The reason for this is that the parts of "Stanford" (an organization comprising tens of thousands of people) involved in each push are basically unrelated. The

The reason for this is that the parts of "Stanford" (an organization comprising tens of thousands of people) involved in each push are basically unrelated. The paid-certificate program is run by the Stanford Center for Professional Development ("SCPD"), and is a trimmed down version of the online masters program. Costs here are high because courses are usually paid for by an employer investing in employee training; the SCPD program (like masters programs in general) is a profit center. The db-class, ml-class, ai-class websites (and their video-only equivalents through openclassroom and classx) are being run by the professors who teach the classes, and the goal is education. There isn't a "Stanford" policy on how online instruction should operate; just different members of a single club working independently.