The Impact of Open Source

 

To find out more about how the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), I reviewed one hosted by a Yale professor, Dr. Diana Kleiner on Roman Architecture.  The course number is HSAR252 and it is an introduction into the Roman building structures and the ancient roman town layouts. This class can be found at the web address http://oyc.yale.edu/history-art/hsar-252.   I found it very interesting because there are 1,500 pictures that accompany each of the 23 video lectures in this program.  Many of them are personal pictures taken by professor Kleiner and others are from Google Earth images or the textbooks that are required for the course.  The instructional materials associated with this course seem appropriate for the amount of information presented.  There are two textbooks that students must purchase along with a download of other course materials. 

            The course is a series of lectures that are listed on the webpage.  Since this course is just a collection of the lectures that have been videotaped, the Dr. Kleiner refers to the course timing as evolving over a semester.  The syllabus does not show a definitive begin and end date for the course and is a very weak in the sense that it does not clearly lay out what is to happen.  There are no details instructions on how to or if we can contact the instructor, how to find the project information and left me wondering where to go.  I had to find all of this on my own.  Assuming the responsibility for my own learning is essential in any student-centered learning environment (Simonson et al, 2013, p. 233).  However, there is also an amount of guidance that should be given by the instructor and communication between the two should still be part of the distance learning experience. 

 

            The 23 sessions listed are videotaped lectures from this professor’s face to face class and in some of them you can see the students sitting in the lecture hall.  The context of the course is to introduce students to the various styles of architecture and the lectures are very interesting and do just that.  In the few minutes of sitting through the first session, I found the pictures and the explanations very interesting.  Each online session has a transcript available also which can be printed out.  This is a good use of having the course materials in written form for students to use for note taking. 

            However, is this design the best for an online student?  I was not able to raise my hand or type in any questions if I wanted.  Some of the sessions have Dr. Kleiner asking questions and students answering her, but the distance learners do not have this option for interaction.  The structure of this class is in direct conflict with Drs.  Simonson and Schlosser (1995) use of equivalence theory in distance education.  They stated that online instruction is not to be the same as in- class instruction. It must be equivalent yes, but not the same (as cited in Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek, 2013, p. 52).  There should be other interactive activities for the online learner to interact with the information, the professor, and each other.   The experiences of the distance learn should have equal value but can have different experiences.  Simonson also argues that just videotaping classroom instruction is not how distance education should be designed (2013).

            In this HSAR252 course, there are 2 exams that are taken in the course as well as a term paper or project of the student’s choice.  These are due by the end of the semester.  The student can either write an 8 page research paper, “Select a building – Select a theme” meaning the student can write about a particular building that they are interested in but was not covered in class.  The third option was to develop a roman city.   Kleiner describes this was done once by an architecture student.  The instructions for this project are found in one of the sessions about half way through the list of the lecture sessions.  There is no group work in this project and not requirement for technology or use of any interactive software.  While reading the instruction from her about getting permission for their own project ideas by her or one of her teaching fellows further alienates the distance student because we are not in contact with her or know of her fellows. I did like the information presented and found it very interesting, but I was an isolated observer and did not feel part of a course with other students.  In conclusion, the open course experience is not the same as the traditional distance education courses.

 

 

Images above are from Google Earth.  Two of the buildings discussed in the course.

References:

Simonson, M. (2013) Laureate Education, Inc.  Theory and Distance Learning. [Online Video]

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.