OpenCourses

Exploring OpenCourses at UC Berkeley
This week we were asked to investigate OpenCourses for their instructional design techniques.  I took a course in something I never heard of before: UC Berkeley professor Greg Niemeyer’s Art 23 lecture on “Onomastics: Names as Media.” (You can access this course by clicking here.)

My Experience
The course does have an outline, which Professor Niemeyer refers to around 1:15 of Lecture 1. However, it is very clear that he is talking about an overview which is written on the syllabus; a syllabus that the distance learners are not given access to. While the course appears to be full of interesting and new information, it is very clear that the distance learner was not considered in the design of this course. UC Berkeley must have decided to record their lectures and place them online for free as “OpenCourses.”
I love learning and think that OpenCourses are great ideas in principle. But the type of courses that UC Berkeley is labeling as “distance education” is like a case study in “what not to do.” The lectures are painful to listen to, provide no visualization of the professor and absolutely no interactivity. We even have to sit through technical difficulties like audio clips not playing (Lecture 1 at 04:00). 
I remember taking courses like this in college, and I loved them. But I loved them because there was something about the ambiance of being in the lecture hall, of seeing the professor’s physical expressions, of raising your hand and asking a question.  Watching a digital recording of the projector screen takes all the activity out of the learning experience.

Summary
I will not be returning to UC Berkeley’s OpenCourses. Not unless I need help falling asleep.