Udacity (and Coursera, edX, MIT OpenCourseware) can and do teach very helpful skills to large groups of self-directed learners. I have benefited from Coursera.

Udacity (and Coursera, edX, MIT OpenCourseware) can and do teach very helpful skills to large groups of self-directed learners. I have benefited from Coursera. I suspect that most who come here fit into that group. One problem is that a large proportion of the population do not have the personality/skills/drive to do this. I would note the Udacity pilot with San Jose State University. They started with a remedial math course, a college algebra course and an introductory statistics course. The pass rate of the stats class was about 50%, the two other courses much lower - 27 and 25% if I remember correctly. One approach that has worked better is a partnership with a Community College (e.g. Bunker Hill in Massachusetts). Here they use a flipped classroom approach. The students watch online lectures and come to a lab session where they have an instructor to help when they get stuck and are encouraged work in groups. This seems to help many get past the hard parts and complete the work. This approach is obviously more expensive. Very few people work "for free." Self-motivated, disciplined individuals will always do well with systems that focus heavily on independent study. Others will have to pay more to access more personalized support.