Forum interaction in an academic Italian MOOC

Discussion forums represent the space dedicated to learners’ interaction in the form of communication and information exchange within the learning community. Its role has been considered particularly essential in Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs), facilitating communication between a high number of participants and allowing oral/written interaction, crucial for language learning. This paper presents the results from the qualitative analysis of the “Academic Italian for Slavic-Speaking Students” LMOOC forum in terms of the following aspects of communicative interaction: conversation volume and characteristics, the language used and the feedback provided. Additional data extracted from the learning system activity logs as well as the post-course questionnaire results have been reported so as to observe the invisible side of the course dynamics and learners’ satisfaction. The data analysis has helped to understand how online learning process takes place and how to enhance students’ production within Language MOOCs. Some problematic areas that need improvement have been identified, such as passive forum participation and the lack of communicative interactions between learners, the role of tutor resulting crucial in addressing these two issues. It still remains to investigate how to guide online learning when tutor supervision cannot be provided so as to reduce the decline of activity on MOOC forums, thus enhancing active participation aimed at developing learner productive skills.