Here are some brainstorm ideas for alternatives:
* Allow anyone, not just existing professors, create a course on any topic and of any length. May the best teachers win.
* Allow and encourage students to make their own lectures and courses.
* Enable and encourage two-way communication. Perhaps people can post responses to other people's lectures.
If there's 49 useless candidates, and 1 good one, a similar amount of time. It doesn't take long to spot a sub-par paper, especially if the students have an incentive to be very clear about what they have done.
One interesting solution is that offered by Western Governors University (created by 19 governors of western US states). It's non-profit, online, low-cost, and... "nationally, regionally, NCATE, and CCNE accredited."
They have a low, flat-rate tutition per term, regardless of how many courses or credits you take. Most interesting of all (I think), they mainly care about what you know, not how much time you spend with WGU: if you already know something, you can get "assessed" (e.g. tested) and move through the program faster.
Youtube is only one-way I suppose but it facilitates channels like the Khan Academy ( http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy ).