Implementation intentions have been proven to be effective to help individuals reaching their goals in medical interventions. The current study investigated whether this is true as well for individuals who enrolled in MOOCs. Implementation intentions are concerned with planning where, when, and how learning will take place as well as planning how much time will be allocated to the learning and determining how potential problems will be resolved (referred to as shielding behavior). The current study investigated the relationship between the degree to which implementation intentions were formed and the degree to which goals were achieved, thereby taking the time spent for studying MOOCs and the number of barriers encountered into account. Goal achievement was taken relative to the intended goal achievement (more than intended, all as intended, less than intended).

Keywords

goal achievement · implementation intentions · MOOCs