Before this week, I never heard of Open Course offerings. This is a great way for people who want to acquire new skills or knowledge but don't have the funds to get it! I have wanted to take some college level math courses to refresh my skills and knowledge, mostly because I have taught primary grades for the past six years. I don't want the credits, I just need some refreshers.
As I was skimming through all of the resources, I chose openculture.com. There is a plethora of options available for a wide range of subjects. I was excited just looking at the choices. This is even great for homeschooled children especially if he or she is advanced in an area. This site offers free courses, as well as, free audio books, movies, textbooks, and language lessons.
Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance-learning environment? How so?
I chose an open course on World War II History: An Open Harvard Course. This course was carefully planned and designed for traditional learning then made into an online learning experience. The learner has the option of watching videos or listening to an audio. Once the video popped up a list of Table of Contents were presented, as well as, a document of the course description.
Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook? This course followed recommendations to an extent for online instruction because the professor reads his objectives, goals, and requirements for this course. The student has the opportunity to move at his or her own pace and access available resources. But there were many elements missing for an effective online course. Compared to my courses at Walden, this course would be more effective in the traditional classroom it was set-up as. Basically, the class was videotaped and posted for review by others for free.
Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?
The course designer did a great job providing videos and audio of the lecture to maximize student learning. The designer provided visuals of maps and images on a side panel view that was accessible during the video. The course was user friendly, which allowed student learning. However, my concern would be when does the interaction occur. What about discussions and questions, who will give those responses? There would be no feedback, so how would it work in a math class, as well?
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