I'm surprised at the 100 student limit they impose. I'm currently following MIT's 8.01x Physics course on edX along with 33k other students. So far I haven't had an issue that's a direct result of the number (like felling I don't get enough attention from the staff.)
So on one hand we have options like edX, which reach a lot more people and are mostly free ($50 for a verified diploma) that reach orders of magnitude more students, and on the other a paid-and-accredited degree.
I personally hope they'll be more of the first ones, because of a) not being able to spend $6k and b) the warm feeling I get in my stomach when I think about free and high-quality education that reaches tens of thousands of people.
In general, I think there is a lot more risk to the institution for handing out accredited degrees to paying remote students than for handing out an honor code certificate. They are just taking baby steps, which is a good thing.
Great. Do you maybe know if they plan on dropping the price in proportion to the number of students rolled in?
I'm thinking: if they enroll 10x students, their expenses will be covered if every student paid 1/10 of the price. And getting a masters degree for $600 from an accredited university... that's really something.
They will only have limited resources for per-student support, they will have to authorize each student and they will want to gradually develop what "passing grade" (or similar) they want to require.
So on one hand we have options like edX, which reach a lot more people and are mostly free ($50 for a verified diploma) that reach orders of magnitude more students, and on the other a paid-and-accredited degree.
I personally hope they'll be more of the first ones, because of a) not being able to spend $6k and b) the warm feeling I get in my stomach when I think about free and high-quality education that reaches tens of thousands of people.