Autonomy in learning has infinite possibilities for the learner and educational institutional by promoting learner responsibility, determination, drive, and various characteristics in relation to student-centered learning (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). A recent solution to broaden a learner’s educational experience, limit costs, and continuously promote autonomy has been bundled in what is called open source courses. Open source courses provide free public online access to various educational institutional (i.e. college and university) courses. Although open source courses are not credit-based or matriculating courses, they offer the same caliber of information in which a student enrolled with the institution would have received (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). As an instructional designer, open source courses may also be considered an option to an instructional problem. To better understand the features and functionality of an open source environment the
MIT open source portal and two courses:
SP.400 Special Topics in Women, Spring 2010 (King, 2010) and
PE.720 Weight Training, Spring 2006 (Taylor, 2006) were reviewed.
Upon first glance the MIT open source portal appeared to been pre-planned and designed to meet the needs of a distance learning environment. However, after navigating through the introductory pages a few discoveries were made. Although pre-planning may have been conducted there were still areas of opportunity from a structural or navigational perspective. As identified by Piskurich (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.). the initial stages of developing an online course should consist of storyboarding and site mapping. In this case, the site mapping component required more attention. For instance, the overview referencing the tools and “how to” criteria for the portal and courses was hidden under the help menu. Unfortunately, it was not obvious, from an end-user or learner perspective that this information should be viewed prior to proceeding with the available courses. It lacked directed navigation on where and how to start. After some time, a video,
Getting Started with OCW (n.d.), file was discovered that enabled further learner engagement.