Will edX Put Harvard and MIT Out of Business?

I received an interesting email from "James in Arizona" today. James offers this comment on online education. Greetings from Arizona, Mish, I ran across this website while exploring various online options for my daughter (in high school, but she’s very computer savvy, so I’m looking for options to expand her interests/basis). It is EdX, an online education group started by Harvard and MIT, but other universities are joining.

First Wharton decided to offer the core of its first year MBA program online. Now Harvard Business School is exploring online options as well. 

A few weeks after Wharton announced that it would be offering a substantial part of its core MBA classes online, Harvard business school is developing online courses of its own, according to a report

Online courses, and massively open online courses (MOOCs) in particular, are quickly moving from a novelty to the mainstream. Leading colleges, graduate schools, and companies are investing significant resources into free education.

There's no denying that America's labor market is dramatically out of whack.

From today's Chronicle of Higher Education:

One of the common complaints about Wall Street is that it sucks up a lot of Ivy League talent that could be going toward more productive endeavors. The common assumption is that the students are just following the money. But, my friend, an anonymous Harvard graduate who spent some time on Wall Street says that's not always the case. An edited transcription of our conversation follows: You went to Harvard. Then what happened?

A few days ago, I reported on how MITx could revolutionize higher education by offering free online classes along with a new benefit: credentials.