The Impact of Open Source

Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment? How so?

The open course site that I selected was from the Massachusetts Institue of Technology (MIT). On MIT, the course that I chose was called 6.00SC Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (MIT Open Courseware, 2011). This course appears to be carefully pre-planned, organized and designed. It contains the important elements of a prototypical and effective online distance learning course. Instructional material is organized in 3 units. Unit 1 has 9 sessions, Unit 2 has 10 sessions, and Unit 3 has 7 sessions. Quizzes are presented for completion in 90 minutes with open book. Accessibility is enhanced with links to the syllabus, software, references, units, and course materials that can be downloaded.

Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook?

This course follows several of the recommendations suggested in Chapter 5 (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Three unit quizzes are offered, with the final covering all of the material, including lectures, recitations, and problem sets (MIT Open Courseware, 2011). There are self-assessment tools such as lecture questions with answers and unit quizzes with solutions. Also available are links to archived video lectures (which was fairly extensive), assignments, exams, recitiation videos and solutions. There is a course study group in which students can post questions related to the topics. Usually, there are immediate responses (75% of the questions asked are said to be answered in 5 minutes).

It is important to note that not all of the recommended learning strategies are followed in this course. For instance, the threaded discussions do not appear to be graded. Although the course is structured in units, it does not quite follow the Unit-Module-Unit guideline (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Furthermore, unlike most distance learning courses, there is no requried course textbook. Much of the course reading is derived from online sources, along with additional optional references.

Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?

I believe that this course provides many opportunities for students to engage in active learning. The course material that is offered helps students to actively participate in their own undertanding of the course (Simonson, et al., 2012). There is a set of lecture videos, along with supporting resources for each lecture, along with handouts, PDF slides, and code files (MIT Open Courseware, 2011). The course study groups involve freqent collaboration and interaction among the students. The recitation videos are developed by course teacher’s assistants (TA's), and they allow students to review content and problem solving techniques. In the homework problems, there are sample student solutions. According to the syllabus, the course is aimed at students with little or no prior programming, but the acquired experience should help them to understand computational approaches to problem solving.

References

MIT Open Courseware (2011). Introduction to Computer Science and Programming. Retrieved December 2, 2012 from http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-spring-2011/index.htm

MIT Open Courseware (2011). Syllabus. Retrieved December 2, 2012 from http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-spring-2011/Syllabus/

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