The problematic aspects of this software are applicable to MOOCs and online education in general. Truly valuable, high-level education requires a level of precise, individually calibrated feedback in order to train students how to think and express themselves critically and rigorously (there are also obviously signalling, credentialing networking benefits that will never be replicable by MOOCs, but that's not relevant to a discussion of pure educational quality).
Computer-driven mass education will never be able to provide that level of instruction. At best, it's a tool for bringing the workforce up to the basic level of competence necessary to function in an information economy, much like how the original purpose of the public education system was to crank out semi-skilled factory workers and low-level clerks. This may be a valuable end - it may help to stem the commoditization of the BA and the attendant tsunami of student debt - but there needs to be wider acknowledgement that it is actually fulfilling a purpose that is different from that of traditional higher education.
Computer-driven mass education will never be able to provide that level of instruction. At best, it's a tool for bringing the workforce up to the basic level of competence necessary to function in an information economy, much like how the original purpose of the public education system was to crank out semi-skilled factory workers and low-level clerks. This may be a valuable end - it may help to stem the commoditization of the BA and the attendant tsunami of student debt - but there needs to be wider acknowledgement that it is actually fulfilling a purpose that is different from that of traditional higher education.