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sophisticated pedagogical strategies to keep their users engaged, peppering students with quizzes and gamifying their education with progress meters and badges

only 7% of students in this type of class actually make it to the end. (This is even worse than for-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix, which graduates 17% of its full-time online students, according to the Department of Education.)

"The sort of simplistic suggestion that MOOCs are going to disrupt the entire education system is very premature,"

He then set about a number of other initiatives to address this thorny problem, including hiring "mentors," many of them former academics looking for a change, to moderate class forums and offer help via live chats

He offered college credit

A student taking college algebra in person was 52% more likely to pass than one taking a Udacity class

"These were students from difficult neighborhoods, without good access to computers, and with all kinds of challenges in their lives," he says. "It's a group for which this medium is not a good fit."

Learning, after all, is about more than some concrete set of vocational skills. It is about thinking critically and asking questions, about finding ways to see the world from different points of view rather than one's own. These, I point out, are not skills easily acquired by YouTube video.

The Georgia Tech deal isn't really a Georgia Tech deal. It's an AT&T deal."

All visionary entrepreneurs must, at some point, find their own sense of romance in the compromises they make to build a profitable business,