Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been hailed as the answer to educational access and pilloried as failures, yet, according to this author, both claims are overstated and frequently obscure the real value of these courses: the knowledge gained about student behavior, about the possibilities of technology-assisted instruction, and about pedagogical strategies that produce engagement. If the rhetoric around their promise and their disappointment is ignored, MOOCs can be examined with a more critical eye as a powerful series of experiments that have produced masses of yet-to-be analyzed data about student behavior and learning. Furthermore, if the course designs and conditions are more closely examined, a clear picture of the elements that produce sustained student engagement--student collaboration; cohesive, open-ended assignments; and learning communities--may be observed. MOOCs hosted on the NovoEd social learning site produce sustained student engagement, leading to increased persistence and completion rates. The author states that the potential of both online and offline education must be expanded by further experimenting with pedagogies that ignite students' intrinsic motivation to complete tasks of higher-order learning.