I may be in a unique position in commenting on this phenomena. I graduated from a well regarded university as a undergraduate (too man) years ago and have been working in industry for approximately 12 years or so. As my career evolved, I realized I wanted to specialize and I&#x27;ve always appreciated the formality and rigors of school.<p>But all those things that happen over 12 years of working made returning for a masters infeasible e.g. wife, kids, an appreciation for meals that do not involve ramen noodles and hotdogs... About a year ago I had the opportunity to apply to Georgia Tech&#x27;s Online Master&#x27;s of Computer Science program (OMSCS).[1][2] I&#x27;m currently 1&#x2F;2 through the program.<p>I&#x27;ve taken online courses before and I consistently (2 or 3 times a year) attended local community college classes on various topics or refreshers. But I feel the OMSCS program is doing it differently and, largely, is &quot;getting it right&quot;. I&#x27;ll try to cover the most common critiques of MOOC&#x27;s and how I think OMSCS can, hopefully, serve as a model for other universities to expand into remote learning.<p>Attending a University is as much about the culture&#x2F;people&#x2F;experience as the raw knowledge<p>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<p>I completely agree. However, GATech&#x27;s program has made collaboration between students a priority. We&#x27;re given a lot of tools including weekly group video conferencing with TA&#x27;s, very active student forums, actively engaged&#x2F;participant professors and TA&#x27;s, and local study groups for students in the same general area. In some ways, I feel <i>even more</i> connected to professors than I did when on campus. Generally the professor was available in class, office hours, and through email. Email response was often spotty or too a few days. I get responses from a professor, TA, or student within a day if not within hours on the forums. Student provided answers often receive a &quot;+1&quot; by TA&#x27;s or professors or a correction&#x2F;clarification if that is needed.<p>However, it&#x27;s true that the &#x27;flow&#x27; of conversation is not as dynamic and as a consequence can be less engaging as in classroom settings given the delay of forum communication. Also, I&#x27;m sure the on campus students have access to many of these tools as well. For me personally, I was less likely to leverage the other tools if I&#x27;d already sat in class that day.<p>Recruiters and employers look for the &#x27;signal&#x27; that comes with a prestigious university program<p>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<p>I feel this is over played. MIT, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, etc. are obviously good schools. But anyone whose been interviewing and hiring for any amount of time knows they&#x27;re not guarantees and much more goes into a good employee than simply making it through a rigorous academic program. But you it does carry _some_ weight. Just not as much as many imply.<p>One of the reasons I selected this program is the degree rewarded is indistinguishable from their on campus degree. The &quot;signal&quot; this provides for students and employers is the university is willing to put their full faith and credit behind the education I&#x27;m purchasing. If MOOC&#x27;s are to succeed this is the only model that will work. Why should I pay the university if they insist on signaling that it is a lesser education through degree differentiation. If they are incapable of delivering the same rigor and quality, I&#x27;d rather just read a book or take a free course.<p>MOOC&#x27;s aren&#x27;t a threat to prestigious education, just community colleges and small schools<p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<p>I&#x27;m not sure I agree. Community colleges are already very affordable. Georgia Tech is in the top 5 computer science programs in the country. That&#x27;s a high degree of prestige. If they can deliver on their promise, maintain the quality of students &amp; education their delivering, if they issue degrees indistinguishable from the on campus degrees, and if they can do so at higher volumes and good profit margins other high end universities <i>should</i> feel very threatened. Particularly since since the margins are quite large. All the tuition goes towards the professors, TA&#x27;s, and a smidgin of an amount toward infrastructure. And they can handle much larger student bodies.<p>That means more highly qualified STEM workers carrying your degree. Which incurs more prestige on your program and attracts more students...which you can actually accept if qualified.<p>1. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.omscs.gatech.edu" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.omscs.gatech.edu</a><p>2. Full disclaimer: I work for AT&amp;T, a partner in the creation of the OMSCS program with Georgia Tech &amp; Udacity, though I had no involvement in that process other than benefitting as a student.