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Big MOOC On Campus: Georgia Tech's $6,600 MS In CS
theodp writes "Next January, writes the NYT's Tamar Lewin, the Georgia Institute of Technology plans to partner with Udacity and AT&T to offer a master's degree in CS through massive open online courses for a fraction of the on-campus cost. Georgia Tech's Online Master of Science in Computer Science can be had for $6,600 — far less than the $45,000 on-campus price. The courses will be online and free for those not seeking a degree; those in the degree program will take proctored exams and have access to tutoring, online office hours and other support. AT&T, which ponied up a $2 million donation, will use the program to train employees and find potential hires. Initial enrollment will be limited to a few hundred students recruited from AT&T and Georgia Tech corporate affiliates. Zvi Galil, the dean of the university's College of Computing, expects that the program could attract up to 10,000 students annually, many from outside the U.S. 'Online, there's no visa problem,' he said."
In my experience, what you describe is a doctorate program. A masters is mostly courses with research as an option.
For the UK version at the Open University the exams are held at a local college and proctored in the normal way. Presumably this could operate in a similar fashion.
UT Austin is 0.1 point above Tech in the rankings for CS Grad Schools. As has been noted, if you're in-state or on a GTA or GRA, the tuition drops precipitously or is basically waived. Whether it's a #10 or #9 school isn't really going to matter during interviews. Both are superb schools with an excellent reputation among hiring managers (and I've hired-a-plenty out of both).
Tuition rates between the two schools are not significantly different. Tech is a bit over $13K/semester and UT Austin is a smidge over $12K/semester.