Open Yale Courses

Open Yale courses (2012) consist of almost 40 courses across subject areas such as science, social studies, language arts, and fine arts. I am evaluating the course, Fundamentals of Physics I, which is available at the following URL: http://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200. Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2012) define open courseware as “… the publication on the web of course materials developed by higher education institutions and shared with others” (p. 141). This sounds exciting; the world has access to an Ivy League schools basic physics course over the Internet. Unfortunately, these courses were not developed as distance education courses and are severely lacking for the purpose of distance education. Simonson et al and Dabbagh (2007) discourage the routine conversion of existing traditional courses into distance education courses and the Fundamentals of Physics course is a simple video recording of each classroom lecture.

Some efforts Open Yale courses (2012) made to help accommodate the online learner include, breaking each lecture up into several individual topics along with providing a low bandwidth video format, an audio only feed, and lecture transcripts. In addition, all problem set handouts are available for download, there is a brief course syllabus, and through an arrangement with Open Study (n.d.), learners may participate in a study group. These adaptations do improve the distance education dynamics of the course although they fall short of pre-planned and designed for distance education.

Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2012) emphasize the need to accommodate for the inherent disconnection between instructor and students as well as amongst students with enriched communications and interaction activities.  Beldarrain (2006) stresses the pedagogical evolution demanded by online learning and cites learner benefits like learning communities, and improved collaboration and interaction. Beldarrain writes, “The versatility of social software and other collaboration tools available today support constructivist environments that seek to motivate, cultivate, and meet the needs of the 21st-century learner” (p. 140). The Open Yale Courses (2012) Fundamentals of Physics course does not strive to augment learner interaction or communication in any significant or beneficial fashion.

I have a personal aversion to videotaping a lecture and posting it online as a learning resource. Videotaped lectures contain many of the distractions that exist in a traditional classroom. In the Fundamentals of Physics course, students are entering the class late causing distractions, which finally cause the professor to instruct late students to not turn in homework and sit at the outer edges of the lecture hall. In addition, for several lectures the instructor has difficulty finding chalk for the chalkboard. In later lectures, the instructor has learned and has the chalk ready on his podium. A well-constructed multimedia learning object can provide the same information more effectively than the recorded lecture by eliminating distractions and extraneous content. Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2012) advocate for less instructional content, which consists of only essential information along with providing an enhanced interactive learning experience for students. In a student-centered constructivist learning environment, the instructor facilitates student self-discovery of knowledge.

While the Open Yale courses (2012) might provide significant educational benefit to large populations of learners without other means for detailed instructional presentations, the courses were not planned, designed, or developed as distance education or online courses. Experts conclude that rote videotaping of classroom lectures does not translate to effective distance education (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). In addition, Simonson et al explain that distance education is a system requiring thorough upfront planning prior to designing and developing instructional materials and activities. Because of the innate student-instructor, student-content, and student-student detachment, special planning is required to accommodate the gap in communications and natural feelings of isolation. The redesign of courses to meet the needs of distance learners provides an opportunity to change and improve instructional pedagogy to a student-centered constructivist learning environment.

References

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

Dabbagh, N. (2007). The online learner: Characteristics and pedagogical implications. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 7(3). Retrieved July 20, 2012 from http://www.citejournal.org/vol7/iss3/general/article1.cfm

Open Study. (n.d.). Physics – Fundamentals of Physics, I. http://openstudy.com/study#/groups/Physics - Fundamentals of Physics, I

Open Yale courses. (2012). PHYS 200: Fundamentals of Physics I. Retrieved from http://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200

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