Nick and Ben may be right

Bill Gates believes that no matter how you came about your knowledge, you should get credit for it. Whether it’s an MIT degree or if you got everything you know from lectures on the web, there needs to be a way to highlight that.

U.S. Department of Education agrees: http://www.nachi.org/online-beats-classroom.htm

Also: http://www.nachi.org/classroomsharm.htm