The second iteration of the Metadata MOOC recently ended, and Statements of Accomplishment have gone out. So now I can share some data from round 2.

Recall that back before round 2 launched, I made some predictions about how student engagement in the course would play out over the course of the course. Well, it turns out that I lowballed myself… over the 8-week span, the number of active students per week was about 2.5x what I predicted.

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I also predicted that 556 students will earn a Statement of Accomplishment. In fact, 733 students earned a Statement of Accomplishment.

Needless to say, I’m quite pleased about this level of engagement in the course. What accounts for it? I’m not sure. At this point, without having yet analyzed the pre- and post-course survey results, all I can do is speculate. Obviously my first hypothesis is that I’m just so awesome that no one can get enough of me. My second (and just possibly more realistic) hypothesis is that the students in the second round of a MOOC are more serious than those in the first offering: possibly some are returning students who didn’t complete the first round and are coming back for more, possibly some didn’t participate in the first round at all for whatever reason and waited for round 2. Clearly I need to delve into our pre- and post-course survey results, to see what students’ motivations were for taking the course. Stay tuned.