The course, "SpanishMOOC", integrated social media tools such as Skype and Google Hangouts in order to enhance synchronous oral interaction.
[12][13] Another early example was Todd Bryant's[14] joint launch of "English MOOC: Open Course for Spanish Speakers learning English" and "MOOC de Español: Curso abierto para hablantes de inglés que deseen mejorar su español" using his exchange website The Mixxer to connect language learners with native speakers for mutual exchanges.
There have been some attempts to compile lists of LMOOC providers and available courses,[3][15][16] but it seems like an impossible task to keep abreast of the constant changes in the MOOC panorama.
In order to be effective, Read (2015)[18] argues that LMOOCs require a set of tools and technologies that are appropriate for students to train the relevant receptive and productive language skills as they would in real world communicative situations.
For LMOOCs based upon an xMOOC platform, the resources and tools available for students typically include: textual materials in the form of Web pages, structured PDF files or URLs to content outside the platform, audiovisual recordings (often developed and stored on social video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo), tasks and exercises such as closed multiple-choice tests that are the basic evaluation mechanism, open answers, for example, based upon free writing, which can be compared to model answers or evaluated using peer-to-peer correction and, lastly, forums that represent a key component for learners to interact and practice mediated communication in the target language, providing a valuable mechanism for students to help each other and answers their peers' questions.
For LMOOCs based upon the cMOOC model, a range of online Web 2.0 tools can be used so as to enable students to undertake the remixing, repurpose and co-create content and interaction, promoting the community nature of collaborative and social learning.
xMOOC activities are typically highly structured and may not, as such, provide students with the communicative opportunity required to use what has just been seen and/or heard in an open and flexible way, including fine-grained feedback of different and complementary types.
In LMOOCs, teachers need to become curators, facilitators, leaders and administrators, solving problems, suggesting complementary material, moderating forums, motivating students, and overseeing the whole learning experience during the course.
MOOCs are examples of the evolution of e-Learning environments towards a more revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications[29][30] that enhance communication and collaboration processes.
All these issues present definitively barriers that add extra difficulties, such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity.
This introduction of audiovisual content into e-Learning platforms adds a new difficulty to the accessibility requirements since they include new elements that widen the digital divide and not only for people with disabilities.
The majority of learning activities undertaken continues to take place using some hardware/software that was not designed for its specific use with educational applications and, hence, usability issues often arise.
However, alternative accessible formats, subtitles, and/or sign language interpreters for audiovisual materials, audio-description recordings are not easily available even though there exist great guidelines, such as Sánchez (2013).
In the end, resources can be media enriched, achieving a greater level of quality: transcriptions for mind mapping, audio recordings for podcasting, etc.
The MOOC model, while opening up education to a larger audience, also faces difficulties that will have to be overcome before they can replace other approaches to online teaching and learning.
A further problem is that of student assessment, how to do it and how to prevent cheating,[41][42] closed tests are typically used but lack the flexibility of open written / oral answers.