This community of practice to which I refer to is the community of practice that has been established through my online masters course.
Peripheral participation is measured by growth with the growth leading to full participation.
Full participation is intended to do justice to the diversity of relations involved in varying forms of community membership. Therefore the goal of a community of practice, or at least the intended goal of a community of practice should be full participation. So if we set full participation as the top, then partial participation is the measurement of participation found in newcomers. This measurement is known as peripherality. In this sense, peripherality, when it is enabled, suggests and opening, a way of gaining access to sources for understanding through growing involvement.