Jeffrey, you raise some very interesting and valid points about engagement in a MOOC. MOOCs do not provide the usual markers by which students can identify and connect to a course of study. I think that this is what disorients so many people.

Change 11 is my fourth MOOC, and I have learned that I do best when I can anchor myself at one or two points in the MOOC and then view the rest of the MOOC from that vantage point. Usually, the presentations are an anchor, but I truly gain more value from latching on to someone’s blog (yours could be the blog for me in Change 11), but this mostly because I like blogs, or good blogs, anyway. Twitter seems to work better for others, but it just hasn’t grabbed me.

However, this is one of the wonderful things about MOOCs: I don’t have to experience it the way a Twitterphile does. I experience more as a blogger. It seems more thoughtful and paced to me, and I like that. Twitter is too ephemeral, for my way of relating, but not for others. That’s nice.

Of course, this means that I don’t get all of the MOOC. I miss much. So? I miss much of life; however, I understand that most really good students are troubled by the fact of not getting it all. That really bothers high academic achievers, such as myself and, I suspect, you. Well, if the MOOC is done right, then we aren’t going to get it all. No one does. Cool.