I'm still unclear what the business model for universities (as opposed to private companies) in this space is. The problem is, they will inevitably be compared to (and in some sense compete against) their non-virtual counterparts. Especially when they've essentially given away all their course materials and lecture videos for free, and considering these classes are not for credit, I just don't see the benefit for the average person over studying what's already freely available. And one can't even make the argument that the free resources aren't meant to be used to learn a subject (as is the case with most free reference material), since these were obviously created with precisely that goal in mind.
When they inevitably move to a tuition based model, the ever present question of "the real MIT or the online one?" may be too much to overcome.
When they inevitably move to a tuition based model, the ever present question of "the real MIT or the online one?" may be too much to overcome.