Put down the pen. MIT, Stanford, et.al. have already done the math on this.
20,000 "certification" exams @ $99.00 each is not insignificant. It's just shy of 40 full-time students @ $50,000 per year.
Heats a lot of buildings.
20,000 "certification" exams @ $99.00 each is not insignificant. It's just shy of 40 full-time students @ $50,000 per year.
Heats a lot of buildings.
This may lead to dumbing down of courses(to an extent) to get more users. But sure, they don't want to harm the main business.
Stanford's total enrollment is about 20,000 students. $35,000 per year = $700,000,000.
Offer 16 new online courses which yields 20,000 students per course taking a $99 final exam. $31,680,000. Less than 5% of annual tuition-based revenue. That's a new library without hitting the endowment fund, underwriting existing salaries, funding pension obligations, or adding a new facility dedicated solely to the production of online educational content.
I think Leland and Jane Stanford would be proud to know that the memorial they built to their son is today moving in the direction of educating millions worldwide.
It's okay to "be strong and stay strong and while being of benefit to others."
These classes are also highly vulnerable to cheating and you can be sure that a large number of people will take advantage of this to pump up their resumes.