Although UW-Madison’s MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) program is only a couple years old, it’s already attracted thousands of learners of all ages and backgrounds from around the globe. This year, they’ve chosen to purposefully narrow the thematic scope of their offerings in hopes of getting people to truly engage with the course material. The newest course, Forests and Humans: From the Midwest to Madagascar (not too late to sign up!), demonstrates the environmental focus that showed up in recent courses on topics like Aldo Leopold and the Great Lakes. Lika Balenovich spoke with Brian Standing about the trials, successes, and benefits of the MOOC learning environment.