Teaching second semester CS students atm I unfortunately see that many students just can't handle it remotely.
Although I admit that I'm skeptical if students unable to do some work independently are... a good fit.
I live in a European country where things are different of course. With university being basically free, this piece is a non-issue.
Also people trust public institutions much more - for a reason. The university where I studied had no problem kicking out 70% of the students. I teach at a private institution and every year I have to dumb down things because they pay and controlling and management and blah. We're now sooo far away from the material taught at the comparable university course.
And with this remote semester even much worse.
Furthermore, traditionally out university studies were already organized in a very "free" way - no specifically enforced order or lots of mandatory presence. Do your exams and in the end show all your certificates. Most lab courses were a meeting once and then everyone working on their own at home anyway. It was mostly the first 2 years with the math whiteboard sessions with mandatory presence. The rest I did mostly from home anyway and skipped most lectures.
Lastly, many companies are still reluctant to hire graduates with "only a bachelor" as it's still often seen as a dropout degree (we made the switch from out classic 5 years diploma studies just a decade ago or so). So go figure what the opinion on some MOOC certificate.
So to to sum up I don't see much chance here because:
- many can:t handle it
- university cheaper than udacity nanodegrees
- good job compatibility anyway (at least for studies like CS anyway but if not you can't do a MOOC either)
- no trust by companies in private edu providers
I live in a European country where things are different of course. With university being basically free, this piece is a non-issue. Also people trust public institutions much more - for a reason. The university where I studied had no problem kicking out 70% of the students. I teach at a private institution and every year I have to dumb down things because they pay and controlling and management and blah. We're now sooo far away from the material taught at the comparable university course. And with this remote semester even much worse.
Furthermore, traditionally out university studies were already organized in a very "free" way - no specifically enforced order or lots of mandatory presence. Do your exams and in the end show all your certificates. Most lab courses were a meeting once and then everyone working on their own at home anyway. It was mostly the first 2 years with the math whiteboard sessions with mandatory presence. The rest I did mostly from home anyway and skipped most lectures.
Lastly, many companies are still reluctant to hire graduates with "only a bachelor" as it's still often seen as a dropout degree (we made the switch from out classic 5 years diploma studies just a decade ago or so). So go figure what the opinion on some MOOC certificate.
So to to sum up I don't see much chance here because: - many can:t handle it - university cheaper than udacity nanodegrees - good job compatibility anyway (at least for studies like CS anyway but if not you can't do a MOOC either) - no trust by companies in private edu providers