One comment I read in the influx of e-mail for this ocTEL course said in terms of organising participants into groups:
I think we need to divide ourselves into subgroups for conversations to keep things manageable. The question is, how to organise the subgroups? By type of job? By type of interest in this course? By level of experience with TEL? Randomly, by starting a new group when the last one gets to some number?
I think one of the real challenges in organising anything with lots of people is an assumption that people will play by the “rules” and will stick to the groups assigned, or even plan themselves into groups.
I think at this stage, though planning groups would appear to be a good idea, the problem will arise if you are in a group from which then everyone drops out from the MOOC; you will be left on your own.
I would expect after a week or two of frenetic and frantic activity that the dust will settle and groups will form organically and by themselves.
We shall have to wait and see.