Free Stanford online course provides all the learning (but none of the credits)

Stanford Engineering Everywhere

All Tech Considered “Stanford Takes Online Schooling To The Next Academic Level”

PhysOrg.com “Stanford Artificial Intelligence course draws avalanche of sign-ups”

What is interesting to me about this model is how much chaos it creates in the world of learning. You can get the same quality coursework as elite Stanford students, including taking all the same canned/robotic assessments, but you cannot get a degree based on all this hard work. And in order to offer a course like this for free, guess what disappears: a human teacher. This virtual education might work for foundational engineering, but will it help our students grapple with ethical dilemmas?