This article (19 page PDF) studies "the first connectivist massive open and online course (cMOOC) in China", 'Internet plus Education: Dialogue between Theory and Practice'. Using a type of network analysis, the authors draw three conclusions: similar people find it easier to interact with each other; people are more inclined to reply to a facilitator; and reciprocity has a significant effect on social networks. These conclusions (which I've paraphrased for brevity) are probably familiar to others who have taught online. As others have observed (including myself), "facilitators, as an important learning partner, need to help beginners make diversely wayfinding through demonstration and connectivism emphasized learning support distributed in the community can establish incentive mechanism to promote peer support and role models, which is key to dealing with this challenge in mass group learning."
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