INTED 2014 M. PERIFANOU & A. ECONOMIDES
The paper will first present
the requirements for a successful online Language Learning course and then it will continue with the
exploration of the use of MOOCs in Language Education. Next an evaluation of the platforms and the
instructional design used so far for Massive Open Online Language Learning Courses will follow.
Finally, after the presentation of possible concerns and recommendations regarding the Language
Learning MOOCs, there will be a discussion that aims to draw the first conclusions of this research
and share some future research plans.
1. ANASTASIOS A. ECONOMIDES
Interdepartmental Progr. of Postgraduate
Studies in Information Systems,University of
Macedonia, Thessaloniki, GREECE
MARIA A. PERIFANOU
Department of Italian Studies,
National & Kapodistrian
UniversIty of Athens, GREECE
8. Language competencies & intercultural skills :
key qualifications for living and working in 21st century
Need for MOOCs related to language education
Web 2.0
participatory, immediate, authentic, engages community
a promising language learning environment
9. How to design an efficient Language
Learning Environment for MOOLCs?
Are there many MOOLC initiatives that
could provide a promising Massive Open
Interactive Language Learning Environment
(MOILLE)?
10. a) Exploration of current MOOLC initiatives
b) Classification of the MOOLC initiatives
according to concrete criteria
c) Evaluation of most representative MOOLC
initiatives using the MOILLE framework
d) Analysis of the results & conclusions
15. 2nd Stage
University/Entity
Number of Free / Paid language
Courses
Language
Certification/ Badges/Official credits
Fixed time session
cMOOC / xMOOC
19. CONTENT: Authentic educational resources; Use of multimedia/tech; Variety of
activities that promote all basic language skills & support cultural awareness.
PEDAGOGY: Communication (peer-peer, student-teacher, open class
community); Collaboration (CL) (group projects, forums etc.); Collective
intelligence; Autonomy (Autonomous/Self-paced/SL Learning/Reflection);
Engagement-Motivation; Playful/Game based learning; Number of instructors.
ASSESSMENT: On going Assessment/ Scaffolding (peer-peer, student-
teacher, open, automated) Final Assessment; Evidence-Based improvement (data
mining, Analytics); Feedback (comments, reviews).
COMMUNITY: Social Community building as Massive & Open (Social Media –
third part tools integration & other tech tools).
TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: Max number of participants, Platform’s
performance, Security, Usability).
FINANCIAL ISSUES: Profit. Charges for Course or Certification/ Accreditation.
25. 6 MOOLC initiatives offer authentic
educational resources in a high level
11 use multimedia tools
3 offer a variety of activities that
promote the basic language skills &
support cultural awareness
26. 5 MOOLC initiatives support the various types of
communication (peer-peer, student-
teacher, open class community) in a high level
1 promote collaboration, (group projects, forums
etc.) or collective intelligence in a high degree
15 support very much the autonomous, self-
paced & self-regulated learning, learner’s
reflection
6 support learners’ engagement and motivation
None of them offers game based activities of
high degree
2 provide many instructors for a course
27. 5 MOOLC initiatives provide various types
of assessment (peer-peer, student-
teacher, open, automated)
7 provide an official final assessment,
4 show learners’ performance evolution
(data mining, analytics)
6 give the possibility to participants to
provide feedback of various types
(comments, reviews)
28. 5 MOOLC initiatives offer a big
variety of social media tools or other
technologies in order to build a Social
Language Learning Community
29. 12 MOOLC initiatives can accept a
massive number of participants
offer usability
have good technical performance
provide high security
30. none of the explored MOOLC
initiatives require any high charges
except for:
certification or accreditation
31. “Are there many MOOLC initiatives that
could provide a promising Massive Open
Interactive Language Learning Environment
(MOILLE)”? NO
Good examples:
SpanishMOOC http://spanishmooc.com
Mixxer MOOC
http://www.languageexchanges.org/node/106803
32. Many MOOLCs
are still free
have generally good infrastructure
offer certification
33. Pedagogical aspect of MOOLCs (no
highly interactive, no FL
community, no building language
skills collectively)
Time cost for educators
Big dropout rate
34. Create more connectivist MOOLCs
Create highly interactive Language Learning
Environments
Keep high students’ degree of motivation &
self-direction
Access to open education, open content and open educational resources (OER) is gaining more andmore attention worldwide.
OPEN : technologies and platforms that are already available on the internet i.e SNS and freely accessible to allMASSIVE: unlimited number of students can enroll in the course ONLINE: courses conducted mainly on the internetCOURSES: course with predefined learning goals and learning paths Even though they may vary through the coursesCONNECTIVIST MOOCs: emphasise the OPEN aspect and the concept of constructing content in a networkXMOOCs: emphasise CONTENT and the ONLINE aspects of the conceptConnectivist / xmoocs
UDEMY : founded in 2010 - a learning site that aims to democratize online education by enabling anyone to teach and learn online.2011 Stanford launches Artificial Intelligence course with 160.000 students, Udacity was founded in 2011 but both first course started on 20 February 2012, entitled "CS 101: Building a Search Engine", taught by David Evans from the University of Virginia, and "CS 373: Programming a Robotic Car”COURSERA: April 2012 Pan european initiative:OpenupEd- The initiative is led by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU)Google and edX are teaming up for an open-source massive open online course site, MOOC.org : Allow anyone to create and post courses
Moocs ineurope
Languages and moocs why is this a big challenge for language learning The arrival of MOOCs has already changed dramatically the idea of education and has oriented The design and implementation of MOOCs with focus on language learning has not beenexplored yet and this paper aims to fill this research gaplearners to educational courses that are open, participatory, distributed and at the same time supportthe idea of lifelong networked learning.Language competencies and intercultural skills will more than ever be a part of the key qualificationsneeded to successfully work and live in this new reality. The need for MOOCs related to languageeducation has already paved the way for the creation of the first “open and massive” foreign languagecourses.Many researches have already shown that the web is a rich field in putting real communication topractice, and explore new forms to exercise one’s language comprehension and fluency. Specifically,web 2.0 is participatory, immediate, authentic and it engages the community. All these are keyfeatures in language learning process and make Web 2.0 a promising language learning environment. The arrival of MOOCs has already changed dramatically the idea of education and has orientedlearners to educational courses that are open, participatory, distributed and at the same time supportthe idea of lifelong networked learning.Language competencies and intercultural skills will more than ever be a part of the key qualificationsneeded to successfully work and live in this new reality. The need for MOOCs related to languageeducation has already paved the way for the creation of the first “open and massive” foreign languagecourses.Many researches have already shown that the web is a rich field in putting real communication topractice, and explore new forms to exercise one’s language comprehension and fluency. Specifically,web 2.0 is participatory, immediate, authentic and it engages the community. All these are keyfeatures in language learning process and make Web 2.0 a promising language learning environment.
The design and implementation of MOOCs with focus on language learning has not beenexplored yet and this paper aims to fill this research gapThe case: Research questions: / The research methodology that has been adopted by the researchers followed the following stages:a) Exploration of current MOOLCs initiativesb) Classification of the MOOLCs initiatives according to concrete criteriac) Evaluation of most representative MOOLCs initiatives using the MOOILLE frameworkd) Analysis of the results and conclusions
a) Exploration of current MOOLCs initiatives
Univerity/Entity
Evaluation of most representative MOOLCs initiatives using the MOOILLE framework/ 16 platforms RESULTS 1
Results 2- PEDAGOGY
Results 3- ASSESSMENT
Results4-COMMUNITY BUILDING
Results 5- TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Results 6-FINANCIAL ISSUES
Conclusions 1“Are there many MOOLC initiatives that could provide a promising Massive Open Interactive LanguageLearning Environment (MOILLE)”? NO SpanishMOOC(http://spanishmooc.com/) and Mixxer MOOC (http://www.languageexchanges.org/node/106803) but generally most of the MOOLCs initiatives don't offer a highly interactiveenvironment where the learners are interconnected to a language learning community and buildcollectively their language skills. Even if we still discuss about “massive” courses learners are stillstudying a language in a traditional way following courses that are based on a cognitive behavioralpedagogical model and this research finding confirms a previous theoretical resource discussedearlier [12]. The positive aspect is that many courses are still free, have generally good infrastructureand many offer certification. One of the issues that still remain open for discussion and improvement isthe pedagogical aspect of MOOLCs. Designers and educators should focus on the creation of moreinteractive and more connectivist MOOLCs. Time cost for educators is also an important issue thatneeds to be resolved in future.
Conclusions 2The positive aspect is that many courses are still free, have generally good infrastructureand many offer certification
ISSUES generally most of the MOOLCs initiatives don't offer a highly interactiveenvironment where the learners are interconnected to a language learning community and buildcollectively their language skills. Even if we still discuss about “massive” courses learners are stillstudying a language in a traditional way following courses that are based on a cognitive behavioralpedagogical model and this research finding confirms a previous theoretical resource discussedearlier [12]. The positive aspect is that many courses are still free, have generally good infrastructureand many offer certification. One of the issues that still remain open for discussion and improvement isthe pedagogical aspect of MOOLCs. Designers and educators should focus on the creation of moreinteractive and more connectivist MOOLCs. Time cost for educators is also an important issue thatneeds to be resolved in future.