If college is a filtering device to identify the intelligent and self-motivated, online courses that are only passed by such people are a good thing, and the fact that residential colleges provide more support and enable less motivated or intelligent people to pass is a bad thing. If college is about learning, the best mode is the one that enables the most people to pass.
There is much more discussion in the media and online forums on how to get into Harvard et al. than on whether students learn more at Harvard, suggesting that the filtering role of college is primary. If so, we should move much college instruction online, fire many professors, fire almost all administrators, and save a lot of money.
