The Impact of Open Source

Stanford Engineering Everywhere

Course: Artificial Intelligence/Introduction to Robotics

Taught by: Khafib, Oussama

http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=86cc8662-f6e4-43c3-a1be-b30d1d179743

Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for distance learning environment?  How so?

In carefully analyzing this course I found that it is carefully pre-planned and designed for distance learning environment.

When I first entered the course I was met with the course home page. The course home page included the purpose of the course, a list of topics of the course, a list of prerequisites, a picture and summary of who the instructor is and what he does.  To the right of the page there is a box where I found the course content.  The course content included links to the home page, lectures, syllabus, handout, and assignments. 

Lectures

When clicking on the lectures I was taken to a page that offered a list of course meetings.  For each lecture there is an option for a transcript or to watch the lecture through YouTube, iTunes, WMV Torrent, or MP4 Torrent.  The lectures are set up to succeed by giving the learners ways to watch and listen to the lectures, and by giving them transcripts to view the notes.   

Syllabus

I found the syllabus to be weak.  It did not state any of the course policies, and was minimal on the instructional activities.  Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) stated that the syllabus is a recruiting tool for the distance education course.  I really did not feel that this syllabus would be very helpful for the distance learners. 

Handouts

This page offered handouts that go along with each lecture.  The handouts are in slide form.  They offer good font and colors. According to Zelanski and Fisher (2008) as stated by Simonson, Smalsino, Albright, and Zcacek (2012) the size, font, color and contrast, alignment, and use of uppercase and lowercase in written graphics are critical to successful design.

Assignments

Under the assignment tab there is a list of assignments, solutions, and in which lecture the content is found. 

The course is very easy to move around in and there is always a link to get back to the home page.  

Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook? Which does it follow? In what ways?  Which does it not follow?

Most of the course does follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in our course textbook.   Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) state that the course syllabus is the “glue” that holds the course or the learning experience together.  The syllabus for this course Artificial Intelligence is very weak.  It does offer the purpose of the course, and a lecture and reading schedule but, failed to give the course policies and was missing elements of the course logistics and instructional activities. 

I did feel that the lectures and the handouts were the strongest part of the course.  I feel the lectures are in offered several different ways there by hitting majority of the different learning styles.  I was also able to watch one of the lecture and it also included sort videos of the topic at hand.  The handouts are very important because printed materials are critical to the proactive approach of the distance education.  Documents provide background information, amplify concepts, and give a sense of direction to instructional events (Simonson et al., 2012). 

Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?  If yes, in what ways?  If not, how is it deficient?

I really feel that the course designer did not implement course activities that maximize active learning for the student.  The key to active learning is to keep the learners involved in their own learning, not just keeping them busy (Simonson et al., 2012).  There was really no place to have discussions.  In this distance learning course I would feel alone.  There really was no feeling of community or a way of collaborating with the other learners.  I feel that this very important in an online environment.  Students need to have a sense of community within their classes (Simonson et al., 2012). 

Resources

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning

at a distance: Foundations of distance education(5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.