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All-You-Can-Eat College For $99-a-Month

Posted by Soulskill on from the om-nom-nom dept.

theodp writes "Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow StraighterLine courses to be transferred for credit. But even if StraighterLine doesn't succeed in bringing extremely cheap college courses to the masses, it's likely that another player eventually will."

1 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. If all you want to do is learn by TheLink · · Score: 5, Informative

    If all you want to do is learn for free, you can always watch lectures online.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
    http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
    http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley

    You can even get lectures from Australia or India:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/unsw
    http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd

    And if you want to learn stuff like how to solder and splice try http://www.tpub.com/neets/

    Or watch someone make vacuum tubes:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-QMuUQhVM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S5OwqOXen8

    Sure you might not be able to afford all that equipment to actually do everything. But at least you have a better idea of what you might like and what's worth it before forking out lots of money (or going in debt) in fees.

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