Second language learning in the context of MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses are becoming popular educational vehicles through which universities reach out to non-traditional audiences. Many enrolees hail from other countries and cultures, and struggle to cope with the English language in which these courses are invariably offered. Moreover, most such learners have a strong desire and motivation to extend their knowledge of academic English, particularly in the specific area addressed by the course. Online courses provide a compelling opportunity for domain-specific language learning. They supply a large corpus of interesting linguistic material relevant to a particular area, including supplementary images (slides), audio and video. We contend that this corpus can be automatically analysed, enriched, and transformed into a resource that learners can browse and query in order to extend their ability to understand the language used, and help them express themselves more fluently and eloquently in that domain. To illustrate this idea, an existing online corpus-based language learning tool (FLAX) is applied to a Coursera MOOC entitled Virology 1: How Viruses Work, offered by Columbia University

FLAX: Flexible and open corpus-based language collections development

In this case study we present innovative work in building open corpus-based language collections by focusing on a description of the opensource multilingual Flexible Language Acquisition (FLAX) language project, which is an ongoing example of open materials development practices for language teaching and learning. We present language-learning contexts from across formal and informal language learning in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Our experience relates to Open Educational Resource (OER) options and Practices (OEP) which are available for developing and distributing online subject-specific language materials for uses in academic and professional settings. We are particularly concerned with closing the gap in language teacher training where competencies in materials development are still dominated by print-based proprietary course book publications. We are also concerned with the growing gap in language teaching practitioner competencies for understanding important issues of copyright and licencing that are changing rapidly in the context of digital and web literacy developments. These key issues are being largely ignored in the informal language teaching practitioner discussions and in the formal research into teaching and materials development practices

The Foreign Language Classroom: Current Perspectives and Future Considerations

The Modern Language Journal has long been an important venue for the publication of research and reflection on the teaching and learning of foreign languages (FL) in classroom contexts. In this article, we offer a perspective on the contemporary FL classroom, informed by a descriptive survey of all studies that took place in FL classes that were published in the Modern Language Journal (MLJ) between 2001 and 2014 inclusive (N = 97). This yielded a profile of FL classrooms in terms of geographical locations; languages being taught; the amount and distribution of instructional time; and the age and language backgrounds of the students. The findings revealed that FL environments benefiting from research investigations in the MLJ typically involve older learners in on-site (rather than virtual) classes that afford limited exposure to the FL, which was typically English (in non-English speaking countries) and French, German or Spanish (in English-speaking countries). We consider the implications of these findings for the study of FLs in the future and identify aspects of FL classrooms that merit greater research attention as the MLJ moves into its second centenary. Keywords: foreign language; language teaching; language learning; language classrooms; EFL; instructional tim

The influence of massive open online courses on youth job search behaviour: an explorative case study of Durban youths.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study attempts to merge South African job search behaviours with massive open online course (MOOC) literature in an attempt to discover what effects online certification can have on youth outlooks and job search behaviour. This dissertation begins with a literature review of each component, followed by a practical longitudinal study, comprising 15 unemployed youths from a local Durban area, over 16 weeks in a pre and post-study period. The attitudes and world outlooks of these youths is assessed through interview data, with suggestions for local, regional and national programs in South Africa for utilising MOOCs as a tool for addressing youth unemployment and achieving the human capital development necessary for taking advantage of the country’s demographic dividend

A new paradigm for open data-driven language learning systems design in higher education

This doctoral thesis presents three studies in collaboration with the open source FLAX project (Flexible Language Acquisition flax.nzdl.org). This research makes an original contribution to the fields of language education and educational technology by mobilising knowledge from computer science, corpus linguistics and open education, and proposes a new paradigm for open data-driven language learning systems design in higher education. Furthermore, the research presented in this thesis uncovers and engages with an infrastructure of open educational practices (OEP) that push at the parameters of policy for the reuse of open access research and pedagogic content in the design, development, distribution, adoption and evaluation of data-driven language learning systems. Study 1 employs automated content analysis to mine the concept of open educational systems and practices from qualitative reflections spanning 2012-2019 with stakeholders from an on-going multi-site design-based research study with the FLAX project. Design considerations are presented for remixing domain-specific open access content for academic English language provision across formal and non-formal higher education contexts. Primary stakeholders in this ongoing research collaboration include the following: knowledge organisations – libraries and archives including the British Library and the Oxford Text Archive, universities in collaboration with Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers; an interdisciplinary team of researchers; and knowledge users in formal higher education – English for Academic Purposes (EAP) practitioners. Themes arising from the qualitative dataset point to affordances as well as barriers with the adoption of open policies and practices for remixing open access content for data-driven language learning applications in higher education against the backdrop of different business models and cultural practices present within participating knowledge organisations. Study 2 presents a data-driven experiment in non-formal higher education by triangulating user query system log data with learner participant data from surveys (N=174) on the interface designs and usability of an automated open source digital library scheme, FLAX. Text and data mining approaches (TDM) common to natural language processing (NLP) were applied to pedagogical English language corpora, derived from the content of two MOOCs, (Harvard University with edX, and the University of London with Coursera), and one networked course (Harvard Law School with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society), which were then linked to external open resources (e.g. Wikipedia, the FLAX Learning Collocations system, WordNet), so that learners could employ the information discovery techniques (e.g. searching and browsing) that they have become accustomed to using through search engines (e.g. Google, Bing) for discovering and learning the domain-specific language features of their interests. Findings indicate a positive user experience with interfaces that include advanced affordances for course content browse, search and retrieval that transcend the MOOC platform and Learning Management System (LMS) standard. Further survey questions derived from an open education research bank from the Hewlett Foundation are reused in this study and presented against a larger dataset from the Hewlett Foundation (N=1921) on motivations for the uptake of open educational resources. Study 3 presents a data-driven experiment in formal higher education from the legal English field to measure quantitatively the usefulness and effectiveness of employing the open Law Collections in FLAX in the teaching of legal English at the University of Murcia in Spain. Informants were divided into an experimental and a control group and were asked to write an essay on a given set of legal English topics, defined by the subject instructor as part of their final assessment. The experimental group only consulted the FLAX English Common Law MOOC collection as the single source of information to draft their essays, and the control group used any information source available from the Internet to draft their essays. Findings from an analysis of the two learner corpora of essays indicate that members of the experimental group appear to have acquired the specialised terminology of the area better than those in the control group, as attested by the higher term average obtained by the texts in the FLAX-based corpus (56.5) as opposed to the non-FLAX-based text collection, at 13.73 points below

An Examination of the Impact of Using Hybrid MOOCs on Students' Experiences and Achievements within Higher Education in Saudi Arabia: A Case Study of Male Students in Majmaah University

Ed. D. ThesisGlobally, many universities and colleges have been experiencing a transformation in pedagogy over the last decade where face to face learning has been integrated with the digital and online. MOOCs first emerged in 2008 and are platforms that have many online components able to offer university level courses to very large numbers of learners at no additional charge or relatively low costs for them. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has not been entirely left behind in this pedagogical revolution, but MOOCs have not yet been implemented on a country wide scale. This research attempts to understand whether Hybrid MOOCs (integration of massive open online courses and in class activities) could affect student academic achievement in terms of marks obtained. In addition, the thesis investigates the learner experience, attitudes, and challenges when they study with Hybrid MOOCs. The thesis employs a quasi-experimental research design, convergent parallel mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative), and multiple sources of data collection: semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and pre/post-tests. 81 BSc students (control group =36 /experimental group = 45) who studied the ‘Educational Technology and Communication Skills’ module at the Majmaah University in the 1st semester of 2017-2018 participated in this project for a whole 14-week semester. The study found that there was a statistically significant difference in the grades obtained by the experimental group when Hybrid MOOCs were deployed which was evident in the substantial difference in Mean marks obtained between the pre-test and post-test in this group. However, when comparing the marks obtained by the control group (studying with traditional face to face pedagogy) and experimental group (studying with Hybrid MOOCs) in their pre-test and post-tests, it was shown that there was no statistically significant difference (although the experimental group's marks were slightly better). The thesis results further indicated that the students had preferred Hybrid MOOCs learning, and particularly video-based instructions. It also revealed that students’ attitudes changed radically before and after using Hybrid MOOCs, as they were quite anxious prior to studying with the new teaching method, anticipating it to be complicated and complex. However, after their engagement, their attitudes and feelings changed significantly, and they showed positive sentiments towards this mode of studying. Challenges of MOOCs were largely related to outside issues and not to studying in this new mode. The implications of this study are significant, especially in regards to Hybrid MOOCs being employed in developing countries. The study is an important one as the ability of MOOCs to influence academic grades may be the decisive factor in them becoming a possible alternative to the face to face classes within KSA higher educational institutions. However, due to the limited scope of the study being conducted at one university in one city and all the participants being male, further research is needed in order to offer a more comprehensive account of the impact of this phenomenon on students’ grades. Keywords: Hybrid MOOCs, Students' Experiences, Academic Achievements, Attitude, Challenges, Higher Education, Saudi Arabi