2023-11-13 Educators WG: MOOC Language Courses

Owned by John Swope
Last updated: Jul 11, 2024
2 min read

Recording:

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17dSvdW7prM8CXPDZm7j0CcPSc4fwWDzg/view?usp=drive_link

Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eip15r7LecgTmGJugn-gJFC8wJDzdEo3/view?usp=drive_link

Meeting Minutes

For this month's agenda, we’ll be discussing language courses. Language courses present very fundamental challenges to the MOOC format: Mastery, Assessment integrity, student collaboration, verbal and auditory media, and more!

Hear from Haohsiang Lao, Director of the Chinese Language Program at MIT about his experiences and lessons learned teaching Chinese language MOOCs.

1:00 - 1:05: Welcome and Introduction

1:05 - 1:25: Lessons from Language MOOCs, Dr. Haohsiang Lao, Director of the Chinese Language Program at MIT

MITx - Chinese Language in Culture         

  •  4 skills in learning a foreign language:

    • Speaking

    • Reading

    • Listening

    • Writing

  • Elements of the MITx Chinese Language courses

    • Storytelling – keeps good amount of returning students

    • Linked textbooks with MOOC course

    • Live sessions - 3 live sessions per week

    • Drill session

  • Course involves three types of videos:

    • Animation video

    • “Real-world” conversational video

    • Lecture video

  • Fact VS Act

    • Fact – students can do self study, we put it into the materials that the students can study on their own

    • Act – drill session or live session

  • Appearance of chatGPT – ChatGPT can act as guide for speaking and writing skills

  • Microsoft Edge – has a wide variety of pronunciation variations, it provides at least 12 versions of native speaker

1:25 - 1:40: Q&A

  1. What kind of evaluative tools are you using to document your students? - Arthur Schneider

  • Final oral report – students submit an audio that covers a couple of topics

  1. How many totals get the certificate, and how many total audits?

3. What are some examples of the storytelling you use, and how do you set that up in these courses? – John Swope

  1. Do you have any kind of flashcards or space repetition incorporated into the courses yet? And if you do, of what kind? And if you don't, have you found that to be a problem? – Jeremy Bowman

  2. Do you have any wish list items for the open edX that you want to improve or scale? – John Swope

  3. Is AI integrated into the system at all? Or do students have to have their own accounts? – Kim Welch

  • Students use their own (for now)

1:40 - 1:50: Polling for Future sessions

Jamboard shared to determine future priorities: https://jamboard.google.com/d/1lYLuj5qN2aHD-kd_Gzt91p0mYg726pfWQK4I-62WwRc/edit?usp=sharing

1:50 - 2:00: Open Agenda