Open Course Analysis

The course I chose to evaluate was obtained through the open course site Open Culture (http://www.openculture.com/) and was a course offered by NYU in Introduction to Sociology http://www.nyu.edu/academics/open-education/coursesnew/intro-sociology/molotch-lecture1.html.

Initially I was not impressed with the first impression of the course.  There is very little information describing the course, the instructor, or what the course entails, but there is some info there.  There is an option for joining others in a live study group, which is always helpful in a course such as this.  It does not appear to be pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment because it contains none of the elements of a typical distance learning environment.  It does not follow the general guidelines that “the instructor needs to balance content with the limited time for learning activities and possibly remove extraneous, nonessential information” (Simonson).

The course begins with a 53 minute video with the instructor offering information on the subject at hand.  The video basically includes the professor standing at a podium lecturing during one of his classes and also writing on a white-board.  The first thing I note is that there is no syllabus available for students to review and this is the first big mistake for any course.  If there are no guidelines to follow then it is very difficult to obtain the proper structure of the course and therefore difficult to know what the objective of the course will be.

With the professor merely lecturing, this is not typical of a distance learning course and therefore not very effective.  Two minutes into the video and I am already distracted due to the lecture-style that the professor is using, as well as his rambling.  This is very ineffective for an online course.

There are 28 lectures available on this subject, each with the professor lecturing in a classroom-style face-to-face environment, which is not conducive to a distance learning environment.  What works for a traditional classroom is not typical in the online environment and generally needs to be evaluated and adjusted so that online learners can better perceive the information.  There is no use of photos, worksheets, videos, or other elements typical for distance learning and no activities or assignments available for learners. 

As far as the course design goes, this course is not designed effectively for distance learners.  One of the major components of distance learning courses is not included in this course: “quality distance learning programs are participatory in that they emphasize the involvement of the learner in all facets of program development and delivery” (Simonson).  There is no involvement from learners in this course, only lecturing from the professor.  Further, “activities should provide ample opportunities for online learners to explore on their own” (Piskurich). 

Considering all of these factors, this open course in Sociology is not indicative of typical distance learning and would not be considered effective in online learning.  This particular open course site does not offer what some other open course sites offer, such as discussion areas, chat rooms, testing, announcements, email, forums, etc.  Without incorporating some of these into an open course classroom, it would be very difficult to classify this particular course as an effective distance learning environment.

References

Piskurich, G. (2011). Planning and Designing Online Courses. (Video Program). Laureate Education, 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.