The Impact of Open Source

For this week’s application assignment in my Distance Learning EDUC 6135 course, we were tasked with selecting a free Open Course site to view and analyze. After researching the open course links provided in our optional resources section, I decided to analyze the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course classroom environment and evaluate the impact of the course.

Upon initially viewing the website at: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm I was amazed to see all of the resources provided at no cost. There are over 2000 courses offered in an online format and can be taken at any time. Because of my previous background in the Health Sciences field, I decided to choose the Musculoskeletal Pathophysiology(located in the Health Sciences and Technology section) course to evaluate further. The course itself is very easy to navigate and is offered at the graduate level.

The design of the course appears to be very well pre-planned and appeal s to students looking to gain a higher education on the subject in a short amount of time. The course also consists of all the elements of your general distance learning environment including syllabus, course calendar, lecture notes and assignments. Accessing each section of the class allows full participation and you can take each portion of the course at your own pace, which offers an unlimited amount of time to process and gather knowledge.

After reading chapter 9 of our course text, this course follows the recommendations for online instruction as it relates to the components of a Course Management System. The MIT course offers all the components of a CMS such as Course Management, Readings, Course Presentations and communications.

In my opinion the course designer could have done a better job with implementing course activities for the students to participate in. The activities may have been limited due to the 4 week length of the course but it could have had a much better impact for the students with more multimedia viewings provided. Overall the course is very well designed and is a great benefit to be offered free to the public. Before this course I was unaware that open courses were available at no cost other than orientation modules. It is great to see that with the advancement of technology anyone can gain a high quality education in some aspect with internet access.