1 Introduction

In the context of digital transformation in education, MOOCs, as a supplement to traditional educational resources, embody the spirit of co construction and sharing of educational resources. UNESCO emphasizes the importance of open educational resources, and China's Ministry of Education has launched the National Smart Education Public Service Platform to promote knowledge sharing. MOOCs have the characteristics of large scale, networking, and openness, promoting the construction of technology enhanced learning networks. 2012 was hailed as the first year of MOOC by international media, and 2013 was the first year of MOOC in China, marking a new stage in the informatization of foreign language education. China has made significant achievements in the construction and application of foreign language MOOCs, gathering high-quality resources, promoting resource sharing, innovating foreign language teaching models, and promoting educational modernization and lifelong learning. This article aims to systematically review the current research status of foreign language MOOCs in China, reveal problems and challenges, predict future trends, and promote the application and development of open education resources.

2 Research Design

This paper introduces the research design of foreign language MOOCs in China under the background of digital transformation of education. The research questions include the overall trend, research themes, theoretical perspectives, and research methods of foreign language MOOCs research. The literature sources include CSSCI source journals from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), core journals from Peking University, and SSCI source journals from Web of Science and Scopus databases. The time span is from 2012 to 2024, and a total of 195 papers were included. The research method is thematic analysis, which encodes and extracts research topics, theoretical perspectives, and research methods to analyze research progress and existing problems, providing reference for expanding research topics, strengthening theoretical awareness, and enhancing methodological understanding. The specific steps include carefully reading the paper, annotating research elements, improving coding, reviewing unclear papers, conducting continuous comparisons and cluster analysis to enhance research validity and reliability of analysis results.

3 Research Results and Discussion

An in-depth analysis was conducted on the overall trend, research themes, theoretical perspectives, and research methods of foreign language MOOCs in China. The overall trend of research shows that the research on foreign language MOOCs in China has gone through three stages: explosive period, slow period, and innovative period. The number of publications reached its peak in 2016 and then stabilized, with a slight increase in 2023. The research topics mainly focus on teaching modes and teaching effectiveness, the current situation of MOOC construction and application, learner factors, curriculum design and quality evaluation, MOOC teaching ability, and other aspects. In terms of theoretical perspective, about 20.5% of the papers explicitly propose theoretical perspectives, including learning theory, curriculum teaching theory, etc. In terms of research methods, the number of empirical studies is higher than non empirical studies, and research methods have shifted from empirical introductions and viewpoint statements in the non empirical stage to quantitative, qualitative, or mixed research methods in the empirical stage. However, existing research has limitations in terms of data sources, questionnaire design, data types, etc. The application of qualitative research methods is somewhat insufficient, and case studies are particularly lacking.

4 Research Prospects

The development space of foreign language MOOCs research in China under the background of digital transformation of education was discussed, and three suggestions were put forward. Firstly, it emphasizes the importance of valuing the application value of MOOCs and exploring core teaching elements, including precise analysis of resource needs, strengthening the research on teachers' MOOC teaching competence, enhancing MOOC learning interactivity, and overall planning of MOOC construction. Secondly, it is suggested to construct a localization theory and encourage interdisciplinary cooperation to enhance the international influence of the application and research of foreign language MOOCs in China, and to develop a MOOC application theory model with local characteristics and strong explanatory power in combination with China's foreign language education practice. Finally, innovative research methods are proposed to tap into the potential of technology, comprehensively apply and innovate research methods, use diverse data to increase research depth, and explore the possibility of integrating new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence into foreign language MOOCs to enhance personalized learning experience and content adaptive recommendation. At the same time, it emphasizes the focus on technology empowering the human-computer interaction and negotiation ability in the development and application process of MOOCs, avoiding the trend towards technological determinism.

5 Conclusion

This chapter emphasizes the current status of research on foreign language MOOCs in China and proposes future research directions. As a teaching aid, MOOCs complement traditional teaching rather than replace it. MOOCs have value in enriching teaching resources and updating educational concepts, but they cannot completely replace traditional teaching. Research advocates for a dialectical evaluation of the value of MOOC resources while empowering teaching with technology. In the face of digital transformation in education, we should actively embrace change, pay attention to open educational resources, innovate teaching models, explore core elements that affect teaching effectiveness, and expand research topics. Strengthen theoretical innovation, construct a localized MOOC application theoretical system, advocate diverse research methods, and support the digital transformation of foreign language education. Future research should achieve deep integration of emerging technologies and foreign language education, serve national educational goals, build a smart teaching environment, promote the development of foreign language education towards an interconnected, open, and shared ecosystem, and bring positive and sustainable impacts to foreign language education.