If your question doesn't require interrupting the lecture for everyone and forcing the lecturer to respond to you at the moment a question occurs to you, then y

If your question doesn't require interrupting the lecture for everyone and forcing the lecturer to respond to you at the moment a question occurs to you, then you have multiple options. You could pause the video and ask a chat room. At somewhat greater expense, but still nothing close to MIT tuition, a chat room could even be staffed with TAs and made interactive with audio and video. Pause the lecture video, switch to the chat room, ask a TA, and get a brief explanation with a live, shared whiteboard on your screen. My point is that there are many hybrid solutions that aren't at the extreme of either being live, in the front row chatting with the lecturer during the lecture at full MIT price (after winning the admissions lottery) or the other extreme of just watching a recording. In most classes, there are a lot of people in the world who could answer whatever question you want to ask, and if the answer doesn't have to be immediate (a threaded forum, for example), the cost could be nearly free. (Note that what I'm talking about applies to motivated adult learners, not young kids.)