Types of MOOCers: PR, RP, PP, EP
Sorry, but I get lost in listserves...still brainstorming on how to categorize MOOC learners:
1. Passive Registrants: individuals who intend on signing up for a MOOC knowing they will not read anything nor participate in any way. I'm-on-vacation-but-want-to-come-back-to-the-MOOC-later type of people.
2. Receptive Participants: individuals who intend on reading information related to the MOOC and/or listening to MOOCasts, but do not plan on posting threads nor speaking at any MOOCasts.
3. Productive Participants: individuals who intend on reading information, posting to threads, and listening/speaking about MOOC-related information during the MOOC.
4. Enablers (or Enabling Participants): individuals who intend on creating or enabling someone else to participate in the MOOC
For me it would be interesting to draw a distinction between those individuals who participate in spaces already designed by someone else and those participants who provide opportunities or assist others in participating in MOOCs: creating a wiki, OERs, MOOCast facilitator, f2f groups, etc. Enablers would be like the hubs of a networks even though there is some overlap since all participants enable each other to a degree, but I think we can define in general terms what we mean by the term.
Thoughts?
Wayne suggests:
- I'm missing the registered at the start knowing that I did not intend to participate idea.
- I'm not a language expert but isn't "passive participant" an oxymoron while "active participant" a tautology - participant is the wrong word here. "passive learner" and "active learner" would be better, but I don't think its quite right yet.
- I think the distinctive aspect of the last option ("proactive participant") is producing a digital artefact and sharing it. I not sure that the examples are good distinctions. For instance, I could use an RSS aggregator as a Passive participant and microblog as an Active participant. We must be careful not to conflate technology with learning intent in this case.
- Improving the scale: Passive observer, Passive participant, Active participant, Proactive Participant
- Improving the scale: Registered but did not regularly follow the course, Silent observer, Moderate contributor, Memorably active
