On Status Quo, Problems, and Future Development of Translation and Interpreting MOOCs in China—A Mixed Methods Approach

Mianjun Xu,Tianyuan Zhao,Juntao Deng

doi:10.5334/jime.551

Abstract

The release of China MOOCs Action Declaration signifies the strategic role of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in China’s national education. Compared with traditional face-to-face instruction, MOOCs have distinctive advantages, such as their large scale, openness, accessibility, flexibility and convenience, so they have shown great development momentum since the very beginning. However, translation and interpreting (TI) MOOCs in China have started relatively late, with limited numbers and types of courses offered and only sporadic studies, especially in-depth empirical research, on existing courses. By adopting a mixed-methods approach involving both desk research of TI MOOCs on 10 major MOOC platforms and in-depth interviews of two teachers and 10 students with TI MOOC teaching or learning experience, this study explores the status quo, problems, and future development of TI MOOCs in China. It is hoped that this paper will shed some light on the research and development (R&D), and application of TI MOOCs, as well as on reforms and innovations of TI education in China and other similar contexts.

Highlights

With the development of the Internet, big data and cloud computing, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have quickly become a new and popular education mode around the world, bringing significant changes to global education
This paper explores the status quo, merits, shortcomings and future development of existing translation and interpreting (TI) MOOCs in China with a mixed-methods approach, involving desk research of TI MOOCs on the ten most influential MOOC platforms which offer language courses, and in-depth interviews of two teachers and 10 students from two universities, who have engaged in TI MOOCs teaching and learning, for their personal experience and perceptions on such courses
This paper has tried to present an overall picture of the status quo, merits, existing problems and future development of TI MOOCs based on desk research and in-depth interviews

Summary

Introduction

With the development of the Internet, big data and cloud computing, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have quickly become a new and popular education mode around the world, bringing significant changes to global education. In China, the Ministry of Education (2019) reported that by the end of August 2019, there had been 15,000 MOOCs, covering almost all disciplines, with a total of 270 million registered learners. Because of their distinctive features of large scale, openness, flexibility, accessibility, and convenience (e.g. Chen & Wang 2013; Littlejohn et al 2016; Wang, Zhang & Zhang 2013; Wang & Zhang 2014), MOOCs have enjoyed worldwide popularity since the very beginning (Jitpausarnwattana, Reinders & Darasawang 2019; Wang et al 2019).

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Discussion

Conclusion