The Impact of Open Source

Application Blog – The Impact of Open Source
http://oyc.yale.edu/

The choice of my Open Source website is as above. The featured course was on Financial Markets with Professor Robert Shuler.

To my mind the course appears at first to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment. This is so because it follows a systematic process and when it does so learning will occur. In other words, it does apply technology to the teaching and learning process. Even though it was recorded in the Yale Classroom, it is available in video, audio and text transcript which is appropriate for the distance learner. In addition to this all the components of the system are somewhat in place, the learner, the content as is seen by the class sessions, the method and materials and the technology which is all part of the environment. These components are in place so as to work efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, a survey is there that is used for evaluation.

The only thing that I see in this Open Source is that the course does not follow the recommendations for online instructions. This course is basically a course that is taught on campus twice per week. It would appear that it was recorded in a classroom so it was not really retooled completely for an online setting as is one of the criteria for teaching online courses even though there are visual presentations to be viewed. Also another negative aspect is that the timings of the presentations were recorded for whole class sessions.

As for the course designer implementing course activities that maximized active learning for the students, I can see there is active learning. However, I would not say that it maximizes active learning in an online setting. For this to be really applicable to distance learning, discussion groups and more student participation among other things need to be included.

Although the course follows a systematic approach and some problem solving is involved, in concluding I would say that it does not maximize learning for all students as it does not include the necessary forums that are used in distance learning.
References
http://oyc.yale.edu/
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.