MOOCS. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ROMANIAN UNIVERSITIES

This paper examines the opportunities and the challenges of introducing computer-assisted language learning, and more precisely Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), in foreign language education in combination with face-to-face tuition, as a more dynamic and cost-effective alternative to traditional education. As Romanian universities are facing on the one hand harsh international competition and on the other hand have to manage on a volatile and unstable domestic educational market, could MOOCs represent the solution for their repositioning on the educational market and the starting point for the redefinition of their identity? While globally MOOCs are increasingly more widely used - the world top universities, such as Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, etc., offer such free courses for the larger public - Romanian universities are stuck in an isolationist paradigm in which lack of time and financial resources for research, and personal and institutional arrogance represent only some features of a traditional organisational culture with numerous issues of ethics and corruption. The paper reviews the European documents regarding computer-assisted education, explores some of the best practices in the field, and makes the claim that the Romanian educational market is ready for this challenge. We base this assumption on the results of a quantitative and qualitative research, presented in the paper. We conducted a small-scale survey, interviews and focus groups with students of The Bucharest University of Economic Studies in May and June 2013 with a total of 54 students of the Master's Programme International Business Communication. All Master's students show their acute interest in using computer-assisted language learning and their openness to do so in a more formal context. Our recommendations therefore are that, starting from their main stakeholders' interest, Romanian universities should definitely take MOOCs into consideration when producing their curricula and when designing specific syllabi and learning materials.