The model used by Coursera, et al is far from the only model for online education.
Expecting future education to work like a traditional lecture class (just online) is far too limiting, IMO. To name just one alternative among many, consider sites like StackOverflow. Educational? Absolutely. Fits the traditional model where there's a smart guy standing at the front of the room (real or virtual) and shoveling the same knowledge into every student's brain at the same time? Not in the slightest.
There's probably going to be a continuing role for courses and course-like entities, but those shouldn't be the only thing we work on (and I would argue that they shouldn't even be the primary things we're working on). The lecture model was developed to deal with a set of constraints that are largely irrelevant in an online environment.
Expecting future education to work like a traditional lecture class (just online) is far too limiting, IMO. To name just one alternative among many, consider sites like StackOverflow. Educational? Absolutely. Fits the traditional model where there's a smart guy standing at the front of the room (real or virtual) and shoveling the same knowledge into every student's brain at the same time? Not in the slightest.
There's probably going to be a continuing role for courses and course-like entities, but those shouldn't be the only thing we work on (and I would argue that they shouldn't even be the primary things we're working on). The lecture model was developed to deal with a set of constraints that are largely irrelevant in an online environment.