Week 5

Analyzing an Open Course

Occasionally, it is amazing to reflect on the changes in our world. This week, I am reviewing open courses that include offerings from top-notch colleges. I have a child in a highly respected engineering/computer science program in a southeastern college close to home. I find it incredible that this same child, with just a little bit of motivation, can supplement his current courses with courses from MIT or Stanford University. When I attended college, some 20+ years ago, I would have never dreamed I could have taken courses from top-rated schools from across the country and across the globe for free!

This week, I reviewed open courses offered by Stanford University. Through a program called Stanford Engineering Everywhere, selected engineering and programming courses are made available free of charge. This program includes nine popular courses related to computer programming and engineering. I specifically reviewed the course on iPad Application Development. You can access information on the Stanford Engineering Everywhere Program at http://see.stanford.edu/default.aspx. To directly access the iPad Application Development, go to http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/iphone-application-development/id384233225.

While the Stanford Engineering Everywhere provides some incredible content, it is clear that the course was not preplanned nor designed specifically for an online distance learning environment. Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2009) identify several fundamentals of teaching online. The first of these is to avoid simply transferring a face-to-face course on to the web. It appears that this is exactly what was done to create the iPad Application Development course. The content of the course consists of a series of videotaped lectures, each of which is a video of the live lecture for a face-to-face class. The video includes lesson content and announcements that were intended for live students in the course. Along with the recorded lectures, students can download the presentation slides used in each lecture. Also available are recordings of optional seminars offered each Friday for the face-to-face class.

A link to the course page is also provided in the course materials in iTunes. This course page (http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/) offers a syllabus, information on how to submit assignments, frequently asked questions, a link for submitting questions, and access to a group blog. All of these tools are also focused on students who are taking the live, face-to-face course. One offering that is useful for students accessing the Open Course version of this class is files containing assignments and lecture notes from each class meeting.

Clearly, the content and design are not designed and implemented for use as a blended or on-line course. At best, the course might be considered a web-assisted course for its original target students enrolled at Stanford, based on the use of the Internet to access course sessions on iTunes, to receive and submit assignments, and to collaborate with classmates and instructors. Even at that, based on my review the lecture format did not provide activities that promoted active learning for students. Only in the optional interactive sessions on Fridays approached active learning opportunities. That said, it is important to understand that the Stanford Engineering Everywhere program is not claiming that these Open Courses are true online courses. In the Frequently Asked Questions section, the university clearly states that any student not enrolled in Stanford University and taking this course will not receive credit nor have access to course instructors for help. While students have access to assignments in the course, these assignments are not turned in or graded. Tools for instructor support and student collaboration are also limited to use by active Stanford students.

So, in summary, this course does not provide the features that should be in a course intended for online learning. In contrast, it is designed as a face-to-face class that uses technology to improve information exchange and to support the students. Despite that, a large number of the unenrolled students accessing this site have provided very positive feedback on this course. Does that mean we shouldn't worry about appropriately designing online courses and ensuring that instructors follow good fundamentals for teaching these online courses. Absolutely not! What is means to me is that there is a tremendous need and desire for information-rich online courses similar to those offered by open courses. I applaud Stanford and other universities for making this kind of quality content available for both student use and for the use by instructors anywhere.

References

Stanford Engineering Everywhere (n.d.), Retrieved from http://see.stanford.edu/default.aspx.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.