Obama's Push for Online Education

In this article I ran into from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Perry reports on a plan that's emerging from the Obama administration to provide colleges with access to "open" online classes for which the government would potentially fund the development. Colleges (and there seems to be a special indication of community colleges in particular) could repackage and add value to these classes by providing the actual online interaction and instruction to the students while still keeping costs affordable. There's also the suggestion that a community college or consortia of community colleges could house the project's development. Also included in the article is a broader discussion of the need for change from the current model of higher education and how online education can prove a better use of an instructor's time and a way to better tailor to the learning needs of students.