Massive open online courses are increasingly popular. One characteristic of most massive open online courses is that they are offering educational contents to masses of different individual learners. At the same time, a particular challenge for the individual learner could be the massiveness of such courses, that is, that one is part of a large crowd of other learners. Being one of many other individuals can have negative consequences on learning activities because an individual might experience a sense of virtual crowding. The experiment described in this article investigated how course type (xMOOC vs virtual seminar) and relevance of individual participation (low vs high) impact online learners’ engagement. Results showed that participants in an xMOOC condition referred to themselves and their peers to a greater extent when their participation was introduced as being highly relevant. Implications for the design of xMOOCs are discussed.

中文翻译：

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“你的话很重要！” 个人参与 xMOOC 的相关性

大规模的在线开放课程越来越受欢迎。大多数大规模开放在线课程的一个特点是它们向大量不同的个体学习者提供教育内容。同时，对于个人学习者来说，一个特殊的挑战可能是此类课程的规模，也就是说，该课程是一大群其他学习者的一部分。成为许多其他人中的一员可能会对学习活动产生负面影响，因为个人可能会体验到一种虚拟的拥挤感。本文中描述的实验调查了课程类型（xMOOC 与虚拟研讨会）和个人参与的相关性（低与高）如何影响在线学习者的参与。结果表明，当 xMOOC 条件下的参与者被介绍为高度相关时，他们会在更大程度上提及自己和他们的同龄人。讨论了对 xMOOC 设计的影响。