Open Course

Before taking my Distance Learning course I had no idea that universities like Stanford and Yale offered open courses. Well, what are open courses? Open courses are non-credit courses offered by universities and organizations free of charge. You might think that these are small courses that will not hold your attention or courses that will not offer much, but you would be mistaken by thinking that. Full courses such as Introduction to Psychology, Chemistry, The Classics, History, English and Biology are offered, free of charge and at any time, as long as the course is still posted.

After looking at different open courses at different universities I chose to enroll in an Introduction to Psychology course at Yale University. I wanted to enroll in a course I’d taken before and see what the differences were. When clicking on the course the first thing I noticed was a picture of the professor along with the title of the course and his name. I also noticed there were two sections. One of the sections was titled “about the course” and the other “about the professor”. To the left of the page were the contents of the course with links leading to each portion. The links included links to the syllabus, class sessions, downloads, books needed and an end of course survey. I was most impressed with the links leading to class sessions. When arriving at this page there were links to different sessions or sections of studies. At the bottom of each session page were links to video, mp3 or transcripts of the information presented for that particular session.

One of the first things I look for when enrolling in an online course is organization. Clear organization even in the simplest manner gives the student and the facilitator a strong foundation to succeed (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright and Zvacek, 2012).The course appeared to be carefully pre-planned and designed. The requirements for the course were clearly mapped out and organized for students (Simpson et al, 2012) and the designer incorporated technology into the course such as mp3’s, videos, and transcripts. The course appeared to be designed just like a regular online fee based university course but because this is an open course and is free there was no way to interact with other learners enrolled in the course or a way to interact with the professor. It looks as if I’ll be completely on my own with learning the course material presented. Also, there were no activities planned or any links to any outside activities that would help with keeping me engaged or assist me in learning the material.

Overall, the design of the course was not excellent but ok. On the other hand, the course was excellently organized but lacking in engaging activities such as discussions and other learning activities. Would I recommend this course to anyone? Yes, I would, but only if you’re looking for a short course to gain a little information on a particular subject. If you’re looking for more I’d suggest you look a little further.

References:

Simonson,M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek. S, (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5^th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson

http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/introduction-to-psychology/content/syllabus