Not a lot of specifics on how the author wants to improve the system. Spending $100 million per course is unrealistic and it's not clear what benefit you get from that. Higher resolution 3d graphics?
One specific example he provides is developing better digital textbooks. Specifically, digital content that is more than just a PDF version of a paper textbook. Some options:
* Use multimedia effective (video, animation, sound could all be integrated effectively with the text)
* A/B testing to determine the most effective way to teach a concept
* Mine data from interactive problem sets to see where understanding tends to break down, then iterative on the text until you teach those concept effectively
Another specific example he touches on: better video content. Consider that a lot of MITx's video content was just a recording of a professor lecturing in a monotone at a blackboard. This is the least possible effort they could have made. For a specific example of a better way to lecture online, he references Khan Academy's video. I fully agree. And he points out that not only is this approach effective, it was also inexpensive to produce.
While I don't see how spending $100 million will make a course any better, the price tag is not unrealistic if you truly make the definitive course on a topic that doesn't change frequently. For $1 billion you could have the equivalent of a college major in a single subject. Over a few years, you can certainly find 10 million people willing to pay $100 for a college degree equivalent in mathematics, for example.
