Absolutely. The goal is to make ABD status available to anyone. Students learn better with programs than with lectures. Profs have more time because they don't have to lecture. Grad school becomes a more collaborative, research-based experience. It seems like a win-win to me.

The software side of it is tricky though. You often need a mental model before you can code. That's got to come by text, video, or whatever. So I have to develop something like a dynamic book with an embedded REPL. I've heard of small efforts in that direction (_why's tryruby.org was good but it's been taken down), but nothing built-out enough to support a multi-year reading project.