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Patrick Andrews

MOOC on intercultural studies

Saturday, 6 June 2020, 11:42
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I have been studying a MOOC on intercultural studies for the past week

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/intercultural-studies-concept-culture/6/steps/736782

There are some differences from previous MOOCs I have studied.  It is shorter (two weeks) but more intense (5 hours per week).  There seems to be no presence from moderators/facilitators and some of the discussion questions seem slightly vague and it would be useful to get more feedback on what is expected.

The content is mainly quite familiar to me from previous studies but there are some useful examples which might be useful for future teaching, especially on L161.
Tags: moocs, l161, intercultural studies, scaffolding
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Patrick Andrews

Scaffolding on a pre-sessional EAP course

Thursday, 22 Aug 2019, 22:15
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I am currently doing some teaching on a presessional course at the University of Warwick.  My work involves teaching "text based classes" (i.e. developing reading and writing skills in an integrated way) to students about to start on a Masters in Supply Chain Management.

They seem to be able to follow my classes so I was surprised when they struggled with a plenary lecture on quality in business.  I thought that the topic was reasonably familiar and the lecture seemed clear to me.  However, the lecturer did not use much visual support (my classes have the support of texts that students are reading as well as the tasks I set that aim to scaffold them).  It makes me think that they find listening very challenging unless they have scaffolding in terms of:

- visual support
- content that is very specific to their speciality
- a clear lead in.

Tags: scaffolding, eap, listening, supply chain management
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Patrick Andrews

Scaffolding language learning on MOOCs

Tuesday, 30 Apr 2019, 16:58
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I recently registered for a MOOC on learning Korean.

I was rather shocked by how little scaffolding there is in terms of basics when it is supposed to be for beginners.  The first input is a video and the transcript is in Korean script.  There had earlier been a list of Korean characters with very vague advice on their sounds but no practice of these sounds.

I find this very different from the careful scaffolding that is given for most Open University courses.

Tags: scaffolding, moocs, korean
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