LMOOC research 2014 to 2021: What have we done and where are we going next?

Abstract

This study reviews 71 high-quality studies of massive open online courses focused on languages (LMOOCs) that were published from the inception of LMOOCs to 2021. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of research and identify fruitful directions for future LMOOC research. First, we reviewed three basic sets of characteristics of these studies: (1) research trends – for example, publication types and years; (2) research contexts – for example, countries in which the studies were conducted, the subjects’ target languages, language-ability levels, skills, and whether the focal courses are for specific purposes; and (3) research design, including data collection, data analysis, and theoretical frameworks. We then utilized a text-mining approach called Latent Dirichlet Allocation that uses machine-learning techniques to identify research-topic commonalities underlying the collected studies. In this way, a total of nine topics were identified. They were: (1) core elements of LMOOCs; (2) interaction and communication in LMOOCs; (3) innovative LMOOC teaching practices; (4) LMOOC standards and quality assurance; (5) LMOOC implementation, participation, and completion; (6) LMOOC teaching plans; (7) LMOOC learning effectiveness and its drivers/obstacles; (8) learners and learning in LMOOCs; and (9) inclusiveness in LMOOCs. These were then diagrammed as a ThemeRiver, which showed the evolutionary trend of the nine identified topics. Specifically, scholarly interest in Topics 5, 7, and 9 increased over time, whereas for Topics 1 and 6, it decreased. Based on our results, we highlighted specific directions for future LMOOC research on each of the identified research topics.

Does checking-in help? Understanding L2 learners’ autonomous check-in behavior in an English-language MOOC through learning analytics

“…Given the importance of providing LMOOC learners with innovative assignments and instruction (Hsu, 2023;Zhang & Sun, 2023), future LMOOC educators should consider encouraging check-in behavior explicitly. Such encouragement should also take account of learners' unique strengths and weaknesses in language-specific knowledge, as well as their respective learning contexts (Read & Bárcena, 2021;Zhang & Zhang, 2017).…”

“…Teachers should give special encouragement to participate in this activity to those learners with limited language proficiency. In addition, because promoting autonomy is crucial to the design of LMOOC platforms (Ding & Shen, 2022;Zhang & Sun, 2023), future designers of such platforms should consider embedding check-in functions in their system architecture.…”

“…Accordingly, the present study will include those who have engaged with the sampled LMOOC, regardless of their completion status. We expect that our results will help answer questions about the effectiveness of specific behaviors by LMOOC learners (Mac Lochlainn et al, 2021), thereby helping such learners make the most of their LMOOC experience (Appel & Pujolà, 2021) and facilitating LMOOC educators' provision of more innovative, engaging, and rewarding LMOOC learning to their students (Duru et al, 2019;Friðriksdóttir, 2021;Godwin-Jones, 2014;Hsu, 2023;Mac Lochlainn et al, 2021;Zhang & Sun, 2023).…”

“…ReCALL FirstView, 1-16. https:// doi.org/10.1017/S0958344024000144 2014; Gimeno-Sanz, 2021). LMOOCs have been growing steadily in popularity since their inception in 2012 (Sallam, Martín-Monje & Li, 2022;Xue & Dunham, 2023;Zhang & Sun, 2023). However, concerns about their low completion rates (Duru, Sunar, White, Diri & Dogan, 2019;Friðriksdóttir, 2021;Wang, An & Wright, 2018) and low levels of learning autonomy (Agonács, Matos, Bartalesi-Graf & O'Steen, 2020) have called the quality of LMOOC teaching into question and spurred many researchers to study LMOOC learning behavior (e.g.…”

“…However, concerns about their low completion rates (Duru, Sunar, White, Diri & Dogan, 2019;Friðriksdóttir, 2021;Wang, An & Wright, 2018) and low levels of learning autonomy (Agonács, Matos, Bartalesi-Graf & O'Steen, 2020) have called the quality of LMOOC teaching into question and spurred many researchers to study LMOOC learning behavior (e.g. Doğan, Sunar, Duru & White, 2018;Martín-Monje, Castrillo & Mañana-Rodríguez, 2018;Wang, Chen, Tai & Zhang, 2021;Zeng, Zhang, Gao, Xu & Zhang, 2022;Zhang & Sun, 2023). Mac Lochlainn, Nic Giolla Mhichíl and Beirne (2021) recently called for LMOOC research to identify "which specific behaviours, both L2 oriented and not, are prevalent among LMOOC learners, to allow us to scrutinise and reflect on what types of specific, L2-directed patterns of participation might be established" (pp.…”