[WheelsAtLarge]

As strange as it may sound, the lectures at universities is not the only thing students are looking for from a university.

I can sneak into most universities' general education classes for a semester and no one would notice or care. Why aren't students doing that instead of taking on debt? Or for that matter my not take all your courses online for mostly free?

1) it's extremely hard to finish a course when no one is pushing you to do your work. You may be able to finish a few abut not 4 years worth.

2) Employers(society) put a lot of weight on where someone got their degree. Students are looking at a university's reputation.

3) University is a social experience in addition to an educational one.

4) Many Students need additional help to learn in addition to the lectures.

There are more but I'll stop there.

So given the previous, you need to charge enough to recreate some of the other things that students need from a university. It's probably a few thousand a year but that's after automating as much as possible. It's not impossible but it's a lot harder than just putting a few lectures online.

[IvanVLiu]

Really good points! Motivation, incentive, social component, and sources of assistance will all need to be meticulously crafted if one were to challenge the current system.