ONLINE LEARNING
Where there's a MOOC
Kirsten Winkler looks at the Massive Open Online
Courses that are shaking up the higher education sector
y now it has become pretty difficult to
avoid the MOOC topic. The problem is
that there's nothing much left of the
original term, as people tend to call every
web-based course a MOOC, rather than
maintaining a more differentiated definition.
As Steven Downes recently pointed out in a
blog post titled 'The Great Rebranding':
B
'The arguments in which the four elements of
MOOCs – 'massive', 'open', 'online' and
'course' – are one by one putated to be
'optional' or 'unnecessary' seems to me to be
a desperate attempt to cleanse MOOCs of
any disruptive impact they may have on the
traditional action of in-person teaching to a
teacher to a small group of people.'
halfanhour.blogspot.co.uk
We need to keep in mind that online
courses that call themselves MOOCs but
are hosted on platforms that offer their
services to colleges and universities are not
100 percent true to the original meaning of
the term. There is a difference between the
concept of a MOOC and what it has turned
into today.
MOOCs are nothing new
Interestingly, MOOCs have existed for quite a
while in the language learning space; the
(ed)tech media just didn't call them MOOCs.
Language learning communities such as
Livemocha, busuu and babbel.com launched
about five years ago and saw some
appreciable growth early on. Busuu claims to
have more than 30 million users today,
Livemocha and babbel.com both have around
15 million. This is significant even when
compared to the most popular MOOCs.
Language learning communities featured
most of the functionalities we now associate
16
The Linguist
JUNE/JULY
with MOOCs. They were massive from the
start, as the platforms were meant to provide
access to an indefinite number of language
students. This is, of course, part of the
underlying business model – to reach as
many potential students (clients) as possible.
They were open, as most featured a
so-called 'freemium' business model. This
means that a portion of the content is
available free of charge and 'premium
options', such as additional grammar sheets
and exercises, have to be purchased. (Only
babbel.com switched to a premium-only
model.) This is similar to what Coursera is
doing today, as the US-based MOOC
platform offers its courses for free but
charges for certification.
Language learning communities were
online or 'in the cloud'. This was one of
the major selling points compared to
Rosetta Stone, which was the old bull they
were trying to compete with. Ironically,
Rosetta recently acquired Livemocha in what
seems to have been a fire sale, and the
company's new CEO is pushing Rosetta
towards a cloud-based service in order to
compete with the remaining language
learning communities.
These communities are actually a step
ahead of the MOOCs, as they already offer
mobile learning solutions via applications for
smartphones and tablets. In contrast, MOOC
platforms are generally web-based and rely
on a desktop computer for access.
Last but not least, all of the language
learning communities offered courses, again
most of them free of charge. Although often
fairly rudimentary, they nonetheless provided
a structured way for absolute beginners to
start learning a new language.
Would it not be in
universities' best
interest to create
dedicated MOOC
courses for languages?
UPCOMING COURSES
At present, the US-based MOOC platforms
offer the best selection. Udacity and edX
are mostly tech and science centered, so
Coursera is currently the platform of
choice for linguists. Courses are constantly
being added, so to find the right one for
you check out eduudle.com – a UK-based
search engine for MOOCs around the
globe. There are still no language-related
courses, but some may be of interest:
• The Law of the European Union:
An Introduction, starts 10 June;
www.coursera.org/course/introeulaw
• Creativity, Innovation and Change: starts
1 September; www.coursera.org/course/cic
• Age of Globalization: starts 1 September;
www.edx.org/courses/UTAustinX/UT.3.01x/
2013_Sept/about
• Designing a New Learning
Environment: starts 21 October;
http://venture-lab.stanford.edu/education
• Globalizing Higher Education and
Research for the 'Knowledge Economy',
starts 21 January 2014;
www.coursera.org/course/globalhighered
www.iol.org.uk
