Cannot be more true
This is a great article and it begs the question: What is Education for?
Is it just to get pure knowledge and develop strong work ethics or is it to get a strong reference on a resume?
As an employer I believe that the diploma from those top Universities is a sign that the candidate for a job is a hard working individual who can commit to deadlines and deliver strong content. To get the job this diploma is necessary but not always sufficient.
On the other hand, a third world individual sitting in a small room in Asia or in Africa can watch the lectures all day long and learn and understand what's that knowledge about, but he would then be hard pressed to capitalize on that knowledge.
I still think that it's a great initiative for those curious minds who want to get knowledge right form the source in a quite often entertaining format.
The only issue I see is a segregation of Universities into groups. For instance Universities A, B and C do their website. And Universities D, E anf F do another one and there is no cross communication between those sites.
I think the writer omitted to mention www.lecturespoint.com which is a directory of all lectures and courses available online. That's a good effort to bring all courses in one place without EGO or deans competing for online knowledge domination.
I see a large community forming in the future to discuss courses, maybe online sessions via skype where the courses can be discussed.
Free education is a reality in Europe already, University is free in France for instance, so why shouldn't it be free here in the US as well?
