Course

The Course has been developed by Nadezhda Pirogova who teaches English to students in Foreign Language Training Center, Institute of International Development and Partnership, ITMO University, Russia.

This course attempts to provide information to language teachers and students on how LMOOCs (Language Massive Open Online Courses) can help them achieve their learning goals. The course is divided into ten sections that start by covering the most central aspects of LMOOCs (e.g., pedagogical, linguistic) and move towards more peripheral ones (e.g., sociological, ethical). Section one is an introductory one. Section two reflects on the features that make an effective LMOOC. Section three proposes a methodological model for the creation of collaborative LMOOCs. Section four focuses on the importance of motivation in LMOOCs. Section five is devoted to the roles of an instructor in a LMOOC. Section six moves on to deal with architectural aspects of LMOOCs. Section seven focuses on the aspects within LMOOCs which benefit disabled people. Section eight deals with an uncommon topic: the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of LMOOCs. Section nine covers the issues of teaching pronunciation and comprehensibility in LMOOCs. Section ten analyses the key strengths and weaknesses of LMOOCs as presented in the previous sections.