CYBERL@B AS AN OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE (OER) FOR LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH PRACTICE AND COLLABORATION

Abstract

The teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is a key field in public education in developing countries.  In the case of Costa Rica, the free-access EFL platform and Open Education Resource (OER), Cyberl@b (https://cyberlab.ucr.ac.cr), was designed in order to meet public educational needs and policies, and it is targeted towards primary and secondary EFL teaching.  In this article, Cyberl@b will be described and analyzed in the light of Laurillard’s concepts of Learning Through Practice (LTP) and Learning Through Collaboration (LTC).  Based on these theoretical concepts, basic criteria were extracted in order to evaluate the platform as an educational resource that offers multimedia, synchronous and asynchronous interaction, peer and mentor feedback, as well as affordances for practice and collaboration in the following macro and micro skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. The study concludes that Cyberl@b allows for rich opportunities for practice and collaboration according to LTP and LTC principles for primary and secondary English learners in Costa Rica and around the world.