[ghaff]

Well, MIT--or probably more precisely individual MIT faculty members and other staff--can do more or less what they want to within reason without woryying about making money..

The MOOC bubble on the other hand (including edX to a certain degree) was both a novelty and depended on rethinking educational economics to a fair degree, which included credentials actually meaning something and that never really happened. The people taking MOOCs mostly weren't those not well-served by traditional higher ed; it was people who already had a Masters degree or two.