Big Data applications and Analytics

tl;dr: Like a textbook, there is a lot of information but zero engagement.

I started this course a few months ago and was not impressed. As I understand it, this is similar to the on-campus course at Indiana U and the lectures were made available for free. There is no certificate for completion. I gave it my level best effort to complete the course ended up dropping it a few months later after only getting to the 5th section. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:
The instructor did his research and there is a lot of material presented. He also aggregates information from many leading sources to give a comprehensive lecture. Prof. Fox's expertise is readily apparent.

Cons:
The presentation was disappointing. The course is presented using the sage-on-the-stage method where the instructor sat in front of a webcam and just started talking. I don't think there was much editing involved because the instructor has a regularly coughs throughout the lectures. While I can't fault him for having a cold, it is quite distracting and there's really no excuse for it in recorded lectures.

The course materials were not engaging. The lectures do not incorporate exercises or demonstrations to get the learner involved in the material. There are projects midway through the course but the learner will need to make the commitment to get there. The discussion group on Google+ is not active- there was more spam pots than course discussion. This is probably the biggest fault of the course is not have a moderator to clean the discussion boards and to lead the discussion. At last look, there were only 148 members to the group which hardly qualifies this course as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).