Serendipity35

We continue to hear criticism of MOOCs for their low completion rates. I don't believe that is the best measure of a Massive Open Online Course's success. Many learners in a MOOC are only interested in certain portions of the content and enter the course with no intention of completing all the aspects of the course. 

But I agree with the premise of an article on "Why Libraries Could Be the Key to MOOCs’ Success. Adding a face-to-face social element to courses that can be a rather solitary learning experience using libraries seems like one way to change the MOOC or online experience.

I have taught online since 2000 and students often ask if we can meet in person or at least synchronously online. When I am teaching a course online that is comprised of students that are also taking classes on campus that is a possibility. But more often, there are some students at a distance that make in-person meetups impossible.

Librarians at Chicago Public Library partnered with the nonprofit Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) to create this program. Their Learning Circles Facilitator Handbook gives you a sense of the tools needed to run a program.

Research on MOOC learners continues to show that participants tend to be more educated already with a majority having a bachelors degrees and about a third self-identifying as as teachers or former teachers. For other learners, the addition of guidance from librarians or other facilitators may make the difference in finishing a course.