That about sums it up, Mare. The success of the course does depend on the content and the amount of participation of the tutors and moderators. I think that the Genealogy course tried to appeal to too many people, it might have been better if they had run several courses, aimed at different levels of knowledge.
I also felt at times as if it had been prepared weeks in advance and that during the actual course no tutor was even looking at it. On others that I've done, it is very obvious that the tutors are about all the time, as they pick up on comments and answer them and join in the discussions.