Massive Open Online Course Versus Flipped Instruction: Impacts on Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety, Foreign Language Learning Motivation, and Learning Attitude

Abstract

This study inspected the effect of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and flipped instruction on EFL learners’ foreign language speaking anxiety, foreign language learning motivation, and attitude toward English learning. To fulfill this objective, the Oxford Quick Placement Test was given to 160 Iranian EFL learners, of whom 120 upper-intermediate participants were chosen and divided into two experimental groups—MOOC (n = 40) and flipped (n = 40)—and one control group (n = 40). After that, all selected participants were administered a speaking anxiety questionnaire and a motivation questionnaire as the pre-test of the research. Then, one of the experimental groups received an online-based instruction via Skype: one conversation was instructed to this group online every session. The other experimental group received the treatment via flipped-based instruction. The audio files and the texts of the conversations were sent to this group via the WhatsApp application because they all had easy access to it. On the other hand, the control group did not receive any Internet-delivered treatment yet was trained through a face-to-face method. This process continued until the last session, and after the treatment period, the post-tests of speaking anxiety and motivation were given to all three groups to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. Moreover, two attitude questionnaires were administered to the experimental groups to examine their attitudes toward the MOOC and the flipped models of instructions. The findings of the One-way ANOVA test, Post-hoc Scheffe test, and paired samples t-test showed that there were significant differences between the post-test of the experimental groups and the control group. The results indicated that the experimental groups significantly outflanked the control group after the treatment. Lastly, the outcomes showed that participants in both experimental groups had positive attitudes toward technological-based instructional environments.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and Flipped Instruction on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

“…Massive open online courses (MOOCs), an innovative pedagogical phenomenon that has quickly permeated higher education, are one of the technologically advanced instructional methods. MOOCs are a collection of courses that actually happen online and are accessible to anyone who wishes to benefit from the best teaching quality of leading prestigious universities for nothing [9][10][11]. One of the most significant advantages of MOOCs is that they may be accessible by a large number of people free of charge.…”

“…MOOCs combine social networking, open access to online materials, and the guidance of well-known experts in their fields in the development of a learning program [13]. Furthermore, MOOCs are most effective when students manage their involvement according to their own goals, past experience, and mutual interests [10,[14][15][16]. MOOCs can help students empower their communication skills outside the classroom and enhance community engagement and exchange of knowledge by opening up considerable opportunities for social interaction and learning experiences [17][18][19].…”

“…According to Li [20], "MOOCs are open courses that are delivered over a network platform, therefore expanding the scope of the conventional teaching approach" (p. 1273). MOOCs are very effective venues for remote education, particularly when it comes to merging teaching and learning activities with technology [10,[21][22][23]. MOOCs, in general, have three distinguishing characteristics: these courses have the following characteristics: (a) they are Internet-based courses with audiovisual teaching/learning materials that can be used entirely online, (b) they are free, and (c) they are massive, which means that a large number of people can learn online without the need for individualized teacher assistance [9,24,25].…”

“…e flipped classroom technique aims to motivate students and engage them interactively, through presenting new information outside of class and assigning class time to higher-level cognitive learning [10,32,33]. Using flipped learning enables students to communicate more in class and receive immediate feedback from the teacher [31].…”

“…In their early flipped classroom, Bergmann and Sams [38] mentioned that they mostly utilized movies. ere are many ways students may use technology in their learning activities, such as using the Internet to find information on a topic or to participate in a conversation on a blog or in a discussion forum [10,39,40].…”