Abstract:

The original aim of MOOCs was to open up education and to provide free access to university-level education for as many students as possible [1]. That reason was enough to arouse the interest of learners worldwide. Nowadays with almost 350 millions of MOOC participants at a global scale [2], it is clear that not only university students are interested in MOOCs, but there is a continuous shift towards a lifelong learning philosophy that is supported by MOOCs. As life changes the need to adapt both professionally and personally by acquiring new skills is growing fast. Continuous training is key to driving the skills of the future and language skills have a predominant position in the new skill set.

Speaking a foreign language can give numerous opportunities to anyone to study and live abroad, explore new cultures, communicate, collaborate, and work with people across the globe. With the advent of technology, the language learning process is highly facilitated by the various emerging technologies as there is access to open and high quality educational and authentic language materials and courses.

Based on the above facts, it is obvious why the market of MOOCs is growing fast with more than 1000 institutions involved in MOOCs during the last decade [2]. But how easy is it to set up and deliver a Language MOOC? Are there any low-budget solutions for universities, organizations, language institutions, or language teachers who wish to develop and deliver a Language MOOC?

In the framework of the LangMOOC project (www.langmooc.com), which is co-funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 programme, a research has been done in order to identify all the MOOC platforms that use free and open-source software or give open access to anyone to use them for free in order to design and deliver a Language MOOC. Research-based criteria were used to collect and evaluate the final list of MOOC platforms.

This article aims first to briefly introduce the LangMOOC project and present the research methodology used in order to create the list of MOOC platforms that use free and open-source software. Then, it will present the research results and will showcase specific examples of platforms used to deliver Language MOOCs including the Moodle-based platform developed by the LangMOOC project in order to deliver free and openly accessible language courses in 5 different languages. According to the research findings, there is a big variety of MOOC platforms that use free and open-source software or give free access to anyone who wishes to design and deliver his/her own Language MOOCs. Many of those also give the opportunity to instructors to create their own Massive Open Online Courses (with the possibility to add a payment for their services) or to organizations to build their own MOOCs in simple steps.

Finally, the article will give more ideas on how to lower the costs to anyone interested in developing and delivering a Language MOOC including low-budget video creation, use of OER content, and more.

References:
[1] Yuan, L, and Powell, S. (2013). MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education. http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667
[2] HolonIQ (20, February 2020). The MOOC Decade. 380 million students later. HolonIO. Retrieved from https://www.holoniq.com/notes/the-mooc-decade.-380-million-students-later.

Keywords:

Language MOOCs, MOOCs, Language OERs, Open Education, Computer Aided Language Learning (CALL), Lifelong Learning, Adult Education.