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Literacy Teaching and Learning: Aims, Approaches and Pedagogies

This course opens with an exploration of the social context and aims of literacy teaching and learning. It goes on to describe a range of historical and contemporary approaches to literacy pedagogy, including didactic, authentic, functional, and critical approaches. The course takes has a 'Multiliteracies' perspective, which aims to expand the definition of literacy to encompass today's multimodal communications, and the diversity of literacies across different social and culltural contexts. A Multiliteracies approach also suggests a broad range of activity types—experiential, conceptual, analytical and critical. -------------------------------- Recommended Background -------------------------------- This course is designed for people interested in literacy teaching and learning, including people who may wish to join education as a profession, practicing teachers interested in exploring future directions for a vocation that is currently undergoing transformation, and community and workplace leaders who regard their mission to be in part "educative." -------------------------------- Related Resources -------------------------------- Online resources are available here: https://newlearningonline.com Book: https://www.amazon.com/Literacies-Mary-Kalantzis/dp/1107578698/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1661288799&refinements=p_27%3ABill+Cope&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Bill+Cope -------------------------------- Join our Online Communities! -------------------------------- CGScholar (Create an account and join the New Learning community) https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/new-learning/community_updates Facebook https://www.facebook.com/newlearningonline Twitter https://twitter.com/neolearning -------------------------------- Take this Course for Credit at the University of Illinois -------------------------------- This course has the same content and anticipates the same level of contribution by students in the Assessment for Learning course offered to graduate certificate, masters, and doctoral level students in the Learning Design and Leadership Program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois. Of course, in the nature of MOOCs many people will just want to view the videos and casually join some of the discussions. Some people say that these limited kinds of participation offer evidence that MOOCs suffer from low retention rates. Far from it – we say that any level of engagement is good engagement. On the other hand, if you would like to take this course for credit at the University of Illinois, you will find more information about our program here: https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/overview/ And you can apply here: https://education.illinois.edu/epol/programs-degrees/ldl -------------------------------- The Learning Design and Leadership Series of MOOCs -------------------------------- This course is one of a series of eight MOOCs created by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis for the Learning Design and Leadership program at the University of Illinois. If you find this MOOC helpful, please join us in others! e-Learning Ecologies: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning for the Digital Age https://www.coursera.org/learn/elearning New Learning: Principles and Patterns of Pedagogy https://www.coursera.org/learn/newlearning Assessment for Learning https://www.coursera.org/learn/assessmentforlearning Learning, Knowledge, and Human Development https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-knowledge-human-development Ubiquitous Learning and Instructional Technologies https://www.coursera.org/learn/ubiquitouslearning Negotiating Learner Differences: Towards Productive Diversity in Learning https://www.coursera.org/learn/learnerdifferences Literacy Teaching and Learning: Aims, Approaches and Pedagogies https://www.coursera.org/learn/literacy-teaching-learning Multimodal Literacies: Communication and Learning in the Era of Digital Media https://www.coursera.org/learn/multimodal-literacies

Status: Digital pedagogy

Status: Multilingualism

BeginnerCourse16 hours

Featured reviews

Reviewed Oct 19, 2022

coursera is one of the best online platform to learn. And between literacy teaching and learninng aims approachs and pedagogies was very much helpfull to me.

Reviewed Nov 16, 2016

It enables me to have a wholesome understanding of literacy teaching.

Reviewed Jul 4, 2026

Learning this course was interesting and exciting.

Reviewed Oct 6, 2020

Thank you for giving me this great opportunity to know more about the literacy world as well as various ways of teaching and learning

Reviewed Sep 13, 2025

I would like to thank coursera app for helping me gain knowledge, even though sometimes there's an technical errors or other issues, it satisfied me and I hope it helps other students.

All reviews

Showing: 20 of 30

Elisabeth

3.0

Reviewed May 3, 2018

While the course readings were informational, I found the overall experience in Coursera to be unengaging. The following are specific challenges I felt diminished my experience.

The Forum and peer-review assignments are identical. This leads to some students reposting the same information for both and limits the value-add of the exercises. Course leaders should add different prompts to encourage other types of engagement.

· When student enrollment is low, the engagement is very limited. There is almost no discussion and your assignments are not graded by many people or within the time frame. When you go to enroll, it would be helpful to see how many other students are enrolled.

· The professors do not engage during the course. They do not respond on the forum or the assignments. They essentially do not exist.

· The estimated time for the additional readings is way off the mark. This activity should be given more accurate time estimates.

Cornelia

4.0

Reviewed May 16, 2021

The course offers helpful guidance through key modes and models of contemporary literacy pedagogy. The material for further reading is inspiring and carefully chosen. The lecture videos are easy to follow; the emphasis is on the spoken word of two leading and passionate experts, not on fancy visualisations (I actually found some of the slides with key terms that appeared in the background a bit distracting). I have learned a lot and made intetesting discoveries.

Some minor quibbles:

(1) The format of the course allows anyone to start learning at any time. This has the disadvantage that you might be studying during a time with a very small cohort of fellow students and therefore far fewer of the vivid peer discussions you might know from more synchronized MOOCs.

(2) While their topics vary, all four obligatory writing assignments basically require you to write in the same genre, a little scholarly essay with bibliographical references. It would have been nice to be allowed one assignment in a different format, e.g. in the shape of a drawing or a more creative text.

Updating

5.0

Reviewed May 24, 2020

Excellelent course to learn it opened my mind,filled the empty gaps of my brain with complete and necessary information about education(teaching and learning)

lina

5.0

Reviewed Oct 7, 2020

Thank you for giving me this great opportunity to know more about the literacy world as well as various ways of teaching and learning

nguo

5.0

Reviewed Nov 17, 2016

It enables me to have a wholesome understanding of literacy teaching.

Dr.

5.0

Reviewed Sep 24, 2020

This course is brilliant, with readings and supplementary materials that have helped me to get a holistic perspective about literacy teaching and learning. It has also helped me to critically reflect on my own pedagogy and understand the various dimensions of 'multilieracies'.

Eimantas

1.0

Reviewed Oct 12, 2020

Left-wing propaganda.

Laura

5.0

Reviewed Mar 24, 2023

Es un curso excelente que actualiza los conocimientos y prácticas de la metodologías de las multiliteracidades. Fue muy esclarecedor. Pude hacer las actividades en español sin problema. Lo recomiendo ampliamente.

Khoiri

5.0

Reviewed Nov 5, 2021

Good explanation and good resources. I'd love to read and review the material journal that provided by course.

Ana

5.0

Reviewed Jul 8, 2017

Thank you so much for instructing Ana Pelayo.

Christallia

5.0

Reviewed Aug 10, 2020

It's good

Miguel

4.0

Reviewed Jul 11, 2022

Very informative course. I did learn a great deal of litracy pedagogies that I myself didn't knew about until this course. The videos are informative and the discussions do reinforce your critical thinking. Only con is that some of the concepts in the videos are outdated in today's education standards. Other than that, useful information on literacy pedagogies.

Alejandra

4.0

Reviewed Mar 3, 2021

Un excelente curso con actividades muy completa que te llevan de la mano para una comprensión más adecuada, sin duda cada minuto invertido vale la pena

Abdullahi

4.0

Reviewed Feb 25, 2017

thank you

Diana

2.0

Reviewed Feb 5, 2021

The videos were not very engaging and too heavy in information.

[NTC-S]

5.0

Reviewed Feb 5, 2026

This course is a big help for me to gain more knowledge and have an exciting learning experiences thru online and giving us more information that will help me for my future career. Thank you, Coursera for giving us this opportunity!

[NTC-S]

5.0

Reviewed Sep 14, 2025

I would like to thank coursera app for helping me gain knowledge, even though sometimes there's an technical errors or other issues, it satisfied me and I hope it helps other students.

Anneica

5.0

Reviewed Jul 5, 2026

Learning this course was interesting and exciting.

Матебаева

5.0

Reviewed Feb 11, 2026

Learnt very important things

[NTC-S]

5.0

Reviewed Sep 23, 2025

Its so niceeeeee