71 © 2017 Marina Orsini-Jones, Barbara Conde Gafaro, and Shooq Altamimi (CC BY)
7
Integrating a MOOC into the postgraduate
ELT curriculum: refecting on students’
beliefs with a MOOC blend
Marina Orsini-Jones
1
, Barbara Conde Gafaro
2
,
and Shooq Altamimi
3
Abstract
T
his chapter builds on the outcomes of a blended learning
action-research project in its third iteration (academic year
2015-16). The FutureLearn Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching was integrated
into the curriculum of the Master of Arts (MA) in English Language
Teaching (ELT) at Coventry University (UK). The MOOC was
designed by the University of Southampton in collaboration with
the British Council and many of its topics appeared to coincide with
those on the MA in ELT module ‘Theories and Methods of Language
Learning and Teaching’. The initial blend trialled for the project
included all students covering the same topics in various ways, e.g.
in face-to-face workshops at Coventry University, on the MOOC with
thousands of participants, and on the institutional virtual learning
environment – Moodle – with peers on the module. This enhanced
blend afforded unique opportunities for refection on the problematic
areas of knowledge encountered by students on the MA in ELT, such
as learner autonomy. The work reported here was carried out by one
of the authors (Altamimi), an ‘expert student’ who replicated the
1. Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom; m.orsini@coventry.ac.uk
2. Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom; condegab@uni.coventry.ac.uk
3. Ministry of Education, Isa Town, Bahrain; shoug.altamimi@windowslive.com
How to cite this chapter: Orsini-Jones, M., Conde Gafaro, B., & Altamimi, S. (2017). Integrating a MOOC into
the postgraduate ELT curriculum: refecting on students’ beliefs with a MOOC blend. In Q. Kan & S. Bax (Eds),
Beyond the language classroom: researching MOOCs and other innovations (pp. 71-83). Research-publishing.net.
https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017.mooc2016.672