Open Yale

Open Source http://oyc.yale.edu/

            What is open source (or Open Course)? “Open source software is intended to be freely shared and can be improved upon and redistributed to others” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012, p. 141). Before my researching today, I had never heard of this idea. “Open Course websites is class materials such as syllabi, reading lists, lecture notes, and other documents that were once used in an actual classroom and are now available to the public for free” (Littlefield, 2013). I never knew schools offered these types of programs. While researching all the different types of open source software listed in our resources, I realized how important this could be for students. “In our resources for the week, I noticed many different kinds of open sources, and all of them looked very interesting. The open source that I decided to pick and share is Open Yale because that was the most one that caught my attention the most.

            “Open Yale Courses (OYC) provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet” (Open Yale Courses, 2013). I think this is a great idea, and more people should be aware that these courses are available. Like I stated before, I never knew these classes existed and I am glad that I know about these now. I could use these classes when I need to know more information about a certain topic. While looking through Open Yale courses, I realized everything is arranged so anything can be easily accessible. Open Yale makes it very easy to identify where to go and what to choose because everything is laid out so neatly.

            The layout on Open Yale makes it easy to find everything you need. While looking through all the different classes, I realized they offer many programs. When you choose a certain program, it gives you a “about the course” and “course structure” and then, it also gives you course materials that you can download. Lastly, at the bottom of is the “view class sessions” and it takes you to all the different chapters/lessons. When you pick a section, you want to learn about, it gives you the video of the professor teaching about that chapter/lesson. This site was carefully planned because every class is set up like this. Open Yale is designed for a distance learning environment, because it gives the students a chance to learn about a certain topic or idea without being constrained with a certain time or place, like distance learning. In addition, Open Yale would be a good distance-learning environment because this could be “applied to a tremendous variety of programs serving numerous audiences via a wide variety of media” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012, p. 9). Open Yale course are for more independence, and allowing learners to teach themselves the ideas they want to learn more about.

            Open Yale does not follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in the textbook “Teaching and Learning at a Distance”. Open Yale does select technologies for online instruction (videos) to explain about the notes/class. However, Open Yale does not “Determine the Learning Outcomes” because there are not learning outcomes. These Open Yale courses are to be used if you want to learn more about a certain idea. Also, it does not fit into “Identify Learning Experiences and Match Each to the Most Appropriate Available Technology”. Once again, there are not any ways to identify learning experiences because Open Yale courses are only for independent use. Students, who want to take these courses, are not connected to other students or professors.

            Within the Open Yale courses, there not activities, but some classes have problem sets that they have to answer after reading the notes or watching/listening to the lecture. These would be good for needing to see how much was obtained from the reading or watching/listen of the certain topic. However, when it comes to course activities that maximize active learning, Open Yale does not offer this. I think it might be very difficult to do this, especially not having instructor or classmates to discuss with. Maybe, in other classes and/or sections, they offer activities, but in the few different classes I selected and researched through, they only offer videos, lecture notes, and problem sets to complete.

            Overall, I feel Open Yale is a great program for someone who wants to know a little bit more about a certain idea or topic. It could be used as a distance-learning environment; the only difference is there is no instructor or students to communicate with.  The next time I find myself wondering about a certain topic or idea, I might have to travel to Open Yale and watch a few sessions or read a few notes, and I might be able to find my answers from these classes.

References

          Littlefield, J. (2013). Open courses. Retrieved from http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/opencourseware.htm

            Open Yale (2013). Open Yale courses. Retrieved from http://oyc.yale.edu/

            Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a    

    distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.