Opening up foreign language education with open educational resources: The case of français ineractif

Abstract

The general goal of this chapter is to examine the open education movement in order to understand its impact on foreign language education. More specifically, this chapter explores the intersection of blended foreign language learning and open educational resources (OERs). The affordances and challenges of OERs are summarized and discussed. A case study of Français interactif, an OER developed at the University of Texas at Austin, illustrates openness in many of its unique features, including an open development process based on feedback from a community of users, a modular design, and an open license. Suggestions are given to language program directors about how to join the open education community of practice.