The Footprints of Emergence provides a method, and a toolkit, to describe and communicate the complexity of learner experience in the new 'open-courses'.
It's not a simple matter, particularly if we want to track the dynamics of changes in learner experience over time.
So, here is one way to describe the four 'clusters' or 'quadrants' that form the basis for the way we make sense of the 25 emergent factors. This might make it easier to get a sense of what the footprints are all about ...
Open/Courses
What is the balance between Openness and Structure?
Interaction
How are you able to interact with/ in the learning space?
Independent Initiative
Do you develop your own capacity for action, or just compliance with fixed roles?
Presence
What traces (and connections) do you make and leave behind you?
The five or six 'factors' for each quadrant are, then, the next layer of description of the details of what is critical for emergence and emergent learning.