I am thrilled about these courses, but I don't view them as something to replace traditional courses. I heard an NPR interview with Coursera founder, Andrew Ng, who was asked if this would upset parents paying full-price for Stanford. I have one dd who just finished college and one who will graduate next year. I definitely value their education and don't regret the money spent. These courses, though, provide so much more - education to those around the world who can't afford it, distance learning for those in remote areas, and -best of all for our family- options for gifted students. Ds12 (against the rules, unfortunately, since you are supposed to be 13) just took two Computer Science courses, one through Udacity and one through Coursera. We're debating what course he'll do next. He really enjoyed them and learned a lot. What a great option for enrichment!
