"The issue is one of accountability, not quality." The issue is also one of dilution of the institution granting the credit and branding. If someone is able t

"The issue is one of accountability, not quality." The issue is also one of dilution of the institution granting the credit and branding. If someone is able to take an online course and receive credit they will then be able to infer an affiliation with the institution that will dilute the value of an existing degree from that institution. This already of course can and does happen (just like locks don't prevent everyone from breaking into your home or office) but opening up the floodgates to people who will most certainly claim and fudge that they attended or are somehow affiliated with top shelf universities is definitely an issue. Case in point is what happened with the Wharton Evening School. Although the link I provided certainly tells a different spin and story the real reason is that it was trivial to get into the evening school (compared to Penn as a regular undergraduate) and Penn had a bunch of those graduates running around with BBA's as students who graduated from Wharton. (Which of course they did but not of the same caliber as the regular graduates). http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v48/n23/WhartonEve.html http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v48/n23/WhartonEve.html