Abstract
The growing number of online courses offered by many universities worldwide is reshaping the traditional delivery of knowledge. This study tries to combine e-learning and the learning principles of language and linguistics. Drawing on the experience of the start@unito project at the University of (blinded), which this year also offers language and linguistics courses, we tackle one of the main problems of online education, namely that of interaction. This study tries to combine e-learning and the learning principles of language and linguistics, focusing on the three types of interaction proposed by Moore (1989): learner-learner, learner-instructor, learner-content interactions. Specifically, we concentrate on the various ways in which learners may interact with the content in asynchronous untutored online university courses. Starting from the assumption that all the language and linguistics courses need a great deal of interaction, in order to be beneficial to students, it emerges that the application of pedagogical approaches and a careful instructional design of the courses may facilitate a more effective interaction with the content of the object of study.
Highlights
Nowadays a growing number of universities is offering their students new web-based learning environments in many subject areas and learning foreign languages and linguistics is not excluded from this phenomenon
The issue of interaction strongly emerged during the second phase of the project precisely because we found ourselves dealing with many courses involving the presence and the study of a foreign language
Our research revolves around the following questions: how can the principles of e-learning help in the creation of academic courses? How can interaction be achieved in an online asynchronous untutored university course, especially in foreign languages and linguistics ones?
Summary
Nowadays a growing number of universities is offering their students new web-based learning environments in many subject areas and learning foreign languages and linguistics is not excluded from this phenomenon. The University of Torino has recently embarked on a new project called start@unito (Bruschi et al, 2018), which already offers 20 online open asynchronous courses in several disciplines such as Philosophy, History, Sociology, Physics, Mathematics, Informatics, Economics. The issue of interaction strongly emerged during the second phase of the project precisely because we found ourselves dealing with many courses involving the presence and the study of a foreign language. Since the start@unito open courses do not involve the presence of tutors or forums because of the very nature of open online education, which is available anytime anywhere, the aim of the present paper is to analyze how a peculiar form of interaction can take place, namely, the interaction with content. How can interaction be achieved in an online asynchronous untutored university course, especially in foreign languages and linguistics ones? Our research revolves around the following questions: how can the principles of e-learning help in the creation of academic courses? How can interaction be achieved in an online asynchronous untutored university course, especially in foreign languages and linguistics ones?
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