Project Newsletter Issue # 2 – October 2020

Editorial

Welcome to the English version of the second newsletter in four languages devoted to the project “LMOOCs for university students on the move” (Mooc2Move) funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Action KA2 Strategic partnership for higher education. The aim of Mooc2Move is to facilitate students’ integration when on the move, enhancing their ability to do their best in academic and specialized contexts and developing their ability of learning how to learn.

We like to keep a wider audience up–to-date with the results, materials and developments in language teaching and to tell them a bit more about the Mooc2Move project thus hoping to encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences as well as a productive collaboration.

You can read this newsletter also on www.mooc2move.eu or www.fenice-eu.org/.

French for university students

The aim of this MOOC is to facilitate the immersion of students on the move (Erasmus and others) in the French university system and to prepare them to study in France.

It is not always easy to integrate into the university system of another country, to do the administrative procedures, to know how to address the teachers and administrative staff, to understand the courses and the tools used ... all in French! This MOOC will guide and support students in their student life in France.

The MOOC has 6 modules independent from each other, composed of short videos and various activities. The videos are authentic, they call on testimonials from students, administrative staff and teachers. They explain certain French academic specificities. Regular activities will make it possible to better understand the content and sometimes to compare experiences.

Two written productions will be produced and will be evaluated by other MOOC participants (peer review). This evaluation, combined with the result of the final four quizzes, will be used to establish a certificate of successful completion.

The videos, with subtitles, can be reused by French teachers as resources for the classroom or for distance learning. Exploitation tracks will be provided later on the project site www.mooc2move.eu.

Prerequisites, registration

The course is accessible to those who have reached at least level B1 of the CEFR in French. It will start on October 19, 2020, you can register (free) now: https://fun-mooc.fr

Spanish for university students

¿Estás estudiando en un país hispanohablante? Mejora tu español oral y escrito y tu comprensión en contextos académicos.

The aim of this MOOC is to support students who are spending or planning to spend a period of residence abroad in Spain as part of their University studies. It can also constitute a suitable alternative or part of a contingency plan for those students who were planning to go on Erasmus to Spain and have had to cancel their plans due to the pandemic.

Upon completing this 6-week course, participants will have developed skills in Spanish to interact in academic situations, will have familiarise themselves with the characteristics of the academic register both written and spoken and will have developed their listening, note taking and presentation skills. Teaching materials comprise authentic and adapted texts, audios and videos, some of them representing different stances of University life in Spain. Student-student and student-instructor interaction is ensured by forum discussions. Forums are embedded in the course activities and form an integral part of the course design. In addition, the course takes into account the learning how to learn approach by incorporating six strategies for effective learning as defined by The Learning Scientists (www.learningscientist.org).

Prerequisites, registration

The course is accessible to those who have reached at least level B1 of the CEFR in Spanish. It will start on October 19, 2020, you can register (free) now: https://www.futurelearn.com/admin/courses/academic-spanish/2

First International Conference & Call for papers

On 25th and 26th October 2019 the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics of the Open University, partner of the project, organized and hosted the first international conference on "MOOCs, Informal Language Learning and Mobility" at Milton Keynes, (UK). The programme (http://www.mooc2move.eu/event.php?opt=programme&id=6) included Mooc2Move project presentations and 22 research projects and pedagogical projects related to the topic of the conference. The Conference attracted delegates from all parts of the world, from Fiji to the United States, and several European countries, among others France, Switzerland, Spain or Italy. Many presenters and attendees are world-leading experts in the area of Language MOOCs (LMOOCs).

The conference proceedings were published in the Collection of proceedings of the MOOC2MOVE Conferences, on the HAL repository (https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/M2M).

The Conference was one of the first events specifically devoted to the scientific analysis of Language MOOCs. The themes covered by presenters ranged from current trends in LMOOCs, with special attention to innovative pedagogical approaches, LMOOCs and learners’ motivation and achievement, language skills development and assessment, to synergies between LMOOCs and Open Educational Resources (OER) and other forms of Open Educational Practices.

Second International Conference & Call for papers

Abstract submission deadline: December 4th, 2020

We are now calling for proposals including research-related papers, presentations of case studies and results of EU-financed projects as well as posters on the subject of LMOOCs (Language MOOCs), including language learning and teaching with MOOCs; OER/ OEP for language learning and teaching; and MOOCs and student mobility.

We invite to submit abstracts for a 20-minute presentation or a poster. The conference presentations and posters can be in English, French, Spanish or Italian. The Conference, initially scheduled for 9-10 October 2020 and postponed to 9-10 April 2021 due to the pandemic, will take place in Naples in the halls of the Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (PAN), via dei Mille n. 60, Naples For more information on the call for proposals, the Conference Team, the Presentation Guidelines, Abstract & Paper templates and Conference Location please visit http://conference.mooc2move.eu/. Stay tuned for updates to the conference program.

The abstract, drawn up according to the guidelines indicated on the site, must be sent by 4 December 2020 as an attachment to an email addressed to conference@mooc2move.eu and with the subject "Mooc2Move Abstract Submission", with name, address and affiliation. Interested parties will be contacted by January 9, 2021. The works selected by the Scientific Committee will be included in the Collection of proceedings of the MOOC2MOVE Conferences, which will be published on HAL (https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/M2M).

To know more go to the website http://www.mooc2move.eu

Visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Mooc2Move/ and LIKE it!

Write us an email http://www.mooc2move.eu/contact.php

We are looking forward to meeting you online very soon!

Partnership

This project has been funded with the financial support of the European Union’s ERASMUS + Programme. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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