The
Impact of Open Source: Open Course Websites
While reviewing my
options for evaluating open course offerings this week, I was immediately drawn
to Yale University’s website because of the appealing layout and design of the
website. It was very easy to explore and
I appreciated the visuals of the professors associated with the course offerings;
this gave a face to the course which I found very inviting. I chose to review a course offered by Yale
University called, AMST 246: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner (http://oyc.yale.edu/american-studies/amst-246).
The course is
taught by professor Wai Chee Dimock and it offers an overview of the major
works and analytical connections of the authors Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and
Faulkner. I really liked how upfront and
clear the initial introduction/summary view of the course was. Right when I clicked on it, it showed a
picture of the professor that seemed very personable and a bio-summary about
her. There was also a brief summary of
the course titled, “About the course,” as well as direct links to the syllabus,
sessions, survey, course materials, and video and audio elements. I appreciated that all of this information
was easy to find so that I knew right away how to evaluate if this was a course
I would be interested in taking, “Adults are more self-directed and have
specific reasons for taking the course,” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, &
Zvacek, 2012, p. 136).
The course appears
to be carefully pre-planned and designed for distance learning. The syllabus is very straightforward and
indicates exactly which texts will be read and what all of the assignments in
the course are; it even describes the “short paper” and the “term paper” that
are required. The syllabus also details
the weight of each assignment in the grading scale which is very helpful to the
learners. According to our course text,
it is of great importance to inform learners of exactly what is expected of
them from the start of the course and to let them know how they will be graded
on all activities and assignments (Simonson et al., 2012). This course follows the guidelines indicated
in our course text for online instruction by listing out the expectations, the
assignments, and the evaluations that the learners will experience during the
course. The course appears to enhance
student learning through course activities to a fair extent through section
participation, but I believe that more activities could improve the distance
learner’s experience in the course. I
believe the course could be improved by adding more activities to increase
learner to learner connections and build a sense of community within the
course. I do think that it’s amazing
that many universities are offering open courses such as this one; it’s a great
opportunity for education to advance and become more available to learners.
References:
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching
and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.)
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Yale University (2012). Open Yale courses. Retrieved from: http://oyc.yale.edu/american-studies/amst-246
