The example of 'How to succeed in the English B1 Level exam', a Language MOOC within the the ECO Project (Elearning, Communication and Open-Data: Massive, Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning). Project funded by the European Community's CIP (Programme under grant agreement N. 21127).

1. Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)
Project no.: 621127
A redefinition of the teacher and student roles
in Language MOOCs: The example of “How to
succeed in the English-B1 Level exam”
Elena Martín-Monje & María Dolores Castrillo de Larreta-Azelain
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
Madrid, Spain
emartin@flog.uned.es & mcastrillo@flog.uned.es

2. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Contents
• Introduction
• Teacher & student roles in Language
MOOCs
• Method: Participants & procedures
• Research questions & data analysis
• Discussion & conclusions
• References

3. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Introduction
• Main features of MOOCs:
– Massive
– Open
– Online
– Courses
• 2 basic types: xMOOC & cMOOC
• 3 new challenges (Sharples el al., 2015)
1. Technologicallly
2. Educationally
3. Socially

4. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Introduction
• EU-funded ECO project:
– MOOCs should be inclusive & cater for those in risk of exclusion,
making use of latest technology
• sMOOC (Morgado, Teixeira & Jansen, 2015):
– Social: learning marked by social interaction & participation
– Seamless:
• Accessible from different platforms
• Accessible through mobile devices
• Integrating participants’ real life experiences through contextualization
of content (apps & gamification)
MOOC
Inclusion
Accesibility
Ubiquity
Mobility
sMOOC

5. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Teacher roles in Language MOOCs
Course
stage
Teacher roles MOOC characteristics
Before
MOOCAdministrator,manager-Technologist-
Researcher
MOOC structure designer-
developer/ Organizer
Agenda, timeline
Content expert/ Content
creator/ Content
facilitator
Short subtitled videos
Quizzes
Aid and supporting materials
Assessment designer/
Evaluator
Peer- and self-assessment
Communication tools and
structure designer
Email, forums, questions and answers tool,
blog, wiki.
During Facilitators Facilitating discourse
Curators Providing direct instruction
After Researcher Learning Analytics
Teacher Roles in Massive Open Online Language Courses (Castrillo, 2014:72)

6. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Student roles in Language MOOCs
Viewers
All-
rounders
SolversCollectors
Bystanders
Based on Anderson et al., 2014

7. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Method: Participants & procedures
6 Modules Resources Activities Social
interaction
Gamification
Presentation Textual
materials
Quizzes Forum
4 skills Audiovisual
recordings
Past papers Facebook
group
Summing up Extra
resources
P2P actitivies Sub-groups
with #
3 Nov. – 14 Dec. 2015

8. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Method: Participants & procedures
• Target group: EFL students with a CEFR B1 Level
interested in taking standardized test
• Focus on learning strategies & tips to prepare efficiently
for language tests
• Creation of sub-groups: (Every 500, automatically done by
platform)
Pampered group
• Strong facilitator
presence
• Messages posted
every day
• New topics for
discussion every
2/3 days
Monitored group
• Participants’
interaction
monitored
regularly
• Messages posted
every 2/3 days
• No new topics for
discussion
Self-managed group
• Low facilitator
presence
• Messages only
posted to solve
problems

9. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Method: Participants & procedures
• TEACHERS: 2 course organizers, 6 content creators, 4
facilitators
• STUDENTS:
– 8208 participants registered
– 5359 started the course (65% of those registered)
– 644 completed the course (12% of those who started)
• STUDENT PROFILE
– Spanish (91.6%)
– Female (60.5%)
– Late thirties (37.6 average age)
– Higher Education (53.6% hold a BA/BSc , MA/MSc or similar)
– Employed (56.8%)

10. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Research questions & data analysis
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Are participants’ learning expectations realistic?
2. How important is the teacher support in the MOOC?
3. Can a MOOC such as this one encourage students to
take a standardized test?
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• Initial questionnaire (3070 responses)
• Final questionnaire (351 responses)

11. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
1. Are participants’ learning expectations realistic?

12. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
2. Can the instructor presence have an impact on student
engagement in Language MOOCs?
TEACHER PERSPECTIVE
- No significant participation in any of the sub-groups
- Low interaction in forums (1161 total)
Forum N. posts
Guidelines 250
General 54
Module 1 505
Module 2 100
Module 3 87
Module 4 80
Module 5 44
Module 6 41
Sub-group Teacher
posts
Student
posts
Pampered
group
56 14
Monitored
group
21 9
Self-
managed
group
4 7

13. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
2. How important is the teacher support in the MOOC?
TEACHER PERSPECTIVE
- 767 joined the Facebook Group

14. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
2. How important is the teacher support in the MOOC?
STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
- On the course
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Objectives
achieved
Reflection
encouraged
Learner
involvement
encouraged
Learner interaction
promoted
Creativity
promoted
Inadequately (4)
To some extent (3)
To a large extent (2)
Completely (1)

15. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
2. How important is the teacher support in the MOOC?
STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
- On support provided by peers and teachers
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Social interaction Student posts Work shared by
peers
Peer support Teacher support
I don’t know
Poor
Satisfactory
Good
Excellent

16. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
3. Can a MOOC such as this one encourage students to take a
standardized test?

17. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Discussion & conclusions
• Initial data analysis →qualitative
• Castrillo’s (2014) framework followed for teacher roles
• Anderson et al.’s (2014)engagement profiles taken into
account
• Sub-groups created in an attempt to increase the
number of ‘all-rounders’
• Facebook group created with the aim of enhancing
sMOOC features
• Gamification strategies in place (badges)

18. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Discussion & conclusions
ANSWERS TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Are participants’ learning expectations realistic?
Participants’ learning expectations are not realistic:
– Around 50% below required entry level.
– Over 50% plan to take English B1 Level exam
2. How important is the teacher support in the MOOC?
Instructor presence does not seem to have an impact on student
engagement:
– No significant participation in ‘pampered’ or ‘monitored’ group.
– Facebook group does not seem to have been particularly effective.
– Those that completed the course seem to be ‘solvers’
– Students generally satisfied with course
– Students rate similarly student and teacher support

19. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Discussion & conclusions
3. Can a MOOC such as this one encourage students to take a
standardized test?
A MOOC on language testing & its methodology can be useful to
encourage students to actually take the test.

20. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
Discussion & conclusions
• Next steps:
– Improvements for next iteration:
• Questionnaire on learning styles
• Collaborative tasks →true learning community
• Structured activities to be provided in FB group
• Sub-grouping to be reconsidered (Axmann & Atkins, 2016)
– Quantitative study (LA):
• N. Badges achieved
• Forum participation
• P2P
– BUT LA alone does not fully account for student
behaviour & learning needs

21. Elearning, Communication and Open-data:
Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning
References
• Anderson, A., Huttenlocher, D., Kleinberg, J. y Leskovec, J. (2014). Engaging with massive
online courses. In WWW’14 Proceedings of the 23rd international conference on World
wide web (pp. 687-698). New York: ACM.
• Axmann, M. & Atkins, R. (2016). Online Community-Based Practices for Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCs) at Open Universities Autralia: A Case Study. In R.Mendoza-
González (Ed.) User-Centered Design Strategies for Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs), pp. 83-98. Hershey (PA), USA: IGI Global.
• Castrillo de Larreta-Azelain, MD (2014) Language Teaching in MOOCs: the Integral Role of
the Instructor. In Martín-Monje, E. & Bárcena, E. (Eds.) Language MOOCs. Providing
Learning, Transcending Boundaries, pp. 67-90. Berlin: De Gruyter Open. Retrieved from
http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/455678
• HOME, OpenupEd & ECO Project (2015). Definition Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs). Retrieved from
http://www.openuped.eu/images/docs/Definition_Massive_Open_Online_Courses.pdf
• Morgado, L., Teixeira, A. & Jansen, D. (2015). D2.3 Instructional design and scenarios for
MOOCs –version 2. ECO Project Deliverable.
• Sharples, M et al (2015) Mobile and Accessible Learning for MOOCs. Journal of
Interactive Media in Education, 2015(1): 4, 1-8, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jime.ai

22. Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)
Project no.: 621127
More information here:
THANKS!
emartin@flog.uned.es & mcastrillo@flog.uned.es
https://ecolearning.eu/
http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/
product/455678