The Impact of Open Source

The Impact of Open Source

In reviewing the MIT Open Courseware website, I was able to discover a different level of self-initiated learning with a variety of choices and in a variety of delivery platforms. This particular site is relatively easy to navigate based on an abundance of links organized according to various topics and specific content areas. As I navigated through the site, I came across a class entitled American Political Thought, which was offered originally in the spring of 2004 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which interested me and can be found at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-037-american-political-thought-spring-2004/ (Song, 2004).

This specific distance learning opportunity was of interest to me, which is one key component of why open courseware exists, along with the self-motivation to learn for learning sake. Let me start with the positive attributes of this particular course to include mostly the design elements. First, the course and the overall website were easily navigated through various links arranged to provide a simple flow from one component to the next. Next, “the key to good use of color is in the contrast,” which I believe was accomplished fairly well, coupled with the “use of plenty of ‘white space’ to enhance readability” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 134). Another positive aspect of this course is illustrated in the manner in which it is organized, for example, “chunks of information are grouped into spatially related locations” (Simonson et al., 2009, p. 129). As for the positives in design of this course, they seem to end there.

From a design stand-point, this particular course has essentially taken a face to face class and transferred it to an online environment. This is an inherent problem with the design of distance learning, because of the lack of interaction and collaboration that would “support constructivist environments that seek to motivate, cultivate, and meet the needs of the 21st-century learner” (Beldarrain, 2006, p. 140). Although meticulously organized and offering everything a traditional classroom would provide, like a syllabus, lecture notes, assignments and resources, this learning experience would be very static and dependent upon the motivation and the desire of an individual to accomplish the tasks and activities on their own. In other words, “a series of activities alone cannot lead to learning,” there needs to be a balance between the interface of learner, environment, content, methodology, materials, instructor, and technology (Simonson, et al., 2009, p. 127).

In all, my opinion is that this would probably be an engaging face–to-face classroom learning experience, but it does not seem to transfer well to an effective distance learning environment. This and any other course like it still has the potential for learning to occur, but the learner would need to be highly motivated to simply learn based on a strong need to gain knowledge through independent study with no interaction and feedback from an instructor/facilitator. This course was not specifically developed utilizing the ADDIE model, where storyboarding and all other necessary steps in creating specifically an effective distance learning experience rich in selected technology and allowing for some form of interaction in an asynchronous environment (Piskurich, 2010).
References:

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance Education Trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2), 139-153.

Piskurich, G., Chaucer, J. (2010) “Planning and Designing Online Courses”, Laureate Education, Inc. Video Production. Extracted from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn? CourseID=4442081&Survey=1&47=6263153&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA.

Song, Sarah. 17.037 American Political Thought, Spring 2004. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 10 Oct, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA