I know of a grad CS course that is essentially doing this. Students watch the lectures and help each other out, then supplement the course by presenting papers

I know of a grad CS course that is essentially doing this. Students watch the lectures and help each other out, then supplement the course by presenting papers and aiming to have project ready for publication by the end of the semester. It's a small course consisting of grad students and upper division undergrads. It will be an interesting experiment. But I think this is a great model, in my experience state schools tend to have pockets of really bright students that can easily out preform the quality of the teachers (certainly not always the case). There are huge opportunities to improve public higher education in the US