

Will students fork over $60K for an online master’s degree in data science? - sonabinu
http://gigaom.com/2013/07/16/uc-berkeley-now-offers-online-only-masters-in-data-science-for-60k/

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MikeTLive
If I am only paying for courses that I have passed and truly learned what goes
into the degree--- perhapse. Only pay when the MS gets paid. This discourages
"worthless degrees but might stop caligraphy courses and their unintended
benefits.

(A similar model for medicine would be great. Pay to stay healthy charge back
when you are sick. It becomes cost effective to produce cures and vaccine
which prevent outbreaks. Distribute the care costs. ..)

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FellowTraveler
If you want to get an education, and you are a self-starter, then I recommend
search engines and Wikipedia.

Universities were invented in the middle ages before the Internet existed.

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jcnnghm
If the risk and time-adjusted reward is greater than $60,000, probably.

But in the long term, the cost structure of online courses is radically
different than in-person. I would expect institutions that don't adopt to fail
in the long term, as new providers with the lower cost structure enter and
dominate; classic disruption. Their strategy right now would have been like if
Apple released the iPad for $1,599 instead of $499 out of fear of
cannibalization of their laptop market. If there is a way of offering a
substitute at radically lower cost, somebody is going to cannibalize, it's
just a question of who. If Universities don't do it to themselves, they should
expect a slow and steady decline.

