[mywittyname]

> which /maybe/ causes student quality to drop.

Not maybe. Absolutely. Even paid-for online courses have a relatively high drop out rate.

But that's okay. It's the price to pay to achieve the volume needed to pay for great instruction. I can take a music theory class from an instructor who would never waste their time teaching someone like me. Even though I may not get much more than entertainment value from it. I'm effectively subsidizing the students who do learn something concrete from the course.

There might be an argument to be made that pandering to an "edutainment" crowd might reduce the quality of instruction, but a good instructor should be able to find the right balance.