&gt;  What do you see as being better alternatives?<p>Online lectures. Uploaded scripts. (At least in my university good scripts were followed so closely, that a &quot;lecture&quot; was exactly what the name says &quot;somebody reading the script&quot;. And bad lectures were an utter waste of time. I remember one math prof who permanently corrected his proofs back and forth - in the end we just took photos of his blackboard &quot;art&quot; (back in 2000), because taking notes was absolutely pointless.)<p>With modern technology those could be annotated; students could have online discussions about those (think &quot;soundcloud-style interface&quot;).<p>Everyone could benefit from those, not only students. Can I please live in a world where I can do <i>every</i> course from home, at my own pace? I&#x27;d happily pay to have my all tests evaluated and finally for time spent by university employees on my exams - for which I&#x27;d sign up whenever I am ready and without formally being enrolled as a student.<p>&gt; I think pyscially attending lectures gives more incentive to learn<p>Or it allows for less time to learn. In my university the different institutes are distributed across the whole city and I spent <i>12</i> hours every week just on commutes between those. Thus, people who need to work for paying for their studies (not tuition, but rent, food, transportation) are already excluded by being forced to physically attend. Same for people who already have a job. I am not talking about those few who can study while working because their employer supports this, I&#x27;m talking about the carpenter with an interest in theoretical physics, astronomy or arts.