Data Visualization MOOC - Week I (cont.)

   Following up on yesterday's post, I'll offer just a few brief observations about being an enrolled in a MOOC.  

1. There feels like more personal attention than you might expect.  "Personal attention" might not quite be the right phrase, but there are messages from the professor that indicate he cares about student participation.  In fact, in the chats, he will occasionally post a reply to a comment. Clearly, his interest in this course is personal.

2. The course is structured intelligently.  Here are two examples.  First, an assignment in Week I was to to analyze and comment upon an infographic.  Five different infographic options were offered.  For each, five separate chat rooms were developed.  The reason for all this redundancy was so that students didn't have to slog through an unwieldy list of comments and replies that would have been the result of one single infographic with one chat list.
Additionally, the introductory video was edited into about 7 discreet files. Shorter files load easier and crash less frequently.  these sorts of attention to detail help to make a course with a great many students run smoothly.

3.  Whether it be a MOOC or a more conventional online course, chat rooms are not the same as in-classroom conversations.  Students in this MOOC are taking the chats seriously. The comments are generally well formulated and articulated.  Any many comments gave me additional perspectives on an infographic.  That's all good, but it is still not the same as sitting in a classroom with peers and discussing a topic.  In some ways, it may be better.  (Comments in the classroom cannot easily benefit from time to reflect.) And in some ways, it is isolating. (There is no ability to read the body language and other visual clues of a classmate.)

4. Is there a difference between a MOOC and an online course?  Yes, I know that MOOCs are massive and open, but I'm talking about the course from a student's perspective.  I'm not sure if there is any difference at all once the course begins.  Organizationally, from a professor's point of view, the differences may be more pronounced. (See #2 above for ways in which a MOOC course may need particular attention as the course is being set-up.)  I'm also thinking that a course with about 5000 initial enrollees, like the course I'm taking, is very different from a MOOC with over 100,000 students.  Maybe a distinction needs to be made between MOOCs and Mega-MOOCs. How about under 50,000 students = MOOC and over 50,000 students = Mega-MOOC?