Text Model of Massive Open Online Courses in German

Abstract

The study aims to describe a text model of massive open online courses (MOOCs) of educational nature as a means of scientific knowledge transfer. The study is novel in that it describes the typical structure of MOOC texts and identifies the main functions of their elements. As a result of the study, it has been found that clear structuring is characteristic of all elements of MOOC texts. The introduction is a meta-text, which contains a detailed description of the main part of the MOOC, while the conclusion is an intertext indicating the connection of the main part of the MOOC with other texts of scientific and academic discourses. The text-forming strategies of MOOCs include the information strategy peculiar to all the structural elements of the text, the strategy of enhancing cognitive activity implemented in the main text, as well as the conventional strategy used primarily in the introduction and the conclusion. MOOC texts are characterised by the democratic nature of utterance expressed by various lexical and grammatical means; explicit intertextuality consisting in an abundance of citations and references to sources and related courses; coherence; presence of markers of internationality of knowledge; redundancy of information; presence of concrete vocabulary with the prevalence of abstract vocabulary.