The document outlines the LangMOOC project, focusing on massive open online courses (MOOCs) for language learning and the necessary research, frameworks, and methodologies involved. Key findings highlight the need for effective communication, community building, and innovative tools to enhance learner engagement and reduce dropout rates. The project aims to create a highly interactive learning environment by leveraging diverse educational resources and evaluating existing MOOCs according to proposed criteria.

1. Language Massive Open Online Courses
LangMOOCs www.langmooc.com
Dr Maria Perifanou
Active Citizens Partnership, ACP
GREECE
1

2. Language Massive Open Online Courses
LangMOOCs Consortium
Action Citizens Partnership (ACP), GR
Sør-Trøndelag University College, HiST, NO
CESIE, IT
Iberica education group (gGmbH), GE
Community Action Dacorum, UK2

3. 1st part:
MOOCs & Language Learning Research
background
2nd part:
Intellectual Outputs of the LangMOOC project
(Expected outcomes, activities and deliverables)
3LangMOOCs project

4. 1st part:
MOOCs & Language Learning
Research background
4LangMOOCs project

5. 5LangMOOCs project

6. 6LangMOOCs project

7. Need for MOOLCs
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

8. Key factors for successful online
language Learning courses
 learner’s autonomy
 social interaction in the
target language/exposure
 feedback
 authentic collaboration
 building community 8LangMOOCs project

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)?
Research questions
9LangMOOCs project

10. 10LangMOOCs project

11. MOILLE FRAMEWORK - Massive Open
Interactive Language Learning Environment
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. 11LangMOOCs project

12. MOILLE FRAMEWORK - Massive Open
Interactive Language Learning Environment
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. 12

13. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: STAGES
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

14. CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOOLC INITIATIVES
ACCORDING TO CONCRETE CRITERIA
2nd Stage
 University/Entity
 Number of Free of charge language
Courses
 Language
 Certification/ Badges/Official credits
 Fixed time session
 cMOOC / xMOOC

15. Research Findings:
Current situation of MOOLCs
• 16 MOOC platforms that
offer more than 50 free
Language Learning
courses.
• <1/2 English Language
MOOCs
• Great interest for other
languages like Arabic,
Spanish, Japanese,
Chinese etc. (Perifanou &
Economides, 2014).
Examples:
• German Language MOOC won
the First Prize for the Best
MOOC in the Miriada X
platform (Castrillo, 2013)
• “I learn” platform
(‘Aprendo’/UNED)
2 English courses 78.690
1 German 22.438 students
(Read & Rodrigo, 2013).
15LangMOOCs project

16. Issues emerged after exploration & evaluation
of current MOOLC initiatives (1)
The use of the “one–to-many” model
Lack of communication tools (synchronous & asynchronous)
Time zone differences
Difficult teacher’s support to a massive number of students
Different language learners’ profiles (background, language
level, learning needs, learning objectives, learning modes -
learn in collaboration or alone or both)
Provide feedback with such an unbalanced teacher-student
ratio
Lack of Peer assessment
16LangMOOCs project

17. Issues emerged after exploration & evaluation
of current MOOLC initiatives (2)
Main reasons for the big number of dropouts:
 Lack of teachers’ support in most cases
 Different students’ intentions (no intention to
participate, highly interested to participate, lurking
etc.)
17LangMOOCs project

18. Practical solutions to MOOLCs’ problems
 Use of authentic language materials
 Variety of language activities
 Variety of innovative tools
 Develop/choose a learning platform that can:
o provide an adaptive way of learning to a big number of
participants.
o match also teachers’ profiles
o provide information about the current status (online/offline) of
learners and teachers
o be used in mobile devices
o use analytic tools to support quality of MOOLCs through the
analysis of specific factors
18LangMOOCs project

19. 19LangMOOCs project

20. Dynamic interactions between
participants in a MOILLE
Student-Teacher(s)/Student-Student(s)
Teacher-Teacher(s)/Teacher-Student(s)
MOILLE - Authentic Interaction with
native speakers
20LangMOOCs project

21.  What is mostly important for successful
MOOLCs is to:
“create a highly interactive & collaborative
learning environment that can support
community building not only between peers
& teachers but also with native speakers of
the target language”
Final conclusions
21LangMOOCs project

22. 2nd part:
Intellectual outputs
LangMOOC project
(Expected outcomes, activities and
deliverables)
22LangMOOCs project

23. • A1 Report: Review of
MOOC experiences01
• A2 Report: MOOCs
(goals/tech/asessement)01
• A3 Report: Pedagogical
framework01
Intellectual Outputs
23LangMOOCs project

24. • A1 Report: Available
language learning
MOOCs
02
a) Exploration of current MOOCs for language
learning
b) Classification of the MOOCs according to concrete
criteria
c) Evaluation of most representative MOOCs using the
MOOILLE framework
d) Analysis of the results and conclusions
Intellectual Outputs
24LangMOOCs project

25. • A1 Lang MOOC toolkit
(Version1)03
• A2 Lang MOOC toolkit
(Version2)03
Intellectual Outputs
25LangMOOCs project

26. • OERs based on Authentic
Materials04
A1 ENGLISH
A2 GREEK
A3 GERMAN
A4 ITALIAN
A5 NORWEGIAN
Intellectual Outputs
26LangMOOCs project

27. • Pilot MOOC for Language
Learning05
A1 MOOC Platform set up/localisation
A5 ENGLISH Pilot MOOC
A2 GREEK Pilot MOOC
A3 GERMAN Pilot MOOC
A4 ITALIAN Pilot MOOC
A6 NORWEGIAN Pilot MOOC
A7 REPORT _PILOT FEEDBACK
A6 Technical video tutorials for MOOC
pilots
Intellectual Outputs
27LangMOOCs project

28. • A1 Sustainability Plan06
Intellectual Outputs
28LangMOOCs project

29. Thank you all!
29LangMOOCs project

30. References & Resources
Perifanou M. & Economides A. (2014). MOOCs for Language Learning: An effort
to explore and evaluate the first practices. In Proceedings of the INTED2014
conference held in Valencia, Spain 8-12 March 2014. Full-text
Perifanou M. (2014). How to design and evaluate a Massive Open Online
Course (MOOC) for Language Learning.In Proceedings of the eLSE14 conference
held in Buchurest, Romania, 24-25 April 2014.
o http://elearninginfographics.com/european-moocs-
infographic/#sthash.wCL5G0XD.qjtu
o http://pretoria.uoc.es/wpmu/ambitp/2013/05/22/moocs-state-of-the-art
o http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/
o http://www.edutopia.org
o http://open-it-lab.com/open-content/
o http://edutechdebate.org/oer-and-digital-divide/do-open-educational-
resources-actually-increase-the-digital-divide/