Making MOOCs Personal

While writing a paper for one of my courses, I became fascinated by the lengths to which people will go to make personal connections, particularly face-to-face connections. The fascination comes from the fact that my paper is about MOOCs - massive open ONLINE courses. As of today, there are 3444 Coursera communities within Meetup. Yes, you read that right - Meetup groups organized around online courses. All over the world, people are looking for others to join them to complete learning activities, explore assignments, or just study. In 2876 different cities around the world, people are trying to make those connections.

It's not just Meetup. People enrolled in MOOCs are taking the initiative to create study groups using Google+ and/or Google Hangouts. They are connecting in Second Life. And they are connecting face-to-face at universities and cybercafes.

I've taken 3 MOOCs so far, none of which I have completed. I wonder if I had a study group to meet with to bounce ideas off of and to hold me accountable if I would have had more success. Certainly, if I was leading a MOOC I'd want to try to set up opportunities for my students to connect in as many ways possible.