Goal Setting in MOOCs

Last week I had a conversation with Lou McGill, a researcher collecting data for the Change11 MOOC. Our conversation was quite interesting and it seemed to be revolving around learner self-awareness and goal setting. I did take th change MOOC survey, but I have no idea what my responses were when I took it - it seems like such a long time ago (I know I have a copy of the responses, I am just too lazy to look them up).

In talking with Lou, I am wondering what sort of goals (or non goals) oth participants of MOOCs have. For example, none of the MOOCs I've participated in (except for DS106) we're MOOCs where I explicitly set goals for myself. I participated (and continue to participate) out of curiosity about the topic and the medium. If I get something out of it (in tms of declarative knowledge) OK, if not, that's OK too, because I will probably get a lead on an interesting research article to read, or I will interact with interersting people.

I look forward to reading what comes out of this research. I am really curious how much motivation to participate has waned over the past few months. Is this MOOC is too large to be successfully (a little pun there on "too big to fail"). What sustains participation in MOOCs, especially those that are so long, or as long as a college class? I wonder how gRSShopper data correlates with the narrative data collected by Lou.

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