It would be great if there were some sort of umbrella schools that would cover homeschooling for college, and award degrees, like there are that award high school diplomas. Then folks could sign up with the umbrella school, take free courses online, have someone at the school look over the work, then award credits toward a degree. I don't see why this couldn't work for degrees in the Humanities, Mathematics, Foreign Languages, Social Sciences, and just about any degree that doesn't require serious laboratory work.
Wouldn't it be great if anyone could be an auto-didact, and be rewarded for their hard work, even if it takes them 6-10 years to finish the work. That way, they wouldn't need to quit the job that allows them to pay the bills, and they wouldn't have to get student loans, to boot.
Klinsky is writing just about that:
..... For example, a student might study Economics 101 from a world-leading professor for free online, then report to the nearest community college for a proctored, nationally available exam tied to the course material. Passage of the national exam would lead to an accredited course credit in freshman economics, transferable to a traditional institution and thus lowering the cost of the traditional degree. ..... < snip > < snip > ..... lots of online courses are already available, and the market may well determine that it is more attractive to serve many students at a very low cost than to serve a few students at a very high cost. ..... < snip >
BTW, lab work can also be accomodated, just as it is now for those taking correspondence courses for full degrees. Usually it does take longer to complete one of those, but it's also because many people taking them are usually working, at least part time.