One of the things I have been uncertain about regarding the massive online courses (MOOCs) George Siemens and I have been offering is the fact that they are courses, with the start-stop staccato network formation courses imply. But after three years of experience doing these, I'm seeing it a bit differently - that throwing out courses as we do is disruptive, that it shakes up the existing network, breaks up in-groups as ossifying structures, and gives newcomers a chance to start as equals. Courses are, essentially, a Boltzmann mechanism for learning networks (at least, when they are offered as open online courses). We see this diagrammed here: this forum diagram from CCK09 shows the integration of new participants deep into the network of more experienced participants, rather than the two separate subgroups we might expect without the disruptive influence of a course closing and a new one starting up. There's another such diagram here, and more here, showing this isn't an isolated phenomenon.
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