New Platform Affordances for Encouraging Social Interaction in MOOCs: The "Comment Discovery Tool" Interactive Visualisation Plugin

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a tool which aggregates learner MOOC contributions into a wordcloud. It is designed to serve either as a concept filter or a way to discover new conversations. This is analysed using a measure developed as a heuristic for sociocultural learning in conversations and by a survey. A new pedagogical approach is suggested which adds to the theories behind MOOC pedagogy, by using novel platform affordances to increase active participation.