I disagree with the article in general because I think the secret sauce for these online classes is involving students with non-graded questions during the lectures, graded tests, and homework.

I think the comprehensive grading of programs submitted for homework is good, but even if it is not perfect, in the 5 classes I have taken, the assignments helped me dig into the material.

I also like the model of letting students take graded quizzes more than once. I find that the time spent between the first and second time taking a quiz is very productive for improving my understanding of the material.

These classes are fundamentally superior to just reading through a good text book.