False dichotomy. It's not a case of some minority who can't learn without teachers, but that pretty much all human beings benefit strongly from human interacti

False dichotomy. It's not a case of some minority who can't learn without teachers, but that pretty much all human beings benefit strongly from human interaction while learning (and, in particular, from an asymmetrical pair of roles, with an experienced/knowledgeable member and a novice). Admittedly, some more than others, and there are a rare few who can do nearly as well without it. You could as easily rephrase the argument as "why have MOOCs, when only a small fraction of people wouldn't do much better in traditional education"? My point is that pretending that MOOCs are just as good, or even nearly as good, as more traditional forms prevent us from real effort to actually improve upon those traditional forms, and from applying these very valuable communication tools in ways that are actually effective.