DESIGNING FOR DISTANCE LEARNING:PART 1
The assignment for this week was to select and analyze a free Open Course. The course I selected was from Open Yale courses. The title of the course was Environmental Politics and Law with Professor John P. Wargo. The URL for the course is http://oyc.yale.edu/environmental-studies/environmental-politics-and-law. After reviewing the course, the following four areas of concern were noted; a) antiquated appearance of the material; absence of transition from face-to-face lecture; absence of activities that promote learning and collaboration; and a missed opportunity to integrate multimedia technologies that enhance learning and understanding. Each concern will be addressed in the paragraphs below.
The first concern is the age of the course. The course appears "old," antiquated. One reason may be the Professor's monotone voice. Some of the video clips used by the professor dated back to the 1950s based on the mannerism, wardrobe, and Technicolor appearance of the clips. Technicolor was the second major color motion picture process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952 (Wikipedia 2011). This surprised me because course structure information stated the course was recorded in the Spring, 2010 and placed on Open Yale in 2011. Perhaps the professor has used the same lecture material since the 1970s.
Secondly, the course appears to have been dumped on the web. It looks as though the Media Department went to every class in the Spring 2010, taped each class, and then placed the material online. Several things led me to this conclusion. The first was information contained in the course structure overview that states the course is taught twice per week for 50 minutes, and was recorded for Open Yale Courses in the Spring 2010 (Open Yale Courses 2011b). Meeting twice a week for a 12-week semester equates to 24 lectures, which is exactly the number of videos presented in the class session page. When you look at the videos, they resemble a typical college lecture. The professor is at the podium or walking in front of the slideshow talking for almost 50-minutes, very few questions are asked, basic PowerPoint presentations are projected to a wide screen, and students leave the lecture hall. When videos are played, the on-line viewer gets to watch the Professor watch the video. In essence, the interaction is between the professor and students without any acknowledgement that there is or will be an on-line viewer. Shovelware is the term that comes to mind. The term shovelware has evolved to describe this practice: Shovel the course onto the web and say you are teaching online, but did not think about it (Simonson pp248).
The third issue is an absence of activities that promote learning and collaboration. In order for distance education to be effective, the focus must move from Instructor focused to learner focused. This philosophy of education has become known as student-centered learning because it strongly promotes active learning, collaboration, mastery of course material, and student control over the learning process (Simonson pp232). A review of the syllabus reveals a paper or midterm and final exam as 90% of the grading. Several short assignments will be prepared by the student. There are no projects or activities designed to ensure learning, nor is there interaction between the learners. Open Yale Courses is not designed to offer users the opportunity to interact with Yale faculty (Yale Open Course, 2011a). Additionally, the online learner receives no training on how to use the course web site.
The last concern is the missed opportunity to integrate the powers of the web. The web offers powerful opportunities for resource utilization, collaboration, and communication (Simonson pp250). Instead of standing in front of the podium talking, it would have been more engaging to display animated clips of radiation formation and leakage, or movement of mercury and pesticides into the human food chain.
The topic is relevant and interesting. The course, with a little boost can be used to engage and recruit both the face-to-face and on-line learner.
RESOURCES:
Open Yale Courses (2011a) About Open House Yale. Retrieved on June 2, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/about#q6
Open Yale Courses (2011b) Environmental Politics and Law with Professor John P. Wargo. Retrieved on June 1, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/environmental-studies/environmental-politics-and-law
Simonson, M., Sandino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S., (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education (4th Ed). Boston, Ma.
Wikipedia (2011). Technicolor. Retrieved on June 6, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor