Open Courses

I went to several of the sites and decided to select the Open Yale Courses at http://oyc.yale.edu/  I selected the history course and found that it seemed well thought out in the preplanning stage but once I looked at the actual course work seeing it all in front of me like it was seemed overwhelming. I think anyone wishing to take a course of study would feel that way as well. I would have suggested the list of topics that they had should have been broken down into perhaps centuries or eras rather than the twenty something chapters. For me anyway I would likely skip over some of them because I know what they are, instead of flowing them one to the next.

 I also felt that the course required too many textbooks. A lot of what could be found in the books could have very well been presented in the materials and via links online. This seemed like a lot of work for no credit. This was actually better suited for a regular online class.

 I did like that you had a number of options for the materials, audio, video and HTML file.  I found that overall it did follow recommended guidelines for instruction.

I did not find that the designer or professor implemented course activities that maximized active learning for the students. It was more of a case of read these chapters and listen to the lectures there were no activities or assignments that I could find anywhere on the History page.  All that is asked is two papers and mid- term and final exams. This was in actually a face to face classroom environment presented online with little or no requirements of the students. Students who are able to walk into a classroom and hear a lecture and never pick up a book and still pass exams would breeze through this type of course.

I was actually rather shocked considering it was Yale University. I would have expected a far more superior performance by them then I was given. I am a continual learner and to be honest would no enjoy taking this course even though it is free and I love history.