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A month after the launch, each course already has thousands of enrollments. One of the highest-enrolling classes is Introduction to Art: Concepts & Techniques, with 17,800 students currently enrolled. Anna Divinsky, lead faculty member of the Digital Arts Certificate Program, is instructing the course.

Divinsky’s MOOC will focus on the fundamental theories and techniques of visual arts, and students will be expected to conduct research, complete writing assignments and create their own original works of art. Divinsky said that unlike a traditional class setting, MOOC students will have to be self-directed and learn to rely on each other for feedback instead of continual guidance from an instructor.

The State University of New York Board of Trustees today outlined the implementation of Open SUNY, which will bring all online courses offered at each of the system’s 64 campuses onto a shared and comprehensive online environment, making them accessible to all of the system’s 468,000 students and 88,000 faculty.

More than 86,000 SUNY students registered for at least one online course in 2012. Chancellor Zimpher has estimated that Open SUNY will add 100,000 degree-seeking students to the enrollment total within three years, and that it will contribute to the feasibility of three-year undergraduate degree programs and five-year graduate degree programs

More than 50,000 people have signed up since Penn State joined Coursera on Feb. 21

For example, Robinson said his mapping MOOC, with more than 6,000 enrollees, already is the largest course ever taught on the subject. The key, he said, will be to find a way for students to interact with each other online in a meaningful way.