There are two models. Sage on the stage. Or building structures than scale. Individual brilliance and interpretation; or Hollywood. There are not not enough sages; but people deny we can build structures that scale.
I see this dialectic everywhere in education. When do we need n=1; and what can do at scale. It is not just education however. All over the creative world we can see this battle play out. As Paul Simon put it:
“I’m sittin’ in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one-night-stands, my suitcase and guitar at hand
And every stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band”
On the other hand look at this. The song maker (Max Martin) few have heard of.
Woodie Flowers in a devastating critique of MITx said it well.
I believe the “sweet spot” for expensive universities like MIT is:
1) access to highly-produced training systems accompanied by
2) a rich on-campus opportunity to become educated.
MITx seems aimed at neither.
Medicine gets this confused big time. There is training and education. If we did the former better, we could offer a real education. But to do the training better, we need scale. And that means content. We could do things better and cheaper.