Characterizing Super-Posters in a MOOC for Teachers' Professional Development

• In Event: The Teacher’s Perspective: Exploring Professional Development, Teacher Efficacy, and Responsibilities

Abstract

This study explores the characteristics of highly active participants, also known as super-posters (Huang, Dasgupta, Ghosh, Manning, & Sanders, 2014), alongside their contributions in a MOOC designed for teaches’ professional development. Connectivism is used to characterize super-posters’ activities in this MOOC. Results are aligned with the literature of ‘super-posters’ suggesting that these highly active participants were key elements in the MOOC ecology. They were generators of engagement, opening discussion threads and bringing resources to the network. Findings can be used by MOOC designers and instructors to develop pedagogical interventions, giving these participants a special role in the next MOOC cohort which may foster engagement in other participants feeding into the cyclical process of learning as described in Connectivism.

Author

• Fernanda Cesar Bonafini, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park