ONLINE PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MULTI-DISCIPLINARY LANGUAGE LEARNING

Our paper discusses digitalization of language learning and the creation of an open language learning platform for learning professional Swedish. The platform is being developed in one of the teacher teams in DIGIJOUJOU project, a national development project for digitalizing second language learning in higher education in Finland financed by Ministry of Education. The team represents three institutions: Aalto University, Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.

The objective of the paper is to discuss and present possibilities developed for digital learning and a platform aimed at students and teachers. The platform caters multi-disciplinary learning with task-based activities for intermediate level students in higher education. It may be incorporated into institutional tuition and it offers a platform for students to select activities suitable for their personal learning plans and university curricula. The open platform comprises of various task-based activities within six topic areas and additional support pages for students and teachers. The underlying methods and theories are those of task-based learning, flipped learning and blended learning.

The platform and its activities will be open source and participants use various digital learning and communication tools in implementation. Students are empowered to tailor the courses for their own needs, topics and tasks. They select tasks relevant for their future profession and search for branch related texts and readings. They work individually and in group, synchronously and asynchronously, on-line and face-to-face (blended learning). In the future the platform might be used by multi-disciplinary groups.

The innovation of this platform is that it may benefit learners and instructors as it caters as an activity and instruction bank. It is noteworthy that the platform must be combined with a university course with an instructor and a learning environment. The learners may submit their work on the university platform and the instructors coach, teach and assess the learning tasks. Doing this they also sign in and participate on-line discussion groups, on-line meetings and discussions to present and discuss their own and other students’ work. Hence self and peer assessment are involved.