offering a number of introductory courses taught by Yale University professors. Website: http://oyc.yale.edu/

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

so?

Yale's open course sight provides a lot of different subjects and classes to choose from. "The Online courses are designed for a wide range of people around the world, among them self-directed and life-long learners, educators, and high school and college students. The integrated, highly flexible web interface allows users, in effect, to audit Yale undergraduate courses if they wish to. It also gives the user a wide variety of other options for structuring the learning process, for example downloading, redistributing, and remixing course materials.

Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets. The lectures are available as download able videos, and an audio-only version is also offered. In addition, searchable transcripts of each lecture are provided." (Yale University, 2013).

 

Does the course follow the recommendations for Online instruction as listed in your course textbook?

The Masie Center (2002, p.8) identified five "abilities" that e-learning standards should enable. They are:

1. Interoperability: Can the system work with any other system? Yes, Yale's open courses will work with other systems as it is the goal of its "Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, launched in 2001, funded by the Hewlett Foundation to use information technology to help equalize access to knowledge and educational opportunities across the world"(Yale University,2013).



2. Reusability: Can courseware (learning objects, or "chunks) be
re-used? Yes. Yale uses a 'Creative Commons' Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license."This license permits the free use or re-purposing of the Open Yale Courses material by others. Under this license you are allowed to download and redistribute the Open Yale Courses materials or remix, tweak, and build upon this material to produce new lectures or other type of creations. To be allowed to do so, however, your use of the material must be non-commercial and you must credit Yale [and the appropriate Yale faculty member] as the originators of the material. Additionally, you must license any new use of the Open Yale Courses material under identical terms. For more information on the scope of the Creative Commons license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/." (Yale University, 2013).

3. Manageability: Can a system track the appropriate information about the learner and the content?: Yale's Open Course website has a third party who tracks information about the learner. Under terms of use, a user will find the following: "The Open Yale Courses website tracks website usage information about visitors through a third-party software which does not reside on the Open Yale Courses servers. The information collected and logged on our behalf through this technology does not collect personally identifiable information such as name, email address or mailing address, but does use information such as IP address to determine general information such as duration of visit and location of user.

Yale will not share personal information gathered on this website with any other parties, except as is reasonably determined to be required by law or by governmental authority, or as necessary to provide services in accordance with the Terms of Use and/or Course License Agreement. It is Yale's intention to protect against improper use of personal information. Please visit the following website for further information: http://www.yale.edu/privacy.html"

4. Accessibility: Can a learner access the appropriate content at the appropriate time?: There are no time constraints regarding Yale's Open Courses. They are learn as you go and are not available for university/college credits. If your internet is working and their site is not experiencing any technological issues, accessing content when you want it should not be a problem.

5. Durability: Will the technology evolve with the standards to avoid obsolescence? The goal of Yale's Open Courses is to continue to help equalize access to knowledge and educational opportunities across the world"(Yale University, 2013). The Open Yale Courses are supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, CA. I am sure that as long as there is funding to do so, Yale's open courses technology will continue to evolve.

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

Yes. The classes offer students an option to participate in discussion board activities, create blogs, and even listen to music through podcasts. There are also the traditional readings and writing of reports as a student in a regular brick and mortar school would complete.

Open courses are a great way for learners of all ages to increase their knowledge and inspire their interests.

 

References:

Masie Center. (2002) Making sense of learning specifications & standards: A decision-maker's guide to their adoption. Saratoga Springs, NY: The Masie Center. Available online at http://www.masie.com/standardsS3_Guide.pdf

Open Yale Courses: A free open website offering a number of introductory courses taught by Yale University professors. http://oyc.yale.edu/

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