Reflection

Reflecting on these last 8 weeks…

We have end the course with the views and future of perceptions of distance learning in our society. Taking into account the societal forces in the world, including the advocates for and skeptics of distance learning, I will be considering the following: perceptions of distance learning in the future, as an instructional designer be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning, and how I will be a positive force for the continuous improvements for improving the field of distance learning.

Perceptions of distance learning today is all over the place where many think distance learning is a great concepts, some believe that it lacks creditability, and some are on the fence and not sure what side to go to. As technology and the continued development of distance learning, society and the future of distance learning will become a norm. I believe that distance learning will be just as prominent as students graduating high school and going to college in the fall, but it will just be a choice of distance education or the traditional face-to-face environment. In addition, distance learning has been undergoing many studies where the instruction is being analyzed by its creditability, integrity, and effectiveness. Therefore, these perceptions from students, instructors, and society being improved will enhance the effectiveness of distance learning where the perceptions will be very minimal in the next 5-10 years.

            As perceptions of distance learning dwindle away, being an instructional designer we will be improving the societal perceptions of distance learning with continued professional development, longitudinal studies, and the use of classic research to ensure that instructional design of distance learning is being developed with the most effective and essential techniques of instruction. In addition, the use of technology and course management systems will be used to optimize the instruction and objectives of distance learning.

            Distance learning has come so far from when it was used through the postal services to the use of technology in today’s society. Instructional designers will continue to go through professional development, education, and collaboration with subject matter experts to eliminate the perceptions of distance learning and enhance the experience of distance learning where the future of distance education will be just as we see a high school student graduates and we assume they will be attending college, but now it will be a matter which path will the go down the tradition classroom of college/university or distance learning.

Exploring Open Source Software

Open source software is a way for educational information, courses, or applications to be distributed free of cost. Open source “is intended to be freely shared and can be improved upon and redistributed to others” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 256). The potential that open source has on the educational and/or business environment is vast considering many institutions have the ability and support to create and manage the open source software. The majority of institutions that optimize their exposure via open source software are capable to do so because they already have technical and support staff to manage the software without collaborating with a third party.

Upon exploring various open source software such as MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/html ), Standard (http://itunes.standard.edu/ ), and Yale (http://oyc.yale.edu/ ) I found Yale’s site to be very appealing due to its simple, user friendly attributes. The site allowed me to navigate through Yale’s open source in an efficient manner. The instructional design is excellent. The font, contrasting colors and tabs are obvious and straightforward creating a confident and comfortable experience for a beginning user such as myself. The technology considerations, especially with the links and tabs, are easy to use. The consideration of the learner has been taken in to account. The learner is able to use the software. Yale’s site design and layout are done very nicely. Institutions such as Yale are able to offer and perfect open source for educational and personal gain. In addition, Yale can offer free open source because they already have technical support staff in place that can manage open source software applications”(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 256).

During my exploration of Yale’s open source, I put myself in to the shoes of a distance learner with a specific course such as Spanish-Portuguese. Distance learning is a unique and powerful learning experience that is possible through the Internet and World Wide Web. The instructional design is essential in bridging the gap between learner, instructor, content, and technology to create an effective and efficient learning environment. I discovered a very usable site that maximized the planning process of the instructional designer and most likely collaboration with SME (subject matter expert) in the Spanish-Portuguese department. The course homepage contains a brief disruption of the department in addition to an informative paragraph about the instructor. The user is able to navigate to the course with access links embedded into the description. As an instructional design, the use of hyperlinks built into the introduction allows the distance learner to immediately move to the next step without confusion or having to decipher the next step in utilizing the links. Thus, the instructional designer is planning for a variety of learners.

Overall, the instructional design seems to be the product of an in-depth and through planning process. In addition the open source, especially the Spanish-Portuguese course, has be through the ADDIE process, collaboration with SME and instructional designer to ensure the learning experience is effective. “Thus, an instructor who wants to create a quality learning experience for all members of the class, with the ultimate foal of learning as the outcomes, will be certain to account for these variables in planning” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 129).

Resources:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education. NewYork: Pearson.