Discussing the impact of MOOCs on college English teaching

Li+Fengling

Abstract：MOOCs as a new trend in the development of higher education all over the world will definitely bring significant and profound influence on our country's English teaching in higher education.This paper aims to analyze the the opportunities and challenges MOOCs have brought to China's college English teaching.

Key Words：MOOCs；college English teaching；impact

I.Introduction of MOCCs

According to the definition of Wikipedia，MOOC is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web.The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island.According to The New York Times，2012 became "the year of the MOOC" as several well-financed providers，associated with top universities，emerged，including Coursera，Udacity，and edX.And in 2013，Some famous universities，such as Peking University，Tsinghua University，Fudan University and other universiies at home，have begun launching and putting forward the platform of MOOCs to offer Chinese people shared courses.These huge data and new teaching idea and pattern is bound to bring us many opportunities and challenges.

2.The opportunities brought by MOOCs

2.1 Enriching teaching content

MOOCs not only provide good course contents in various forms for the students，but also can display them by pressing fast forward，backward and repeated play，etc.The micro video is generally within 15 minutes，which designs some questions for learners to think and answer，and students must get the right answers to go on the next phase of the study.Compared with the rigid classroom teaching for forty-five minutes，MOOCs teaching is more visual and auditory enjoyment.

2.2 Improving teaching quality

Contrary to traditional English teaching，which mainly input the knowledge to students through teaching in the 4o minutes of the class，MOOCs take the student as the center，with learning objectives focused on a certain knowledge and refined to teach.Faced with the choice of multiple knowledge content，learning motivation of the students will be more diversified.With interest oriented，in all English learning environment，learning through the classical learning resources，students can effectively improve their learning efficiency，and their enthusiasm will be greatly inspired.

2.3 Ameliorating teaching evaluation

Due to the large number of classes and the obvious difference of the students English level，it is actually difficult to carry out a formative assessment in the specific operation.Whereas，teaching evaluation method of MOOCs is not focused on students' English level，but inspiring students to think independently and critically.Students can get a final result through peer reviewing，modifying，and reevaluating，which can not only reduce the teachers workload of the assignment evaluation，but also is conducive to the cultivation of their independent critical thinking in this process.

3.The challenges brought by MOOCs

3.1 Impact on the traditional position of College English teachers

The class organization form of college English is generally the class teaching system，with teachers dominating the teaching content.But the age of MOOCs makes this model undergone a tremendous change.Learners through online classes can obtain，anytime and anywhere，more rich and comprehensive knowledge with low cost and high efficiency，which seriously affect the authority of traditional university teachers.So，college English teachers shall have not only professional English skills but also extensive interdisciplinary knowledge，improve the ability to integrate and identify teaching resources on the network so as to find the valid information of excellent course in MOOCs to learn and guide students，enhance the competence of designing and teaching high-quality curriculum，and make full use of modern educational technology to organize the class.

3.2 the crisis brought by MOOCS

In the era of MOOCs，a few high-quality educational resources monopolize the market，so most of the general universities especially those vocational colleges are facing a crisis.Professor Huang Zhen from Shanghai Jiao Tong University pointed out that，in front of the global quality education resources and strong cultural impact，Chinas universities and colleges must accelerate education reform and improve teaching quality，otherwise there is a risk of becoming teaching labs and counseling teachers of the world first-class universities and colleges.

4.Conclusion

MOOCs completely differ from previous on-line education and distance education，thus leading a real educational revolution，which initiates many huge changes in learning，teaching，training，university and its organization，and even the whole higher education and society.Although MOOCs may well not overthrow the traditional university，it is undoubtedly an opportunity to change the phenomenon of teachers-oriented class and passive learning mode of students.To cope with the impact of MOOCs，universities especially those vocational colleges should adjust the reform of education system，promote faculty professional development.

References：

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