Harvard Business School student here. I find this article fascinating, specifically because it highlights the challenge of transferring the case based method to the virtual world. Unlike regular lectures where you can sit and absorb, the case based method requires you to actively participate and defend your argument in front of 90 peers. You have to prepare, think on your feet and be ready to challenge and build upon what others have said. Each one brings his own experience to the table, and you find yourself learning a lot more than in regular lectures.

For example, in an average HBS finance class you will get input from former PE guys on how to actually valuate a company, the potential pitfalls and what is important to remember. In a global economy class (BGIE) you can hear from bankers who worked in Europe on how they faced the global economic crisis.

This creates high barriers to replicate the HBS model online. I'm not sure what the UX will be for replicating this discussion setting, and invoking individuals to share from their experience. How do you validate the quality of the comments? how do you highlight the takeaways in a situation where there is no one right answer? These are all though issues to solve, and I'm glad HBS is actively tackling it. I'm looking forward to seeing if they succeed.

I think the most important point of the article is that an unbundling of professors from universities might happen.

Some online education platform could very well buy out some great professors or better yet...identify the newcomers and get them on board.

Research and teaching is still somewhat tightly coupled so I'm curious to see when/if some of the online course providers will opt to sponsor or create their own open access type journals.

For business and IT, I think the market for continued learning is currently more attractive than the typical university market. I'd like to rent a Porter for my company to update them on interesting topics 3x a year.

The ultimate mission of a great university is to impart high quality education to as many students as it can. If the reason HBS is not offering online courses is to keep profits up, then there is some serious rethinking the leadership needs to do - they've got the mission mixed up. If the new model means reduced profits initially, figure out a model to still make money, because as long as you're creating real value, there is always a way to monetize it.

Even if the case based methodology cannot be brought online, just recording the lectures and putting it up will benefit millions online. This won't really take away from the "value" of a HBS stamp because it is not certified and because you don't have access to the network and the classroom experience that students who attend the traditional program have.

This way you are accomplishing your mission of making the best education accessible to anyone in the world, which is what defines a truly great university. In my book, Stanford and MIT are the real rockstars because of the approach they've taken in this area.

Interesting this debate is trying to answer some of the questions posed in this article, also on the front page right now:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826976

If the value of universities for most people is vocational training, that will be far more efficiently accomplished through online courses.