I have never taken an
open course before but the idea has intrigued me ever since I first heard about
them. I probably would have explored
more if I wasn’t already enrolled in a Master’s program. Honestly, I find myself pretty busy with the
demands of the courses I am paying for so I tend not to distract myself too
often with other things, especially more learning. If I need a break from school for a while, I
usually pick something that doesn’t require much brain power.
For this assignment, I
decided to explore the Harvard site first (http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative)
because it would be fun to say I took a course from Harvard. Being a prestigious Ivy League school, I thought
the Harvard Open Learning initiative would provide many great examples of
learning opportunities. I must say I was
pretty disappointed. There were only a
handful of course topics and none of them particular appealed to me. I selected one anyway only to find that it
was nothing more than short video recordings of a professor. Motivation of the learner is important after
all (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012) so I quickly moved on to another site.
Staying completely away from the prestigious schools on the list, I visited
the open culture website http://www.openculture.com/.
The list of options is quite extensive
but I still didn’t really see any topics that a felt a great desire to explore
more but the variety certainly made my inner constant scholar happy.
I chose “Quantum Physics
Made Relatively Simple: A Mini Course from Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Hans
Bethe”, (http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/quantum-physics-made-relatively-simple-by-hans-bethe.html)
a course offered by Cornell. How many
people can say they took a course on Quantum Physics let alone one taught by a
Nobel Prize winner? Again it was
predominately videos of course lectures.
Again, the course was not what I expected. Maybe I need to reconsider my expectations of
a “free” open course.
The website is visually
appealing and easy to navigate so you can move around with little to no
training. Unfortunately, besides being
able to comment on the lecture video, the learner has no way to contact anyone
for assistance as this is not covered anywhere on the site. There are no examples of experiential
learning either. At a minimum, I would
have expected to see a list of suggested reading to further explore the
topic. Anderson explains learning interaction
this way: “Deep and meaningful formal
learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction
(student–teacher; student-student; student-content) is at a high level. The
other two may be offered at minimal levels, or even eliminated, without
degrading the educational experience” (2003, p.4). Video alone does not allow
for any type of interaction and therefore it seems the designers have not taken
full advantage of this educational opportunity.
The learning objectives
were also missing. Clearly, the plan for
this course was designed around the live audience in a classroom setting; not
the online learner (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012). If there was any pre-planning for delivery in
the online environment at all it was to compress the videos for optimal
playback and to account for multiply playback options so that the videos played
different ways using different technology.
This exploration has not really helped to entice me into further
exploration of free online courses. I am
sure I will explore more in the future, but nothing I saw tonight got me
excited enough to dive into it right now.
Perhaps in time, designers will re-work the course and add in more activities
for the learners. For now, I am afraid
that you get what you pay for and in this case, we paid nothing.
Reference
Anderson, T. (2003).
Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for
interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance
Learning, 4(2).
Open Culture, retrieved April
4, 2014 from http://www.openculture.com/
Harvard Open Courses:
Open Learning Initiative, retrieved April 4, 2014 from http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright,
M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations
of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
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