This article perfectly articulates my feelings regarding MOOC (Massive, Open, Online, Courses). Focussing on efficiency and the transfer of information misses the larger purpose of higher education and the role of the teacher/scholar:
Such a vision not only reduces education to rote learning, it also reduces the educator to the role of a mere technician, a position that can be performed by someone with minimal skills and no real understanding of his students or subject matter. If doing research, developing ideas, and integrating them into one’s teaching are eliminated, what reason would there be for bright people to want to go into higher education? What models will students have for pursuing serious study in a particular field if they no longer have access to real scholars in those fields?
A Foolish Consistency 