|
“MOVE-ME“ MOOCs for University Students on the Move in Europe |
Erasmus + Strategic Partnerships for higher education
Convenzione n°2015-1-IT02-KA203-015330
International Conference
Web site: http://www.movemeproject.eu
European third level education is characterized by the huge phenomenon of student mobility, which is bound to increase exponentially as market globalization and internationalization of education become more and more established.
Students on mobility programmes usually have a B1/B2 level of language competence and they enrol in courses where they are required to negotiate the considerable difficulties of academic language and also organize learning autonomously and independently. However competences necessary for everyday standard use of a language differ considerably from those required for communication in academic contexts. This has a negative effect on the timing of the conclusion of their study and the ability to improve their language skills in the long term, achieving high levels of Multilingualism enabling European citizens to move around on a territory and in the labour market now without frontiers.
The main objective of the project is to facilitate the integration of students in academic mobility, enhancing their ability to function in academic and specialized contexts and developing their ability of learning to learn. The MOVE-ME project will create a learning path specifically designed for students in mobility programmes, supporting learners in the acquisition of the competences and skills necessary for understanding texts, written and oral, relating to specific disciplines, developing the ability to produce academic texts of various kinds (notes, summary, essay, interview) on topics under study. The learning path will be done as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in order to make it accessible to the largest number of students on the move and designed for self-study, carried out in two languages, English and Italian, and divided into 6 modules, turned more towards communication and academic interaction than to master the formal resources of the language. The modules will include downloadable audio-visual and written documents, activities to be carried out online with self-correction and verification tests at the end of each module. The autonomous activity of the student on the learning material will be integrated with collaborative activities in which learners will work via asynchronous (forum) and synchronous (chat and videoconferencing systems) communication tools also implementing forms of peer review and peer evaluation.
The education system will be integrated by a tandem service that will allow to English native-speaking students to implement forms of peer teaching with Italian native-speaking students and vice versa.
The two MOOC will be implemented on the platform Iversity, designed to integrate the use of this training method with European higher education, and it is planned to build a portal containing information about teaching the language for academic purposes, link to the two MOOCs and space for the inclusion of future links to MOOC for other languages learning.
• reviewing “the state of the art” about the use of MOOCs in language learning • producing specific guidelines and a syllabus for creating MOOCs for languages for academic purposes;
• producing specific guidelines for the evaluation of language MOOCs;
• planning, creation and development of the two MOOC respectively for English and Italian implemented on Iversity platform;
• creation of OERs (Open Educational Resources) that support autonomous and independent learning;
• planning, creation and development of a website which will host all OERs created during the project;
• Pilot Phase (delivery and evaluation of the two MOOCs); • evaluation and creation of monitoring tools;
• impact and dissemination actions based on events and different tools (paper, video, newsletters, web-articles in periodic national/international, social media, inserting links in websites).
At local and regional level: to promote the integration of incoming students with positive consequences for the society and the economy.
At national level: to promote and support the development of a multilingual and dynamic workforce, and with a high level of intercultural competence, able to enter in the job market and to communicate easily in a foreign language in specific contexts.
At European level: support student mobility programmes, develop and strengthen multilingualism among European citizens, in accordance with European language policies and the need felt by the citizens to know at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue.
At international level: widen the target groups exponentially, reaching a global audience through MOOCs, OERs and website. The involved institutions have exchange agreements with important countries such as China, Brazil, the United States, whose students will need to improve their specialist language skills in order to participate in exchange programmes and can therefore make use of the tools provided by this project.
The project will deliver benefits that will endure over time thanks to the creation of an online repository of OERs, templates and guidelines for reuse with different languages and in different contexts. The MOOCs will remain available for future delivery by the partner organizations and have the potential to become a milestone in students’ preparation in view of mobility exchanges.
The project, which is going to last two years (11/2015 - 10/2017), is coordinated by the University for foreigners of Siena and implemented by a partnership comprising institutions from five countries: Italy, Ireland, Greece, United Kingdom and Romania.
1. The Università per Stranieri di Siena, a university specialized in teaching Italian to foreigners, carries out researches in the field of teaching/learning of second languages, has developed since 2007 a significant experience in the creation of distance learning pathways for language learning, by working with national and international partners. Some of the learning paths have led to the award of five European Language Label for innovative projects for the diffusion in Europe of language learning with technological support, which allowed to receive other 4 European Label awarded in 2009-2014. Staff involved in this project has coordinated the implementation of the winning projects of Label, directed and directs the Centre for Research and Service FAST (Training and retraining with technologic support) of the University, specialized in the design and development of learning courses on the Net and it is involved in the training of teachers of Italian as L2 who wish to operate in e-learning through the Master ELIIAS (E-learning for the teaching of Italian for foreigners). Such personnel is also author of a broad number of scientific publications related to language teaching online and trainers training.
2. Federazione Nazionale Insegnanti Centro di iniziativa per l’Europa (FENICE), Napoli, Italia is a professional association of teachers which has designed and produced seven European projects related to teaching/learning a foreign language (including Italian L2) based on the use of new methodological approaches such as theatre and music (one of them awarded as Star project in 2012) and has been partner of other five projects always addressed to the creation of teaching materials which make easier the foreign language learning. So 12 out of the 20 European projects in which it participated as a coordinator or partner were addressed to the linguistic sector, which has not only permitted a significant development of skills in the sector but also the realization of a very wide network of contacts with experts in language teaching. It publishes the periodical «Scuol@Europa», equipped with a scientific committee and referees and a newsletter sent out in three languages (IT, EN, FR) all over Europe to 8000 teachers, institutions and policy makers with information on its activities in transnational partnerships in European Projects.
3. The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) - Ireland - has a long tradition of academic exchanges both students and teachers, with a high percentage (13% of the total student population) of international students following degree or postgraduate degree courses at our university. Each year it receives about 500 students from universities and institutions around the world. To make easier the integration of these students, the university regularly organizes courses of English and Academic Writing. At the same time, NUI Galway offers various level courses for the teaching of English as a foreign language, organizes and issues various kinds of MOOC: modules of general interest, introductory courses to the academic disciplines and highly specialized modules.
4. The Open University (OU) - United Kingdom - is a university for distance learning and research which issues degrees, postgraduate qualifications and a series of other diplomas, certificates and certificates of continuing education. With more than 250,000 students, of which about 32,000 on an age under 25 years, and more than 50,000 foreign students, the OU is the largest academic institution in the UK by number of students, and one of the largest in Europe and in the world. The OU is renowned worldwide for its expertise in distance education, in language teaching and the use of new technologies for collaborative learning. Regarded as the greatest British institution of e-learning, the OU is a world leader in the development of technologies that facilitate and increase access to education on a global scale. Its broad portfolio of open access content includes free units of study available on the portal OpenLearn, which has already attracted about 27 million visitors, and material on iTunesU with over 60 million downloads. The OU has also developed and delivered a number of MOOCs.
5. The Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantus" (CTI) – Greece - is a non-profit body for research and development of information technology and communication, especially in relation to education and learning. CTI develops and applies digital and conventional media in the education and lifelong learning, publishes paper and electronic teaching materials, operates the Greek Schools Network, supports the organization and management of the electronics facilities of the Greek Ministry of Education and all the school realities. CTI has many years of experience in the pedagogical applications of technology, planning and development of educational software and learning environments, coordination and monitoring of school projects on a large scale and implementation of pilot projects for the development of software and didactic activities for all levels of schools.
6. The Institute of Educational Sciences (ISE) is a national research body, subordinate to the Romanian Ministry of Education, for which it conducts research in various fields. The main research areas are: educational policies, educational guidance, lifelong learning, the educational management, studies on youth and their curricula of studies. To ensure that results are relevant in the European context, the institute has been engaged in international projects for over two decades and has worked with a broad spectrum of partners, public and private, from all over Europe to develop and implement a number of projects to improve the education system. Over the past decade ISE was involved in a dozen EU funded projects concerned about the use of ICT in educational settings.
top