Open Courses

Open source software is intended to allow course content to be freely shared and improved upon. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek 2009) This week we were asked to chose an open course website and review it. I chose to review SpanishPod101.com. I chose this website because out of all the other open courses that offered Spanish courses I found that this one was set up in a way that I actually felt that if I decided to take this course I could learn from it. Some of the other course provided references, materials, and assignments, but it gave the impression that unless I was at that site to be able to participate in the actual class I was not going to reap the full benefit.

 I also noticed that SpanishPod101.com had many of the recommendations that were discussed in Chapter 5 of our textbook Teaching and Learning at a Distance. The very first question that is asked when signing up for a free account is what level of Spanish knowledge do you have. Analysis of the students’ cognitive abilities allows the students to be able to relate to the lesson. I am at the intermediate level. Once I was signed up all my lessons and activities met me at my level. I did not have to start at the very beginning and go through all the basics that I have already mastered.  The site also has several different ways of keeping the lessons interactive and meeting the needs of all learners. There are videos, flashcards, lesson guides and audio lessons. The open course is very user friendly and can easily be navigated through by novice computer users. The instructional designer did a very good job designing the layout of the module and making all the information easy to locate. 

SpanishPod101.com

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