[ghaff]

Lectures in big rooms can be trivially replaced. And, arguably, are improved upon by even a relatively modest digital effort. You get time shifting, acoustics and video can be better, you can rewind, and you can get the best lecturer to do it. 8.01 or 18.01 or 6.001 (Intro to physics/calculus/algorithms) doesn't really change YoY.

You could do that on VHS tape if you wanted to.

The hard part is problem sets, recitations, grading, peers, etc. And MOOCs do very little there. Automated grading is better with programming than it is wirth other things. But it's still just looking at the result.

[908B64B197]

There's always MOSS to spot suspicious entries. [0]

[0] https://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/

[ghaff]

I'm not even really worried about cheating in this context (although that matters when you get to certification--a lot). I'm thinking more of: It gets the right result but it does so in a really crappy way. (And, yes, in some circumstances you can measure CPU time but you still mostly in RIGHT/WRONG grading.)

[908B64B197]

It's an other reason I wouldn't trust a fully DIY degree.