PLUG: Reader Dr. Ken Strumpf writes:

You mentioned that you’re a friend of Prof. Vejas Liulevicius so perhaps you’d like to shamelessly plug his several college level courses available through The Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company) at http://www.thegreatcourses.com/. I’ve bought them all, most recently his course on Espionage and Covert Activities. His magnum opus remains, however, his magnificent 36 lecture survey on World War I.

My only affiliation with this company is as a satisfied customer of nearly 20 years. If a person wished to obtain a true Liberal Arts education he or she could do far worse than working their way through the Great Courses catalog. Actually, this ties into your Higher Education Bubble theme since this is far cheaper than four years at college, can be done at the student’s own pace and is available to people of all ages. This company has helped me get the education I should have gotten during my own time at college.

He mentioned that he had done something like this. And, yes. What colleges provide that these courses don’t is certification. But (1) people who just want to learn may not care about that; and (2) extra-collegiate certification is coming.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “Extra-collegiate certification is the nightmare haunting upper administration of the four-year publics: it represents the greatest threat to their business model.”