Exploring the affordances of

Massive Open Online Courses

on Second Languages

Elena Martín Monje, Elena Bárcena &Timothy Read

SO-CALL-ME Research Project, ATLAS Research Group

UNED, Spain

Table of contents

• Introduction

• The MOOC model

• “Professional English”: A pioneer MOOC on ESP (English for Specific Purposes)

• Conclusions

• References

Introduction

Formal education

Informal education

Non-formal

education

MOOCs

The MOOC model

• New culture of sharing: OCW, OER, OEP. • MOOCs: G. Siemens & S.Downes. • Connectivism (Siemens, 2005):

– Content offered through a variety of channels. – Learners creating networks. – Construction of meaning through interaction.

• MOOC students: pro-active protagonists of their own learning.

• Social, collaborative learning: audio-visuals + text, karma-based forums.

• Voluntary educational experience, attractive for non-standard students.

The MOOC model: Second Languages

• Teacher-student & peer-to-peer communication are means and end.

• Unbalanced teacher/student ratio (e.g. 1/5,000 in “Professional English”).

• Social (P2P) feedback becomes crucial.

• Substantial change in roles.

• Complexity of Language Learning: Not much open production and interaction.

• Challenge: Implementation of written/oral production and interaction in MOOCs.

Course coordinator & curators

Facilitators

Monitors (students with highest karma)

Rest of students

“Professional English”: A pioneer MOOC on ESP

“Professional English” in

“Professional English” in

“Professional English”: A pioneer MOOC on ESP

“Professional English” in

Asynchronous oral practice with social feedback

“Professional English” in

Combination of synchronous and asynchronous oral practice

Conclusions

• Key contributions of MOOC “Professional English”

– Enhancement of socio-cultural competence (in written forums, oral interaction & P2P feedback).

– Coverage of full range of communicative linguistic competences.

– Adaptability of MOOC format to language learning.

– Innovative proposal for synchronous & asynchronous oral communication.

References

• Council of Europe (2001). The European Framework of Reference for Languages:

Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(10), 3-9. Retrieved December 17 2012, from http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/jan_05.pdf

emartin@flog.uned.es

THANK YOU!