The Economics of Online Postsecondary Education: MOOCs, Nonselective Education, and Highly Selective Education

I describe the two extremes of traditional American postsecondary education (PE): nonselective (NSPE) and highly selective (HSPE). I explain the logic of each and why each is economically sustainable. This focus on the extremes is without much loss of generality because other PE is, essentially, a weighted average of the two. To keep the economics clear, I focus on undergraduate education. 1 Having explained the economics of the two extreme models, I assess how each could incorporate online PE in a financially sustainable way. I explicitly assess massive online open courses (MOOCs) but also consider different models of online PE.