Course Begins September 28, 2015
Shaping the Way We Teach English, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) prepared by and for English-teaching professionals, has launched for 2015 through a partnership with the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of Oregon and Coursera. The free program is an opportunity for current and future educators of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to improve the quality of their teaching methods.
The University of Oregon developed the course, which had a successful pilot run this past summer when it was first hosted on the Coursera platform. The new course will begin in January with two separate 5-week sessions separated by a two week break. The course offers a unique, multimedia-rich collaborative environment where participants can interact with top-ranked English-language educators from all over the world.
Participants will have access to asynchronous materials and methods that complement college courses such as Introduction to Methods for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Interactive discussion forums will also allow participants to share ideas with each other to enhance their English language teaching expertise. The benefits of this course will enable educators to establish, adapt, and evaluate their methods, materials, and classroom activities to improve their students’ study of English.