MIT OCW and CMU OLI Courses

I really am amazed at the endeavor of MIT to make all of their courses available through the OCW. It truly had to have been a huge task to provide all of the resources. Before we discussed them in class, I had looked at the Introduction to Linguistics class because this is one I have taught a number of times here at BYU, so I was interested to see similarities and differences to our courses. Probably the first thing that surprised me was that they used the same text that I used, so then I was even more interested. As I looked through the material, I kept thinking to myself about how I would have adapted the materials to meet the needs of my learners. When we learned about the SLAM analysis, then I could see how a different format for the materials would have made it so much easier for me to adapt. But just knowing now that they are available gives me a place I can look for ideas to at least spark an idea that I can adapt.

The second course, Social Theory and Analysis, had many course readings for each course session. If I were teaching a similar class, this would provide such a great list of readings to start with, so as an instructor, I would, once again, really appreciate the materials.

I also looked at the Linguistic Study of Bilingualism. Each of these three courses have similar formats with a great deal of reading from a number of different articles and books, which can either be bought or accessed through PDF formats - not so open.

In the German I class, I liked the way that they provided samples of student assignments (for the major assignments) so that in class students, for example, could see what was expected of them. In this course they also used audiotapes which the learners would have to gain access to.

The Introduction to Anglo-American Folk Music course had a number of links to other sources on the Internet for the students to access examples beyond the materials created/produced by the instructor.

Overall, these courses are a great resource for soemone teaching a similar course, or a mashup course. They are only partially open in that they are not very changeable, but they are a great resource as a start.

In the Statistics class from CMU OLI, I found that an instructor could get the "instructor access code" and then teach the course as is. A student from an academic institution could get an access code so they can take the course for credit as it is presented here.

The Biology course was impressive as I was able to see their animations and visuals to help me understand the workings of the cells. These are definitely more dynamic than the PDFs provided by MIT. This can help make the content more accessible to the learners as they progress through the course. I was also very impressed with the "smart' tutors that completed formative assessments throughout the course, making it more interactive.

At the beginning of the Economics class, I was impressed with the disclaimers about some issues that students may encounter through the course - such as browser issues, or making sure they have the latest Java enabled. Also the time zone made a difference for submitting assignments. These courses really are meant to be read and completed online while the courses through MIT OCW seemed to be more of a print it out to read it version. The colors and diagrams helped to make the assignments more readable and comprehensible.

In the French class, I was impressed with the mouse-over that included translations of the French words into English for those of us (okay, me) who doesn't speak French. This one was video based, which is a beautiful thing, but would be rather expensive to create and share.

I also reviewed the Empirical Research Methods course, a course I will probably want to refer back to to remember methodologies to help me in my own research.

These courses provided by MIT OCW seemed to me to be provided to a different audience than the courses at CMU OLI. Those at CMU were more directed at students rather than instructors as at MIT. Maybe I'm wrong in this though.