Will Udacity courses be accredited? Will their accreditation be taken seriously? If not them, then some new startup in this space will be. They will spike the money-hose directed at HarvardYaleOxfordCambridge.
The professors are also well respected brand names in their own right. Having your introduction to probabilistic robots come from Thrun to me carriers weight
I don't know. It will be pretty interesting to see how it plays out. It was said above that Udacity's business model is to connect students with employers, so there will be a big push to make that happen. Contrast that with a school who focuses on accreditation. There will be less push to make sure you are employed at the end. You will, however, have the all important (to 99.999% of the population) accreditation.
If you are going in with the goal to get a job at the end, it seems like the former is going to yield better results, in my humble opinion. And if you are studying the subject just out of enjoyment, neither model matters, because who cares if you have a job or accreditation at the end?
I feel we're a long way from claiming one business model the victor.
Mr Markov, I presume?