MOOCivations blog will report the progress of the research being conducted during the summer of 2013, by two Learning Design Interns at the Centre for Innovation and Technologies in Education at University of Southampton.

The project will investigate motivations and characteristics of MOOC learners in general with two distinctive themes developed by each researcher:

1. Democratisation of education through MOOCs and the main characteristics of MOOC learners in specific demographics (Arab world, India and Africa).

2. Motivation theories and learning analytics.

Following literature reviews, we will design and conduct questionnaires and/or semi-structured interviews. The resulting data will be used to present a final report about motivation of MOOC learners.