The coming of age of LMOOC research. A systematic review (2019-21)

Abstract

ABSTRACT There has been an increasing interest in Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) in terms of research and number of courses offered, shown by the monographic volumes and systematic reviews that have been published so far. This study aims to consolidate this emerging field by exploring research from 2019 to 2021. The origin of scientific contributions, methodologies used, and the most discussed topics have been considered. Results show that the distribution of papers remain concentrated in a few countries and universities -such as Spain, UK and China, which are producing progressively more high-impact research. Also, the consistent use of mixed methods has implied the optimisation of available data and allowed for more fine-grained conclusions. Lastly, it has been proved that LMOOC publications are evolving to a more mature phase, with an increase of conceptual papers that has contributed to consolidate core theoretical foundations. It can be then said that LMOOC research has reached its coming of age and is now considered a well-established sub-field of Computer Assisted Language Learning, with substantial practice and high-quality scholarly publications.