Ideally, I suppose, I should headline this post "5 Things I've Learned from MOOCs." That's likely what a course -- massive or online or open or not -- is supposed to have a student tout: what I learned. If I were being really forthright with my readers, I would headline this story "5 Things I've Learned from MOOCs as a Serial MOOC Dropout." That's certainly a warning that when I speak about my experiences with MOOCs, it's as a lurker and a dropout.

I sign up for courses, and I pop in and out. I've never felt particularly guilty about it. I sign up for the course. I read participants' blogs. I drop in to webinars. I watch the odd video, read the odd reading assignment I learn what I want to, when I can. I'm busy -- we all are, I realize.

What keeps me engaged in a class most often is the community. That's what I've learned lately from MOOCs and other online learning experiences. It's not the class or the subject matter per se, the syllabus, the curriculum, the assignments or assessments, although yes, that's what prompts me to enroll. I stay or go because of the people....

Read about the 5 things I've learned about my own learning preferences over on Inside Higher Ed. And ugh, yes. That's a "list post." But I think (I hope) it's the first one I've written this year.

Photo credits: Ian Barbour, via Flickr