Another MOOC

Sometime in the last two weeks, a friend pointed out the Stanford MOOC called Designing a New Learning Environment and thought I might like it.  I signed up and got the introductory letter today.  In addition to the usual lectures and discussions students will "ultimately design and pitch a new learning environment as your final team project. Examples include learning management systems that do more or are better than existing tools, mobile learning models or e learning pedagogies, a technology that supports learning and assessment, new school system models, or a blended learning program."

This seems like it's more in line with my idea for Edstartup 101, so I may decrease my involvement in that MOOC so that I can devote more time to the Stanford one.    Just realizing that is possible is informative to me of the MOOC phenomenon in general.  I would never consider dropping one class for another if I had paid for it.   Free, open classes are kind of like an all you can eat buffet-- take what you want and leave the rest.  It also has some interesting ramifications for the teacher-- how do you make it worthwhile to people to stay- or do you even care?