I'm a little disappointed at the comments here. It's fine to point out flaws and downsides. comparisons to other options like traditional universities, free options. Udacity might even ultimately suck.

But, this is very early in the game and MOOCs are part of the progress, whatever their eventual form or role.

The price of education will ultimately come down to a bunch of things that are still unclear. Can it work at scale without dedicated teachers, dedicated full time pursuit. Can credentialing be solved or bypassed at scale.

The "people want it" is there and the only way to figure things out is to try scaling. That could take decades, culture takes time to evolve.

I don't care about Udacity or anything else, but I'd like to see the concept of better education, cheaper using technology. So, I'm happy to hear them say something like "can be scaled up to teach millions of people technical skills." Try it. If they succeed, great.