Analysis of the Impact of Open Source by Patricia Beamon

My Open Course Site Selection:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course: A free and open educational resource for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

The Open Course site from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) definitely did all of their homework. This site was so user friendly I found myself surfing it for almost two hours during my initial visit. A critical part of instructional design is to consider the components of a successful learning system (Dick, et al., 2009) Simonson, et. al (2012) listed the components as the learner, content, method, materials, environment, including the technology. Not only are the courses very carefully pre-planned but they are designed for all learners at a distance.

All courses are easily accessible by topic, course number, department, and most visited through the course finder. All materials and audios can be downloaded if desired. The syllabus contained a very clear course overview, caveat emptor (which gives the training audience and what is expected of learners), required materials (which are available for purchase online), grading scale and calendar with specific due dates for assignments.

The audios and videos on this site were amazing. Lecture tracks can be listened to online or downloaded for free through two sources; iTunes and Internet Archive. This is an excellent source for learners with disabilities such as blindness and/or limited vision. Also there are course implementations of activities such as toys and games in some of the mathematics courses, simulations for investigation and education, and memory games that maximize active learning. Because I love online games this open course site will become a favorite for me for future use.

Readings that are available on the site consist of required readings, suggested readings and readings by session. In addition to the readings, the assignments are in adobe pdf which has auto zoom that will help learners with limited vision disabilities. Assignments also have the APA format cite at the bottom for reference purposes. That is a really great feature.

Another useful feature on this open course site is the translated courses. It has translations of the entire site in either Spanish, two dialects of Chinese, Turkish, Portuguese, Thai, Korean, and Persian. There are also over 900 courses for learners with disabilities. The RSS feed is another piece that can be helpful to learners.

Lastly, this site has all the legal elements that Dr. Paige has discussed with the class in his announcement regarding “Fair Use” of materials. MIT has a list of coursework to share, to remix and the conditions for use of materials. They do not allow commercial use of any of their materials. One MIT employee had a quote that I thought was fitting for the impact of open source: “The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone.” Dick K.P. Yue, Professor, MIT School of Engineering

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2012). Planning and Designing Online Courses [DVD]. Baltimore, MD

Morrison, G.R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J.E. (2011). Designing effective instruction. (Sixth Edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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




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