Exploring OERs and MOOCs for Learning of EU

Languages
Perifanou M.1, Holotescu C.2, Andone D.2, Grosseck G.3
1

University of Macedonia (GREECE), 2University Politehnica Timioara (ROMANIA), 3West University of

Timioara (ROMANIA)
1
mariaperif@gmail.com, 2carmen.holotescu@upt.ro, diana.andone@upt.ro, 3gabriela.grosseck@e-uvt.ro

Abstract
Language literacy is an essential life skill for the 21st century. Foreign languages provide access to
information which is increasingly available, they ease travel and they are used on a daily basis in training and
work. In other words, they help in keeping pace with the ongoing changes of the knowledge society, and in
obtaining a professional advantage in labor market as they facilitate the access to multilingual resources.
Moreover, exploring other languages and cultures is an efficient way to acquire multiple skills like
social skills. These are some of the reasons that justify why multilingualism was and continues to be one of the
cornerstones of the European Unions initiatives and policies.
But how easy is to cover the linguistic needs of a big number of people who aim either to participate in
long-term mobility European activities or generally to live and work efficiently in the global community? The
idea of open education that entails Open Educational Resources (OERs) as well as Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) looks a promising solution to this problem.
Therefore, this paper aims to explore in what ways language OERs and MOOCs could support EU
language learners in their long-term mobility activities in order to assess the knowledge of the language used
abroad as well as to improve their linguistic competences. More concretely, this paper will first explore the
specific scientific area and it will present the findings related to the existence and quality of OERs and MOOCs
for the 24 EU Languages. Next, it will analyze the positive parts of the research findings as well as the missing
points and, finally, it will propose a series of useful and practical ideas on how OERs and MOOCs could
enhance efficiently the linguistic support of language learners involved in European long-term mobility
activities.
Keywords: OER, MOOC, European Languages, Multilingualism, Open Education.

1. European Unions initiatives and policies related to Languages

Language literacy is an essential life skill for the 21st century. It is a fact that learning a foreign
language is a good way to improve brain function and to acquire multiple skills like social skills. Moreover, it is
an efficient way to explore other cultures and obtain a professional advantage in labor market. These are some of
the reasons that justify why multilingualism was and continues to be one of the cornerstones of EU projects [1].
According to the European Union, one of the specific objectives pursued by the Erasmus+ Programme is to
"improve the teaching and learning of languages and to promote the EUs broad linguistic diversity and
intercultural awareness" [2].
EU Strategic Framework for Education and Training 2020 identifies communication in foreign
languages as one of the key competences in lifelong learning. According to the Special Eurobarometer survey on
"Europeans and their Languages" that was carried out in 2012, Europeans have very positive attitudes towards
multilingualism. Around nine out of ten EU citizens (88%) believe that the ability to speak foreign languages is
very useful for personal development, while almost every European (98%) thinks that foreign languages are
useful for children to learn for their future [3].
Even though there have been several European initiatives aimed to promote multilingualism, the same
survey reveals that there are still no signs that multilingualism is on the increase. Furthermore, even though the
majority of Europeans agree that all languages spoken in EU should be treated equally, English dominates as the
language that Europeans are most likely to be able to speak. At a national level, English and Spanish are the only
two of the main five languages that show notable increases since 2005.
Also, the same study reveals that the main barriers to learn a language are lack of time and motivation,
and expense of language classes.

2. Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support

It is a fact that the lack of language competences is still one of the main impediments to participation in
European education, training and youth programmes. On that basis EU has decided to offer linguistic support
through an online platform to all the participants for studying, carrying out a traineeship or volunteering abroad
in the framework of long-term mobility activities supported under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (HE students and
staff, VET learners/staff, adult and school education staff, youth learners and workers).
Thus, starting with the autumn of 2014, using the Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support OLS
(http://erasmusplusols.eu) the participants have the opportunity to assess their knowledge of the language they
will use to study, work or volunteer abroad as well as to follow an online language course to improve their
competences. In this way mobility will be more efficient and effective and learning performance will be
improved [4].
National Agencies allocate online licenses to selected beneficiary organizations that will offer the
linguistic support (online assessment and online language courses), available only for six languages: Dutch,
English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
We consider as drawbacks for the Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support:
the access to the platform is limited to the selected participants in the Erasmus+ mobilities;
no materials for preparing the assessments are available;
the courses are available only in 6 languages, representing the fourth part of the 24 EU languages
[5];
no access to Language MOOCs and OERs for assessment or learning is provided.
Thus the OLS could have only a limited impact on multilingualism and open education in Europe.
We also note another European initiative, the EU ongoing project called "Hello! Home of European
Language Learning Opportunities", implemented by StudyPortals (http://www.studyportals.eu) and partner
organizations. The projects outcome is the Language Learning Portal (http://languagelearningportal.com),
which "helps prospective language learners globally to find, compare, and select the right language course that
matches their needs". Most of the courses that are offered are formal, on-site and not free. Furthermore, no
information is being provided about language MOOCs and/or OERs.

3. OERs, MOOCs and Languages

The European Union has also shown a growing interest in the open component of the education and
training field through many recent initiatives. One of these, the 2012 European Commission Paper on Rethinking
Education mentions that "the use of ICT and Open Educational Resources (OER) should be scaled-up in all
learning contexts" and more specifically recommends that "technology, in particular the internet, must be fully
exploited. Schools, universities and vocational and training institutions must increase access to education via
OER" [6].
Also, the report presented by the European Parliament in March 2014 mentions the new technologies
and open educational resources as key drivers for ensuring quality in education via more accessible and open
online knowledge, appealing to the European Commission to support the scientific research for the creation,
utilization and implementation of MOOCs and OERs [7].
The connection between language learning and MOOCs/OERs makes the topic of many current
research papers ([8], [9], [10]).
Two of the current projects dealing with open education and languages are: a) the LangOER project
(http://langoer.eun.org) that has as an overall aim to enhance teaching and learning of less used languages
through OERs/OEPs; and b) the LangMOOC project (http://www.langmooc.com) that aims to explore the
potential of MOOCs in Language Learning and develop a useful MOOCs toolkit that will include all the
innovative methods and tools for the creation, management and evaluation of MOOCs and OERs for Language
Learning.

4. A review of the Language MOOCs and OERs

In Table 1 below we present the result of our effort to map the MOOCs and OERs initiatives that are
currently available for learning the 24 EU languages, based on the following focused searches:
MOOC directories and aggregators:
o Open Education Europa Portal (http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu)
o Future Learn (https://www.futurelearn.com)
o EMMA European Multiple MOOC Aggregator (http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu) no
language MOOC yet
o OpenUpEd (http://www.openuped.eu)

1.

2.
3.

MOOC
List,
Languages
and
Literature
section
list.com/categories/languages-literature)
o Class
Central,
Language
and
Culture
section
central.com/subject/language-culture)
o Start Class, MOOC section (http://online-learning.startclass.com)
o My Education Path (http://myeducationpath.com)
o MOOC Francophone (http://mooc-francophone.com);
OER directories / initiatives listed by the POERUP project
(http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Category:Open_Education_Initiatives);
Specific open access resources on Google.

Language
Bulgarian
(BG)
Croatian
(CR)
Czech
(CS)

4.

Danish
(DA)

5.

Dutch
(NL)

6.

English
(EN)

7.

Estonian
(ET)
Finnish
(FI)
French
(FR)

8.
9.

10. German
(DE)

11. Greek (EL)

(https://www.mooc(https://www.class-

Table 1. Mapping the EU Languages MOOCs and OERs

MOOCs
OERs
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Study
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com, self- Bulgarian (http://www.studybulgarian.com paced (SP) MOOC)
under Creative Commons (CC) licence)
Learn Croatian (http://learn-croatian.com),
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)
(http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learn
Danish (http://denmark.dk/en/meet-thedanes/language)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learn
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP), Dutch (http://www.learndutch.org)
FutureLearn (University of Groningen)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP), (http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
FutureLearn (University of Reading,
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org),
British Council), OpenupEd (Open
LORO Languages Open Resources Online
University, Universidad Nacional de
(http://loro.open.ac.uk), OpenLearn
Educacin a Distancia), tandemMOOC
(http://www.open.edu)
(http://mooc.speakapps.org), edX, Miriada
X, Desire2Learn, Coursera, Sillages
(http://flot.sillages.info), France Universit
Numrique - FUN (http://www.franceuniversite-numerique.fr), The Mixxer (via
Skype, http://www.languageexchanges.org), OERu (http://oeru.org),
ALISON (http://alison.com)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://lemill.net)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Speak
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)
Finnish (http://www.speakfinnish.co.uk)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP), (http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
The Mixxer (via Skype,
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org),
http://www.language-exchanges.org),
LORO Languages Open Resources Online
ALISON (http://alison.com)
(http://loro.open.ac.uk), OpenLearn
(http://www.open.edu)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP), (http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
Miriada X, Coursera, The Mixxer (via
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org),
Skype, http://www.languageLORO Languages Open Resources Online
exchanges.org), ALISON
(http://loro.open.ac.uk), OpenLearn
(http://alison.com)
(http://www.open.edu)
World Mentoring Academy
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learn
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP), Greek (http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek)
Sillages (http://flot.sillages.info)

Language
12. Hungarian
(HU)

MOOCs
World Mentoring Academy
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)

13. Irish (GA)

OpenupEd (Open University), ALISON

(http://alison.com)
World Mentoring Academy
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP),
OpenupEd (Universit Telematica
Internazionale)

14. Italian (IT)

15. Latvian
(LV)
16. Lithuanian
(lT)

17. Maltese
(MT)
18. Polish (PL)

19. Portuguese
(PT)

World Mentoring Academy

(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)
World Mentoring Academy
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)

20. Romanian
(RO)

World Mentoring Academy

(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP)

21. Slovak
(SK)
22. Slovenian
(SL)
23. Spanish
(ES)

24. Swedish
(SV)

World Mentoring Academy

(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP),
OpenupEd (Universidad Nacional de
Educacin a Distancia), tandemMOOC
(http://mooc.speakapps.org), Coursera,
iversity, Canvas.net, Miriada X,
SpanishMOOC (http://spanishmooc.com),
The Mixxer (via Skype,
http://www.language-exchanges.org),
ALISON (http://alison.com)
World Mentoring Academy
(http://worldmentoringacademy.com , SP),
ALISON (http://alison.com)

OERs
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Let's learn
Hungarian! (http://www.letslearnhungarian.net,
CC)
OpenLearn (http://www.open.edu), Easy Irish
(http://www.rte.ie/easyirish)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learning
Resource Exchange for Schools
(http://lreforschools.eun.org), LORO
Languages Open Resources Online
(http://loro.open.ac.uk), OpenLearn
(http://www.open.edu)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learn
Latvian (http://learnlatvian.org)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org)
Lean Maltese (http://www.malta-guide.net)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learn
Polish (http://mowicpopolsku.com)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Learning
Resource Exchange for Schools
(http://lreforschools.eun.org)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://lemill.net), Romanian Language Courses
(http://www.dprp.gov.ro/elearning,
http://vorbitiromaneste.ro)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Slovake
(http://slovake.eu)
I speak Slovene (http://www.slovene.si),
Distance Slovene (http://www.e-slovenscina.si)
Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill
(http://lemill.net), Learning Resource Exchange
for Schools (http://lreforschools.eun.org),
LORO Languages Open Resources Online
(http://loro.open.ac.uk), OpenLearn
(http://www.open.edu)

Loecsen (http://www.loecsen.com), Le Mill

(http://lemill.net)

We should also mention the social networks and online applications for language learning, such as
Babelyou (http://www.babelyou.com), Easy Language Exchange (http://www.easylanguageexchange.com),
Forvo (http://www.forvo.com), Games for Language (http://www.gamesforlanguage.com), Live Lingua
(http://www.livelingua.com), Livemocha (http://www.livemocha.com) [11], that although are not strictly part of
MOOCs/OERs, they support open and collaborative language learning processes.
Even though the above research results can easily change in the following months, they can still allow
us to highlight some challenges for using MOOCs and OERs in learning EU languages:
to find a language MOOC is not an easy task: you have to be familiar with the MOOC directories,
aggregators and platforms; also it is even more difficult to find a MOOC for a specific language
level;
to find a language Open Educational/Open Access resource you have to browse specific directories
as well; many resources do not appear in such directories, mainly those for less spoken languages
[8]; also the licenses are seldom specified.

As a result of the exploration, depending on the number of MOOCs and OERs existing for learning
each of the languages, the EU languages can be divided in three categories:
Table 2. Classification of EU Languages
Number of MOOCs and OERs
Languages
HIGH
Dutch (NL), English (EN), French (FR), German (DE), Italian (IT),
Spanish (ES)
MEDIUM
Bulgarian (BG), Czech (CS), Finnish (FI), Greek (EL), Hungarian
(HU), Irish (GA), Polish (PL), Portuguese (PT), Romanian (RO),
Swedish (SV)
LOW (no MOOC, only OERs)
Croatian (CR), Danish (DA), Estonian (ET), Latvian (LV),
Lithuanian (LT), Maltese (MT), Slovak (SK), Slovenian (SL)
Our research could be further extended and elaborated with the evaluation of the MOOCs/OERs on
dimensions such as:
content, pedagogy, assessment, community, technical infrastructure, financial issues: according to
the Massive Open Online and Interactive Language Learning Environment (MOILLE) framework
[12];
educational sector, licensing, quality assurance, accreditation: part of the POERUP classification
factors [13];
social media interactions, mobile learning features, certification: included in the set of 14
characteristics of MOOCs [14].

5. Proposal for a portal based on Language MOOCs and OERs

In this section, the authors of the paper aim to highlight the need for development of an open panEuropean network/portal that could bring together all the language programmes (24 EU languages) designed for
EU mobility, but could also aggregate all the Language MOOCs and OERs that are currently available.
This network could be an additional resource for the Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support and would
address the needs of the following target groups:
educational organizations and language teachers chosen by the national agencies to provide
linguistic support for EU mobility learners;
language teachers from different European educational organizations who want to use/curate the
resources for their courses;
EU mobility learners that need language support;
autonomous learners interested in learning different foreign languages.
This open European language network envisages to connect all these groups in a dynamic online
collaborative environment, that could support more efficiently their effort to raise language and intercultural
awareness of all EU languages.
More specifically the objectives/benefits of this portal would be the following:
Language learning needs of different target groups. Support efficiently a large variety of target
groups (specified above).
Quality. Provide a quality based EU language support network through peer assessment of
language courses and language resources offered.
Multilingualism and Sustainability. Give the opportunity to every educational organization to share
the programme and bibliographical resources of all 24 EU language courses and educational
resources. The educational organizations will be able to update their educational resources in order
to fulfill the different needs of EU mobility participants.
Open Access. Organizations will be able to present their language programme but will be also
invited to create and share OERs/MOOCs within the network.
User friendly and highly responsive platform. The platform will be accessible through different
devices (PCs, tablets, smartphones etc.) and users will have the possibility to work in collaboration
or in a self paced mode whenever they choose.
Professional development/Community of practice. Provide the possibility for professional training
in targeted topics such as online learning/training and creation of language OERs/MOOCs. Create
also a community of practice for language teachers who will share best practices as examples of
innovative practices. Members of the network will be able not only to share freely available
language OERs/MOOCs but will be invited to re-use them and share the best practices. This
network strongly supports the shift from OERs to Open Educational Practices (OEP) [15].

Self paced and personalized/flexible training/learning. Give the possibility to all the network's
users to choose their way of learning/training.
Support for participation of disadvantaged groups in society.

6. Conclusions
The authors of this paper have proposed the development of an open European language network/portal
that could efficiently supplement the Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support, could address the linguistic needs of
different target groups and could open the way to the practical use of Language OERs and MOOCs in a
European level.
More specifically, this open European language portal could increase the valorization, visibility and
validation of open resources in 24 EU languages. Furthermore, it could contribute to combating
linguistic/cultural hegemonies as well as to valorizing one of Europes landmarks: the multilingual and
multicultural character.
Last but not least, such an initiative could contribute to the openness movement, spreading the
knowledge and benefits of open education and enlarging the communities of practice around OERs, MOOCs,
OEPs and open licenses. It could also strengthen the European workforce by offering learning and training
possibilities to face the need for language skills.

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