The Georgia Institute of Technology (GA-Tech) is planning to offer a MOOC-based online computer science master degree for $6,600.  This represents 15% of the cost of its traditional, onsite/on-campus master’s degree of the same.

GA Tech, having one of the country’s top computer science programs, is the first elite university to offer a complete masters degree online.  While fears abound around the impact this may have on the GA Tech brand and reputation, such fears fail to see the upside potential of this move.

What if this online masters degree is successful?  Wildly successful?

What if far more students sign up and complete an online masters degree in computer science at GA Tech than its traditional off-line offerings by a substantial multiple?  Will other elite institutions follow suit?

From a revenue generation standpoint it will certainly be hard to ignore.  From a consumer demand standpoint, this may be even harder to deny.  Finally, from an institutional mission standpoint, providing more students from more diverse backgrounds and economic means an opportunity to benefit from GA Tech’s best professors in computer science may even be the hardest to deny.

Of course, this all depends on the turnout and success of that eventual turnout.  However, GA Tech is placing itself at the epicenter of this MOOC movement and making a bet that it can help shape and influence its movement and direction.

For parents like myself that are staring at future costs of higher education tuition for our young children, these kinds of bets and risks are welcome indeed if higher education is to be achieved by the masses.