Icon next to instructor name in Discussions (?)

[Jeff_F]

This week we started a MOOC with 2,500+ participants and eight or so faculty facilitators.  I've noted instructor and TA replies in the Discussions do not stand out from the students and so it is challenging for participants to differentiate between the reply of a peer participant and that of an instructor.

This had me think back to how this was handled in our prior LMS and I recall an icon/badge appearing next to the instructor name for each discussion post.   I am curious if others in the community feel such an identifier is needed.   Would such an icon have value for the MOOC alone, or for any course?  Your thoughts?

Example:

[awilliams]

I could see value in having a way to indicate the role of a user inside a course, particularly in a place like discussions. I can think of a workaround of using modified profile avatar pictures but this wouldn't work out so great if the user has different roles in different courses (almost a certainty).

[kona]

There's actually a feature idea open for voting that would address this -

Right now it hasn't gotten much love, so my recommendation is to vote, comment, and maybe do a little promoting of this feature to garner some additional votes!

Hope this helps!

[Jeff_F]

Wonderful referral!  Much appreciated.