Open course refers to the sharing of educational materials with minimal restrictions, usually in the context of new digital technologies available through the World-Wide Web. Its purpose is the broadest possible dissemination of knowledge, in keeping with academic tradition and counter to the current trend toward the commercialization of education http://www.opencourse.info/ 2010.
The course I chose to review was the Music and Technology (Contemporary History and Aesthetics) http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-380-music-and-technology-contemporary-history-and-aesthetics-fall-2009/index.htm course which is a free and open educational resource for educators, students, and self-learners around the world. This website is awesome. As a free service to the public, one cannot help but get excited at the mountain of information on a variety of topics that are available to anyone with internet access.
After carefully analyzing several courses on the website I decided to focus on one course to evaluate to see if the course was carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment; does it follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in the course textbook and does the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students.
This course was not originally planned for a distance-learning environment; however, it contains some of the components necessary for optimal distance learning. According to Dr. George Piskunck and Instructional Technologist Jacqueline Chaser, the planning process is critical to distance learning. Using the ADDIE system as a guide the website contained many crucial elements for online learning.
The syllabus provided the course logistics, which included course, title, textbook and course materials. Instructional activities included course goals and objectives, reading assignments linked to topics and interactive study guide. Even as a free course, the syllabus served as a guide for the student. Even without the help of the instructor, a student would be able to follow the requirements of the course with little difficulty.
The design aspect of the program was lacking the activities for the online learner. Although there were assignments given to students in the traditional class were listed, these assignments were not adjusted for an online environment. The course designer did not take into consideration that this course would be online for further studies by others in an online environment.
Technology considerations were given to students by providing them the technical requirements for using the website, as well as the links for any additional tools that might be needed. This site had an enormous amount of course assets, which included lecture notes, videos, reading and listening links. Additionally, students’ works were provided on the site to share, which provided a music technology case study completed by several students.
The course follows most of the recommendations for online instruction, however if following Zemsky and Massy’s thoughts on e-learning adoption cycles the most notable missing component would be cycle 2, the course manangement system. Open course is a valuable tool on the internet which will impact educational online materials for years to come.
References:
Albright, M., Simonson, M., Smaldino, M., Zvacek, S. (2009) Teaching and Learning at a Distance (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson
Piskurich, George. "Planning and Designing Online Courses" Video Program
Retrieved from http: http://www.opencourse.info/ 2010.
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