The Impact of Open Source

The Impact of Open Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course: A free and open educational resource for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.
URL:http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

For this week’s Application assignment I chose single variable calculus taught in Fall 2010, retrieved from
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Open Course Ware (OCW)-MITOCW consists of a web-based, free, publication of MIT course materials reflecting the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. It is clear that OCW is not and MIT education, does not grant degrees or certificates, and does not provide access to MIT faculty. By right, as open source, MITOCW allows anyone to take quality courses entirely free, to acquire a desired knowledge (Simonson, Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek, 2009). MITOCW invests $10,000 to $15,000 to compile course materials from faculty, to ensure proper licensing for open sharing, and to advance formal and informal learning through sharing of free, open, education materials (MIT, 2010).

The calculus course covers differentiation and integration of functions of one variable, and concludes with a brief discussion of infinite series. Calculus is fundamental to many scientific disciplines including physics, engineering, and economics. Learners follow face-to-face instruction with the instructor. A videotaped lesson of the instructor with chalk and talk on a blackboard reveals a format of the traditional lecture system. The video will serve for open course to other learners in the OCW domain. At the start, I will not say that the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment, except the readiness of the lecturer who has a grasp of the subject; he is an expert in his field. I was a math major student and could distinguish between a professor and a book reader. Nothing demonstrates the use of technology that generates significant public interest. However, series of lecture video sessions include video clips from lectures of Professor David Jerison (2010) teaching 18.01(single variable calculus). The developer of the OCW carefully segmented the videos to help the learner easily navigate through the content. Supporting course notes (in PDF) accompanied the downloadable lecture video..

I appreciate the use of Flash-based activities that allow learners to interact with the material. Learners can easily grasp the concept of tangent and secant line to a curve as Interactive Java Appelets (Mathlets) reinforce concepts and skills taught. These interactive learning tools will improve the learner’s geometric intuition and illustrate how changes in certain factors affect the results of differential calculus. Flash-based interactive activity improves learners’ performance. I did a project on Flash-based learning in the last course. The course does not need any textbooks, due to its nature and the technology used; but MITOCW advises the use of Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome for better results, as technical requirements.

MITOCW introduces Recitation Videos serving as tutorials for brief problem solving sessions taught by an experienced MIT Recitation Instructor. These videos use YouTube that are not interactive like the Dr. Jerison’s Flash-based video Dr. Indeed, the course is carefully pre-planned and designed for distance learning; it follows the recommendations for online instruction (Simonson et al., 2009). The orientation section presents the overview of the course, instructing learners about the various expectations and the technical requirements, with an open invitation for social connections.

References

Jerison, D. (2009). 18.01sc. single variable calculus. Retrieved from http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.