Week 5 assignment-Review of an Open Course

History 210:  The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000

Professor Paul Freeman

http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-210

Open Yale Courses (OYC) provides lectures and materials from selected Yale courses free of charge to the public.  No credit or certificate is earned by taking the course.  The purpose of the program is to encourage learning and to allow Yale students to audit a course before taking it.  For the application this week I chose the course The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000 and analyzed its effectiveness for distance learning.

Before analyzing the course, it is important to note in the introduction that OYC has two objectives, encourage learning and to serve as a course audit.  The fact that many students are auditing the class becomes very clear in the first few minutes of the introductory lecture when Freeman notes scheduling of study groups will depend on how many students return for the next session.  Because this course is serving as an audit, and not an actual class taken for credit, there is a definite feel that this course has been shoveled into an online format with little consideration for distance learning.

Freeman’s lecture portion of the class is very well thought out and structured.  There is a logical structure to his lectures as he discusses the major themes of the time period.  The introductory lecture provides a good overview of what the class will cover.  The syllabus and course reading files provide a wealth of content that is referenced in the course.  After skimming several of the recorded lectures it is obvious that Freeman knows a lot about the early Middle Ages.

Although the content is solid, there is little evidence of thought being given for the course to be used effectively by distance learners.  The recorded lectures are informative, but feature a static camera on Freeman as he lectures continuously for the full class period of forty minutes.  The lectures are thoughtfully divided into sections so a viewer can skip to a topic of interest, but the length and lack of any editing makes the experience very dry and not engaging.

The course ignores many of the recommendation for online instruction as listed in chapter five of the text.  For starters, the course takes Freeman’s lectures “off the shelf” and shovels them into an online format.  Freeman’s lecture may be appropriate for a face to face course that utilizes study groups, but they do not translate to a distance learning environment because they are not engaging because Freeman is not thinking visually in his delivery.  Names and dates written on the board are not clear because of the camera and Freeman is delivering his lecture to his class and rarely makes eye contact with the camera.  Finally, there is no thought given to access of course materials.  Although they are listed, it is up to the distance learner to find them and based on the lecture they would provide considerable insight for the learner and increase their ability to follow the lectures.

There are no course activities provided to enhance the learning.  The course simply provides a syllabus, course readings list, and the video of his lectures.  The fact that this course has been put online to serve as a course audit helps explain the lack of course activities.  Still, with a minimum of work an activity could have been designed.  A simple example would be a series of reflection questions on each lecture that the learner would answer.  Although this is not interactive, it would help learners auditing the course to understand the level of difficulty the course had.  If the course was being offered for credit online, this idea could be translated to a discussion forum where learners view the lectures and then respond with their own insights and questions.  The discussion forums functioning asynchronously would serve as a learning activity that increases active participation in the course.

In conclusion this particular course through OYC does not follow good practice for online learning.  It would be valuable to a Yale student considering taking the course by saving them the trouble to audit it in person.  A student taking the course for credit may also find it beneficial as a supplementary resource since they would have the ability to go back and review portions of the lecture if needed.  The structure of the course exists in the syllabus, reading list, and Freeman’s lectures.  An ID working for Yale could take this framework and mold it into a course that involves more interactivity.  One example mentioned was using discussion forums to follow up lectures.  Other possibilities an ID could pursue would be to make an advance organizer using Prezi to create a visual learning map of the themes the course will cover before viewing the lectures.  A final suggestion would be to take the massive course reading list and trim it down to essential readings that the learner could access online.

Week 3 assignment-Distance Learning Technologies

A high school history teacher on the west coast wants to showcase her students new exhibits being held in New York.  Are there distance learning technologies available to provide her students a quality learning experience?

The advancements in technology allow students the opportunity to experience things without leaving their classrooms.  This has evolved and changed.  At one time a teacher may have prepared a slide show and that has progressed to using video.  While informative, options like these are not truly hands on.  Today, technology can allow students to virtually tour facilities in a way that is much more interactive than video or still shots.  

An example of a virtual tour can be found here http://www.tenement.org/.  The Tenement Museum of New York City provides a virtual tour that incorporates audio and visuals.  Another example is from the Guggenheim,  http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact/watch.  The options here have a number of videos related to content in the collection.  For younger learners, most major museums have a page similar to this http://www.amnh.org/ology/, which have activities and lessons on general subjects the museum focuses on.  The scenario described mentioned works of art and most major museums provide visuals of some of their major pieces in their collection, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides here http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/browse-highlights. 

These options would give a teacher a variety of options in the classroom.  Benefits of working through museum web sites include learners can work on at their own pace in a medium that is relatively easy to use, web activities are available across multiple platforms, and available to anyone with web access.  (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2009)  This can be a bonus for teachers that need to deal with students who miss the virtual field trip and need to access the content outside of class.  Museum sites also provide support for teachers to use their resources effectively.  Still, they are still mostly images and audio and do not fully substitute being able to walk through and view content in a free flowing manner.  I was initially surprised I could not find a free form, virtual walk-through at any of the sites in New York, but all the museums provide a wealth of information that could be used in a lesson.

There are a number of ways to dress up the presentation as well using resources not found on museum web sites.  A teacher could use Google maps set to street view and virtually walk to the door of the museum.  This is a technique I used preparing students traveling to London.  We “walked” our route virtually before we left from our train station to our hotel and we also viewed our routes staring at Tube stations to area certain attractions.  A final option would be to search YouTube for videos that might provide some insight into what the museum looks like to walk through.

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