We have better access to information than ever before. Twenty years ago, I quit university/college and taught myself to do what I do now, and the learning materials have only multiplied since then.

I think that big issues that remain are motivation and incentive. You can study for 3-4 years with no guarantee that by the end of it you'll have a job or enjoy it. Or you can teach yourself for six months (or likely more) and have a very slow start as a freelancer, or an up-hill battle pitching your ability to a company looking for a college degree.

I don't love that the gig economy pushes costs and burdens to the employee, but it does provide a quicker opportunity. Someone who's done two weeks of HTML/JS online could well pick up shrapnel work on the side as they learn.

Outside of motivation and incentive, I'd be tackling costs of living so people can get by on 15-25 hours a week of work rather than grind themselves into the dust just to prop up their family.

Yes, but most people get a degree from an accredited university because they feel eventually it will get them ahead in life. True or not MOOCs don't carry the same prestige. They need to fix that. Also, with no one pushing the student it's easy for them to give up. MOOCs are great to improve your skills and enhance your college transcript but not to get a degree.

But I see your point, they have value. I took a tv based class to get credits for my degree. Now I would do it online. In time, moocs value will improve.

It turns out that course material is only one of the things you learn in college. And it's not the one that is necessarily a predictor of being gainfully employed.

Very true, some of the classes have very little value. I can go to any auditorium based class and sit in the class and the professor would likely not know. The TA's might but mostly I can be there and learn. There are no security guards. What people pay for is that final grade and the degree you are working to get. You can even hang out on campus. When I was getting my degree there were always former students that would hang out.That was there base of operation.

Strange how it works.

I believe there were predictions that the gramophone, radio, television, videos, DVDs, and computers (back before the net was a big thing, then several times after it was) would all revolutionize education.

And they all did, a little bit.

Every generation rediscovers distance education, and gets equally excited about it.