Learning is created, not communicated

I signed up for the MOOC ‘Problem-based learning: principles and design’ offered by Maastricht University – it’s starting October 5th. I hope I will complete this MOOC. I’m a serial MOOC drop-out because none have inspired me so far. MOOCs are working for some people – whereas when I commit to participate in a learning event, I tend to look for something different.

Like the majority of online learning/e-learning, MOOCs often offer nothing more than a series of videos and readings. There might be a few discussion forums to share stuff, but the focus is really on the content participants need to work through. People might say “it’s what you make of it, just start a discussion and see what happens”, but it doesn’t work that way. I tend to be a good ‘participant’ yet in all MOOCs I have started so far, there just wasn’t the framework to achieve any depth. So why bother?