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Comment by throwawayjava | Hacker News Reader

Everything that you just listed is basically how our current system works.

Accredited institutions can issue degrees if you pass their courses. There are various "grades" that bucket people, but as far as getting the degree goes, you just need to pass. Grading is at least ostensibly objective. Admissions to accredited institutions is selective, and colleges compete with one another for students.

The only two differences are price per class and "objective grading".

The former amounts to "what if we had our current system, except everything were cheaper". Which, I guess I have to admit, would indeed be nice. It'd be nice if healthcare and cars and real estate were cheaper as well. Not sure how to actually do it, though.

And for the latter, we've done that in K12 (standardized tests). Almost everyone seems to agree it's a terrible system.

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OK, let me try again.

I'm the accrediting institution. For my degree in physics, you have to pass this online class on electrodynamics from MIT, because it's the best one there is. And you have to pass this other online class from Caltech on special relativity, because it's the best there is on that. And so on.

The "accrediting institution" doesn't need to own any of the course content. It can take the best of the online courses that are available. And the online stuff that's available tends to be the best of the available lecturers.

That's why it could be less expensive. You don't have to have classrooms. You don't have to pay the lecturers' salaries (though you do have to pay license fees on the video). You have to have a very small amount of administration, and you have to write and administer tests that show whether the student actually knows the material.

Western Governors University already runs on something like this model, except that I believe that they use their own content instead of the best available online content, and they only have a limited set of majors.

And, I didn't say "standardized tests". The tests would probably belong to the accrediting institution. But there need to be tests, so that they can tell that you actually learned something, instead of just sitting through the videos watching something else on your phone.

Okay. So, everyone needs to be able to pass MIT's electrodynamics course if they get a degree that requires and electrodynamics course. And without intensive one-on-one and in person tutoring.

I'll risk sounding like an asshole or making an ass of myself and just straight up ask: Have you ever taught before? Somewhere other than a top ten CS or ivy league university?

What you're proposing sounds way more expensive than the status quo.

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