The British Council’s MOOCs will enable learners to access courses to prepare for higher education in English and to prepare for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) assessments.

In 2013, over 2 million English language learners took an IELTS test. Access to open English classes online should make it easier for learners to prepare for the assessments and for their eventual work or study in English.  

FutureLearn is the UK’s first MOOC platform, owned by The Open University, and its course structure encourages online interaction and social learning. FutureLearn will lend its expertise in online learning to the British Council’s extensive global experience in language pedagogy.  

“This new initiative with the British Council provides a valuable opportunity for us to support the development of English language and communication skills for our learners around the world,” said Simon Nelson, Chief Executive of FutureLearn. “We are pleased to welcome the British Council as creators of MOOCs alongside our world-class university partners.”

Technological and pedagogical innovations have rapidly been making their way into the education mainstream over the past few years, but there has been a lack of evaluation of these changes. Tools and standards for quality evaluation and models for development are needed in order to guide educators and policy-makers in their decisions.

LINQ 2014 is seeking scientific paper submissions, as well as proposals for interactive workshop sessions such as learning café sessions, debate formats, thematic table workshops, etc. Contributions to the conference should focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Quality indicators and methods to describe, measure and evaluate quality for open education, OER and MOOCs
• Conceptual contributions on new and innovative quality models, methodologies, standards and approaches for e-learning and open education
• Experiences and reports from practice with implementation of quality approaches for open education
• Required competences by institutions as well as by learners for designing, practicing and improving open learning with high quality
• Local, national, regional and European quality projects in the field of the conference
• Methodologies for and experience of recognition of open learning in formal education and training
• Certification of e-learning and open education in institutions, programs and courses
• Integrated innovation and quality approaches
• Global aspects of high-quality Open Education (e.g. collaborations, comparative studies, cultural aspects)

The deadline to submit papers is January 10, 2014. All papers will be reviewed by the international Scientific Programme Committee in a hybrid review process: open review process and double blind review combination. Please see the Call for Papers for more information.

For the latest information on the conference, please visit and like the LINQ Conference Facebook page and follow @LINQ_conference on Twitter. 

• demand for HE
• international mobility and TNE
• technology and the MOOCs phenomenon
• partnerships and networks
• leadership and management
• trade liberalisation
• funding
• rankings as an institutionalisation of competition