The Impact of Open Courses

In the past, I have only used my organization’s open courses. The course offerings consisted of learning how to use the Microsoft Office Suite, how to use new product that was being offered to patients, and how to write professional emails. These offerings were free extended learning courses that aid in the professional growth of employees.

Open source also known as Open Education is a term to describe systems of learning, institutional practices and programmatic initiatives that broaden access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education institutions, by emphasizing the development and adoption of open education resources in all learning environments. The qualifier "open" of open education refers to the elimination of barriers that can preclude both opportunities and recognition for participation in institution-based learning (Bornstien, 2012). The reasoning behind open courses is to offer educational opportunities to the general public. These course could range anywhere from general informational to specific advanced courses. It is understood that these courses are informational only and the learner will not receive credit for their attendance.

As I looked over the open course the selections of open course websites, I decided to look at MIT’s selection of open courses. The courses was carefully designed and structured with the distant learner in mind. The course that I chose to look at was Technologies for Creative Learning. If I had to compare to the organization’s open courses, I would say that this course was laid for the distant learner. It provided a brief overview of the course. The course provided the learner with a syllabus, assignments, projects, course materials, readings, and offered related resources associated with different technologies that can be used with creative learning. MIT allows the distant learner to feel as though they are in an actual credit earning course, even though the course completely free and unaccredited.

According to Moore (1998), distant learning students in this open course will receive:

• Content that they feel is relevant to their needs,
• Clear directions for what they should do at every stage of the course,
• As much control of the pace of learning as possible,
• A means of drawing attention to individual concerns,
• A way of testing their progress and getting feedback from their instructor, and
• Materials that are useful, active and interesting."

This open course is designed to keep the learner engaged in learning. By providing assignments that will reviewed by facilitators, ensure that the learner’s progress in on track. I believe the courses will change the way learner approach decisions about returning to school. I believe that these offerings keep professionals, who do not desire to return to school, refreshed and abreast of the changes in a specific subject area.

References:

Bornstien, D. (2012, July 11). Open education for a global economy. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/open-education-for-a-global-economy/?_r=0

Moore, M.G. (1998). Introduction. In C.C. Gibson (Ed.). Distance learners in higher education: Institutional responses for quality outcomes (pp. 1-7). Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.