Hello,
This is a really interesting discussion thread, as a Learning Technologist it is helpful to hear others insights into their previous MOOC experiences and how they compare. I have also participated in a couple of MOOCs and have deliberately chosen to try out ones on Coursera and Canvas to compare the differing approaches and platforms.
Fieryred1 you mentioned limiting MOOC participant numbers, Canvas certainly appear to do this as I have attempted to enroll on a couple of different courses well before the start date only to find the course is full! I think the idea of limiting numbers is sensible and would be interested to hear if anyone knows if Canvas has a standard limit to the number of participants or whether I was just unlucky in choosing a course that had a predefined limit. I also took the e-learning and digital culture MOOC on Coursera which I really enjoyed, but I was also enrolled on Fundementals of online Education: Planning and Application (another Coursera MOOC) which failed rather spectacularly after only 1 week due to poorly thought out approaches.
I think as Learning technologists we can learn a lot about MOOC design and student experience by experiencing first hand the frustrations and failures as well as successes of MOOCs.
Emma
