A Grounded Theory Exploration of Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs): Understanding Students’ Viewpoints

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article meets the requirements for an academic paper.

It needs some editing for idiomatic English and some of the methods and conclusions can be clarified.

Otherwise this is a strong paper in ideas and implementation. 

Author Response

Thanks a lot for the reviewer's suggestions and advice. I have thoroughly examined the language of this manuscript. Also, the sections of methodology and conclusions have been revised for better comprehensibility. 

Reviewer 2 Report

For the future I recommend readings about demotivation while learning languages. It might be interesting (Kikuchi, and so on).

Author Response

Thank you very much for the reviewer's positive comments on this manuscript. For your suggestion, I have added one sentence on p. 16 as "Furthermore, the issue of demotivation while learning language in the conventional learning contexts has been addressed by scholars such as Kikuchi (2019) and Sasaki and Kikuchi (2009); however, whether such an issue will be alleviated or exacerbated in LMOOCs might be an interesting topic for investigation by future research." 

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper presents a study on understanding perceptions on a language learning MOOC in hospitality English. This is a well written paper that contributes to the discussion about the pedagogical challenges of MOOCs. I would especially highlight the thorough literature review carried out by the author.

I have the following comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript:

1) I am not sure that the computer-assisted learning (CAL) is the best possible term for using in the conceptual model developed in the study (Figure 7). The history of CAL goes back to 1960s and it is somewhat dated now. On the other hand I understand that it goes in line with computer-assisted language learning. You should explain, why you deciced to use CAL as one of the key concepts in your. At the moment, computer-assisted learning is mentioned only in two sentences and Figure 7 is explained very shortly in text.

2) Interview questions are discussed and two example questions are presented in section 3.4. I understand, that the questions were revised during the study, but perhaps you could include a table with general themes of the interviews?

3) On line 558 you write that “MOOCs have developed exponentially since 2012”. Perhaps it is better to write “since early 2010s”. First connectivist MOOCs were from 2007-2008 and the first large MOOC at Stanford University was in 2011.

4) On lines 293-302 you have two numbered lists after each other. Is something missing before the second numbered list? This should be formatted more clearly.

5) Figures 1 (main menu) and 3 (text content) do not add much to the paper and could be removed, as the paper is already quite lengthy.

6) Figure 7 has line breaks visible.

7) There is some red text from language corrections (lines 398, 472, 549, 550, 551).

Author Response

I really appreciate the reviewer's encouragement and suggestions. Based on the reviewer's comments, I have revised to certain parts of manuscript. Here are the details:

1. I totally agree with the reviewer's viewpoint on the notion of computer assisted learning (CAL). After reconsidering the appropriateness of this term in this research context, I decide to use the term 'web-based CAL' as LMOOCs cannot be undertaken without participants' access to the Internet. Also, I added one sentence on p. 15 to elaborate this concept. 'Computer-assisted learning (CAL) has made its advent since the 1950s as computers were introduced to educational praxis and CAL can be defined as ‘learning procedures and environments facilitated through computers’ (Schittek et al., 2001, p. 93). The expeditious development of information communication technology has propelled CAL into a new web-based CAL practice to improve the efficiency of learning (Sharma, 2017). Results of this present study on the convenience of LMOOCs reflect the advantages of web-based CAL (Sharma, 2017; Tareef, 2014).'
2. Than you very much for your suggestion and Table 2 'Research Questions and Interview Questions' is presented on p. 9.
3. Yes and thanks again for the reviewer's reminder. I have change the year of MOOCs from 2012 to 2010 and the revised sentence is as 'Given that MOOCs have developed exponentially since early 2010s, they have drawn much attention in academia.'
4. This problem has been fixed. Thank you very much.
5. Thanks again for the reviewer's suggestions and these two figures have been removed from the manuscript. 
6. Figure 7 has been redone and some revisions on its contents have also been modified. Please see the Figure 5 on p. 14 for reference. 
7. All the problems the reviewer raised have been taken care of. Thank you very much.