Exploring Self-Regulated Language Learning with MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been integrated into face-to-face language modules to enhance the educational experience of students. MOOCs appear to offer language learning opportunities as well as challenging the self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviour of students. This paper presents a work in progress with regards to the literature review of my PhD, which investigates SRL in face-to-face language modules using MOOCs. It discusses SRL as a requirement for engaging with these courses and analyses the way studies have integrated MOOCs into instructional language modules. This paper concludes by highlighting the need for understanding students’ SRL behaviour when engaging with MOOCs as part of their language modules

Building Bridges Towards Self-regulation: The Goal-Setting Behaviour of Adult Language Learners in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer educational opportunities to a wide range of learners. Language learners can use these courses to develop knowledge and practise language skills needed daily or in different areas of specialisation. However, learners may not benefit from this learning opportunity if they do not know how to self-regulate their learning. Self-regulated learners employ various processes to master their learning and accomplish their goals. The literature shows that goal setting is a helpful self-regulatory process that contributes to a successful MOOC learning experience. Goal setting is the driving force behind any educational intention and can provide the basis for a strategic plan formulated by learners at the start of a learning task. Moreover, this self-regulatory process holds the key to activating, monitoring, and assessing an effective learning process. Nonetheless, goal-setting support in these online courses is scarce. Research on goal setting in MOOCs has not previously investigated the personal learning goals that learners bring to these non-formal learning environments. This represents a twofold omission in the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), in which MOOCs are themselves an under-researched area. Although CALL practitioners have gradually integrated MOOCs into the L2 classroom, little research has examined adult learners' goals during their MOOC-based learning. To address this gap in the literature, this research uncovers the goal-setting behaviour of 19 adult learners who studied MOOCs for four weeks as part of their classroom-based language courses. To achieve this aim, the researcher gathered and analysed 38 semi-structured interviews, 71 weekly monitoring surveys, 19 open-ended questionnaires and 19 MOOC screenshots. The findings of this study advance the field of CALL by providing a comprehensive picture of the different aspects of language, traditional and non-traditional goals, and MOOC elements involved when L2 adult learners self-regulate their learning online

First steps towards self-regulated learning

The unprecedented times that we have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led most teachers worldwide to use technologies that emphasise open world learning to deliver their online lessons, which comply with the existing physical distance measures. The use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), for instance, has been considered to support language learning at a distance. These courses not only represent opportunities for language learners to practise their target language, but also provide challenges for learners seeking to regulate their online learning. The MOOCs’ complex nature calls for more research that examines the self-regulatory processes that prepare and motivate learners to initiate their language learning efforts in MOOCs. Accordingly, Chapter 5 aims to provide a deeper understanding of the forethought processes of goal setting and goal orientation that a group of 19 adult language learners employed during four weeks of engagement with MOOCs as part of their classroom-based language courses. The findings of this chapter, which emphasise the type of goals and difficulties learners have when setting clear targets, may contribute to scaffolding self-regulated learning at a distance and subsequently encourage learners to assume a responsible role towards their language education in which active learning is the new normal

Supporting Learners' Self-regulation in LMOOCs: What Have We Done and How Far We Can Go?

This half-day workshop aims at collecting experiences of MOOC designers and MOOC educators to discuss what has been done to support SRL and what can be done to scaffold learners in MOOCs, particularly MOOCs for language learning purposes (LMOOCs). For this purpose, it is planned to come together with academicians and researchers working on related subjects within the scope of this workshop to develop a student support framework in large-scale learning environments. In this workshop, the participants should actively participate and take part in both the virtual session and the discussions that may emerge on social media (via Twitter). In line with this process, the main problems faced by individuals learning a foreign language with the help of LMOOCs will be examined following the experiences of the participants and the organizers