Potential for MOOCs in Foreign Language Teaching

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) burst upon the higher education scene in 2012 and since then, there has been ongoing heated discussion about their place in and impact on higher education. The first section of this paper briefly covers the impact of technology on distance learning and the history of MOOCs. MOOCs are open to all because there is no cost to students, there are no entry qualifications, and there are no age restrictions. The leading MOOC platforms are listed and described. Some existing MOOCs for language learning are described with a focus on content delivery, personalized training, and assessment. The paper concludes with the authors’ vision of an effective language MOOC, which would include effective content delivery, personalized training, and assessment with meaningful feedback