It's a shame Udacity hasn't worked as well as Thrun hoped. I'm convinced that the failure of existing online courses has been primarily a problem of motivation, rather than an inherent pedagogical problem in online coursework. It's very hard to motivate yourself to consistently work on coursework if there are no deadlines and dropping the course just means you keep going with it sometime later. Still, I can't really explain why the SJSU courses failed as well; it sounds like students had actual deadlines, and were "required" to complete the courses to the same degree they're required to complete their regular courses. It's possible that the online tools to ask for help didn't work as well as in-person interaction, or that sitting in front of a computer doing things at random times is less motivating than actually attending lectures in person at regular times. There's one thing I'm certain of, however: it's a huge waste to have universities pay professors (who are selected for their research ability, not teaching skills) to repeatedly lecture the same material to small groups of people. A hybrid model might work best. Lectures could still be online (but possibly at fixed times to prevent procrastination), but they would be supplemented by in-person recitations, where students would meet in small groups with instructors and have the opportunity to ask questions or review particular topics, with the instructor as well as with peers. This model is still far more expensive and less accessible than online courses hoped to be, but it might actually work.