MOVE-ME MOOCs are now online

The project created a learning path specifically targeted at university students who attend or intend to attend curricular courses of humanistic, scientific, legal or economic faculties in mobility programmes, supporting them in the self-acquisition of the competences and skills necessary to understand and produce academic texts. The learning path was followed through a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in order to make it accessible to the largest number of students on the move and was designed for self-study. The MOVE-ME MOOCs, designed to integrate the use of eLearning with European higher education and implemented on the FutureLearn platform (www.futurelearn.com), are now on line. There are four of them, one in English and three in Italian:

1. English for Academic Purposes; https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-for-academic-purposes/1

2. Studying in Italian – Language and Literature; https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/italian-for-literature?lr=12

3. Studying in Italian – Law and Economics; https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/italian-for-law-and-economics?lr=9

4. Studying in Italian – Science and Mathematics. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/italian-for-stem?lr=10

Learners are supported in understanding how academic texts are structured and in acquiring the necessary skills for both understanding and producing written and oral academic texts, relating to specific disciplines. Skills and abilities are developed and reinforced through sets of activities that help learners to become aware of the learning strategies they activate when working on a certain type of input.

The use of MOOCs guarantees a self-paced learning experience for students on the move who will be able to complete six self-study units in either English or Italian, focusing on communication, functional academic skills and language structures. Although each unit is based on independent study, there is a strong emphasis on interactive, collaborative and peer learning activities in support of self-study ones.

The Move-Me MOOCs are based on a 6-week structure. Week 1: Introduction to the MOOC; Week 2: focus on listening skills; Week 3: focus on reading skills; Week 4: focus on writing skills; Week 5: focus on speaking skills; Week 6: Conclusion.

Over 5000 students have signed up for the first run of each course.

MOVE-ME international conferences

• MOVE-ME at Milton Keynes, (UK). On 20th and 21st October 2016 the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics of the Open University, partner of the project, organized and hosted the international conference on "MOOCs, Informal Language Learning and Mobility". The program (http://movemeproject.eu/en/the-programme-of-the-international-conference-moocs-informal-language-learning-and-mobility-2/) included MOVE-ME project presentations and a considerable number of research projects and pedagogical projects related to the topic of the conference. About one hundred researchers and educators from all school levels and coming from all over the world, including the United States, China, India etc. attended. In June 2017 the conference proceedings “Beyond the language classroom: researching MOOCs and other innovations” were published with ISBN on paper and online. .

• MOVE-ME at Naples (IT). On 13th and 14th October 2017, the Second International Conference on "MOOCs, Language Learning and Mobility" organized by Federazione Nazionale Insegnanti Centro di iniziativa per l’Europa, together with the University of Naples “L’Orientale” was held. On the conference website (http://www.movemeconference.eu/program.php), you can read the programme and the book of abstracts. In addition to the presentations of the MOVE-ME project, 40 speakers, lecturers and linguists from 18 countries, including China and Russia, featured research projects and pedagogical projects related to the topic of the conference. Over 110 people took part in it. The University of Naples “L’Orientale” will publish the conference proceedings.

• MOVE-ME at Siena (IT). On 19th January 2018 the FAST Centre (Training and Updating Centre with Technological Support) of the University for Foreigners of Siena, promoter of the project, will host the Third International Conference on "MOOCs, Language Learning and Mobility". The programme will be published soon on the project’s website www.movemeproject.eu  

MOVE-ME in Europe

• MOVE-ME at Beijing (CN).  At the Technology and Language Teaching Workshop,a joint collaboration with Beijing Foreign Studies University and ChinaCALL, held on 27 - 28 August 2017 Prof. Qian Kan from the OU team presented how FutureLearn's Design Principles were implemented in "English for Academic Purposes: a MOVE-ME Project Course".120 teachers of English attended in the room and 27,000 followed the live stream link.

• MOVE-ME at Siena (IT).  At the Conference "The World of Italian, Italian in the World" held from 8 to 11 September 2017 at the University for Foreigners in Siena, Prof. Andrea Villarini held the report on "The Didactics of the Italian on-line in the current language industry"

• MOVE-ME at Naples (IT).  At the ICEM Conference titled "Digital Universities in the MOOC era. Redesigning higher education" held from 20 to 22 September 2017 at Federico II University, Dr Laura McLoughlin and Dr Francesca Magnoni from the National University of Ireland Galway, conducted a report on "New paradigms in online learning: comparing FutureLearn and Blackboard platforms for online language courses." The report made extensive reference to the MOOC MOVE-ME experience.

Partnership

• Università per Stranieri di Siena, Italy (Applicant)
• Federazione Nazionale Insegnanti Centro di iniziativa per l’Europa (FENICE), Italy
• The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway), Ireland
• The Open University (OU), United Kingdom
• The Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantus" (CTI), Greece
• The Institute of Educational Sciences (ISE), Romania