“Last week, Harvard and MIT announced a $60 million online-classroom venture called edX that will launch in the fall of 2012. It’s a nonprofit enterprise that will deliver free courses in different academic disciplines to anyone who can get online. And edX goes beyond passive viewing of videos—it includes discussions, labs, quizzes, and other so-called interactive learning techniques. Moreover, people who take the online courses and fulfill their requirements get a certificate of completion.”

If edX lives up to the hype and ends up revolutionizing college education, what would it mean for the brick-and-mortar versions of these—and other—institutions?

Peter Cohan, on Forbes, seems to suggest that it could eventually put them out of business. And Lauren Landry, on BostInno, opines that traditional education isn’t going anywhere.