The Future of Education

Although Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are far from new, language MOOCs (or LMOOCs as they are more commonly termed) are an increasing trend in many universities. This is so, mainly due to two factors: a) an increasing demand for high quality online course materials to cover the needs of professionals who would like to engage in lifelong learning, and b) the need for universities to be at the forefront of technological advances to gain more international visibility. This presentation will focus on the author’s experience designing four B2 level MOOCs for learners of English as a foreign language, which have attracted a total of just under 170,000 learners to date from 258 different countries. She will discuss two factors: motivation and attrition, considering Xiong et al.’s [1] findings whereby motivation is significantly predictive of student course engagement and, in turn, engagement is a strong predictor of retention. Over 9000 learner responses to a survey conducted longitudinally over a period of 2 years will be analysed to investigate some of the factors involved in learner motivation, expectations and learning styles. Moreover, as lack of guidance and scaffolding are factors that can lead to attrition, the author will discuss the solutions that were implemented in order to overcome these deficiencies. In line with this, as some of the more challenging areas in LMOOC design relate to providing opportunities for learners to practise speaking and writing skills, the author will present the activities that were designed in order to support learner interaction and communication, taking into account that these have to satisfy learners who come from very different educational backgrounds and cultures. She will describe how peer-assessment was employed to evaluate open text activities, as well as to encourage the language learners to become aware of their progress and engage in their learning process.

Keywords: Language MOOC design, English for Specific Purposes, learner motivation, learner expectation, attrition.

References:
[1] Xiong, Y., Li, H., Kornhaber, M.L., Suen, H.K., Pursel, B. & Goins, D.D. (2015). Examining the relations among student motivation, engagement, and retention in a MOOC: A structural equation modeling approach. Global Education Review, 2(3): 23-33.