%0 Journal Article %A Poellhuber, Bruno %A Roy, Normand %A Bouchoucha, Ibtihel %C Canada, North America %D 2019 %J The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning %K behavioural engagement %K cluster analysis %K distance education %K MOOCs %K open learning %K participant profiles %K survival analysis %P 221-242 %R 10.19173/irrodl.v20i1.3709 %T Understanding participant's behaviour in Massively Open Online Courses %U http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3709 %V 20 %X As the offer of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to grow around the world, a great deal of MOOC research has focused on their low success rates and used indicators that might be more appropriate for traditional degree-seeking students than for MOOC learners, who, because of the openness of MOOCs, represent a more diverse clientele who exhibit different characteristics and behaviours. In this study, conducted in a French MOOC that is part of the EDUlib initiative, we systematically classified MOOC user profiles based on their behaviour in the open-source learning management system (LMS) — in this case, Sakai — and studied their survival in the MOOC. After formatting the logs in ordinal variables in order to reflect a continuum of participation central to the behavioural engagement concept (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004), we incrementally executed a two-step cluster analysis procedure that led us to identify five different user profiles, after having manually excluded Ghots : Browser, Self-Assessor, Serious Reader, Active-Independent, and Active-Social. These five profiles differed both qualitatively and quantitatively on the continuum of engagement, and a significant proportion of the less active profiles did not drop out of the MOOC. Our results confirm the importance of social behaviours, as in recent typologies, but also point out a new Self-Assessor category. The implications of these profiles for MOOC design are discussed. %8 02/2019 %@ 1492-3831 %* yes %> https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/archive/3709-Article Text-29778-1-10-20190227.pdf