Back in December (2013), I began to receive tantalizing e-mails from the #deeperlearning people, inviting me to enroll in DLMOOC, “a massive open online course to learn about deeper learning.” Wowza! In my journey of self-discovery, I have become cognizant of the fact that lifelong learning is a value I hold very dear. Whereas many of my friends, family, and colleagues were very happy to shelve their last learning materials as they left college, I love nothing more than exploring new topics that I know nothing/little about.

So, I jumped in, registered, and promptly received acknowledgement, “Welcome to Deeper Learning 101, a survey course brought to you by High Tech High, Peer 2 Peer University, MIT Media Lab with support by Hewlett Foundation and Raikes Foundation.” A consortium of heavy hitters in the education reform arena!

More deeper learning opportunities soon presented themselves. The course was run on the Google Plus (G+) platform, complete with “communities” and “hangouts,” two tools I had not yet worked with. Fortunately, G+, as is typical with Google products, is user-friendly and intuitive.

Within a short time, the number of registered participants in #DLMOOC exploded, my first opportunity to feel overwhelmed! The final enrollment counted 1,854 people. How was I going to keep track of that many people? How was I going to keep track of all the POSTS?

The facilitators quickly began to assemble the gang into sub-groups, based on special interests. I joined the PBL (Project-based Learning), Lifelong Learning, and Independent Schools sub-groups, as they were of most interest to me.

In time, the DLMOOC forums became habituated by only a small number of the participants. Of those, I identified a few personal favorites, whose posts I read attentively. I added my voice to conversations where I felt I had value to add. The once-overwhelming MOOC structure had become a community (or more aptly, communities) where a wealth of learning was taking place.