[feral]

The potential they have to massively disrupt the way higher education has been done for hundreds of years..?

You might rightly ask for evidence to back that sentiment up; I guess its hard to validate that something has disruptive potential, ahead of time. But isn't hundreds of thousands of students signing up, evidence of something?

[deepster]

Aside from disruption, these tools augment/enhance/enrich their users life in a meaningful way.

Not to mention enlarging the pool of students these academic institutions draw upon and finding additional channels to generate revenue. A rising tide effect perhaps.