Open
Courses have emerged all over the Internet. They reinforce the belief that education should be
accessible to all. Often
provided by the top universities around the world, open courses are an
opportunity to learn for free, and considering the price of a tertiary
education these days, they are worth taking a good look at!
I
have chosen to look at the open courses offered by Yale, known as Open Yale
courses. The courses range from Introduction to the Old Testament to Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics.
. Specifically, I am looking at a
course entitled SOCY 151: Foundations of
Modern Social Theory. The welcome message from the Founding Director and
Principal Investigator, Diana E. E. Kleiner, expresses the goal of the
initiative. “We hope the lectures
and other course materials, which reflect the values of a Yale liberal arts
education, inspire your own critical thinking and creative imagination” (Open
Yale Courses).
Excited
about the potential of the initiative, I quickly got started. The course consists of a course
overview, a topical syllabus with lecture videos, assigned reading lists for
each lecture, transcripts of each lecture and descriptions of the assessments
used in the Yale for credit course.
I
teach the advent of communism in my IB History class so I was particularly
intrigued by the videos on Marxism.
Each video is approximately one hour long and the first one I watched
was incredibly interesting. I
viewed it with a copy of the transcript open and learned quite a bit in the
process, which I plan to share with my students in the near future.
Distance
learning has opened the doors to many learners thirsty for knowledge but
lacking access. The potential for
distance learning to revolutionize education everywhere is already being
realized and much emphasis is being placed on how to improve learning through
distance, online opportunities.
Best
practices in distance learning involve many of the same ideas as in traditional
classroom teaching. Planning is an
essential component. Understanding
your learners and the learning context is the first step in the planning
process. The next step, creating
good objectives and a specific plan or syllabus can then reflect the learners’
environment more accurately.
Designing instruction for specific learners enhances the learning
experience and makes the process more efficient and effective. The Yale Open courses are designed for
those potential learners that have the interest to learn from the most
respected lecturers in their field, with the hope that these lectures will
inspire learners to improve their lives and the lives of others. Although they are open to all with access
to the Internet, they are not designed for someone that requires a specific
skill or content understanding.
Interactivity
is an essential component of quality distance learning programs. Although the Yale Open courses allow
would-be learners to access professors and experts that would otherwise have no
access due to financial restrictions, lack of admission to the university
or/and distance, they allow for no interactivity with either the professors or
the other learners. Moderated
interactivity is time consuming and costly and could not be offered free of
cost.
Assessment
is important to learning in all types of settings. Although the Yale Open courses list the types of assessments
required by the credit earning, tuition paying students, neither the actual assessments
nor the rubrics used to assess are shared. That is a component I would of enjoyed using and missed from
the course. I understand that
feedback would not be available in a free environment however I was ready to
write about the issues, to reflect, to engage with the content. I was left
wanting more. But, as the
goal of the courses is to “inspire…critical thinking and creative imagination”,
my experience with Professor Ivan Szeleyni through the SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory Yale
Open course was a success.
Donald
Kirkpatrick offers a straightforward approach to evaluating learning programs
(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012, p. 349) (Clark, n.d.). The first level deals with the reactions of the learners,
“Did they like it?”. I did enjoy
reviewing the course and the one session I participated in. The second level deals with learning,
“Did they learn it?”. In an
attempt to evaluate the degree to which I “have advanced in skills, knowledge,
or attitude” (Simonson, et al, 2012, p. 349), I realize I did get something
more concrete than mere enjoyment out of the course. I can speak on the subject and elaborate on the ideas
discusses. I am not certain
whether this new knowledge will remain a part of my long-term memory, but at
the moment it has inspired new thinking and the creation of differing
perspectives than those previously held. The third level deals with the transfer of
knowledge, “Will they use it?”. I
have already incorporated one of Dr. Szeleyni’s ideas into my lesson on the
origins of communism. The fourth
level, results, is more difficult to assess in this situation. Obviously the impact of the course
would have been more profound if the course offered interactivity and if the
assessments and rubrics had been shared.
I
admit that as an adult learner with a profound interest in modern social
theory, I am not the typical learner.
The for credit version of SOCY 151:
Foundations of Modern Social Theory is designed for exceptionally talented,
young adults, recent high school graduates not for a teacher with 22 years of
experience. Therefore, Dr. Szeleyni
is not looking at learners like me as he speaks yet I felt connected in the
experience. Perhaps, this is
because as Malcolm Knowles describes in his Andragogy theory, “[adults] should
acquire the habit of looking at every experience as an opportunity to learn and
should become skillful in learning from it” (Smith, 2002). I think the Yale Open courses, and
specifically the one I participated in, SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory , is worthwhile for adults
interested in the subject.
References
Clark, D. (n.d.). Kirkpatrick's four level evaluation model. Retrieved
October 5, 2012,
from
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/isd/kirkpatrick.html
Open Yale courses. (2012). Retrieved October 5, 2012, 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.
Smith, M. K.
(2002) 'Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and
SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory. (2012). Retrieved from
http://oyc.yale.edu/sociology/ socy-151#overview
