THE lecture at the centerpiece of higher education since Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in 1455 is about to get a massive upgrade.

The University of Washington is partnering with an elite group of top-tier schools to offer free online classes through Coursera. And it's only part of a larger change taking place in higher education.

The move to online classes is natural given the digitization of society. Before the printed books, students got their education by sitting in a classroom while the professor read to them from a handwritten book. That was the lesson -- taking dictation. The wide availability of books that Gutenberg ushered in brought in the lecture. Now the lecture is about to give way to the TV show.

If this sounds crass, in a way it may be. We are creating hierarchy in education with far-reaching implications.

Universities need the revenue that online courses will bring. The courses are free for now, but probably will not be in the near future. Like all of modern life, education is becoming increasingly monetized.

The college degree may soon be divided into three options: on-campus degree, hybrid on-campus/online degree or online degree. This gives more choices to students as well as to family budgets. If students still value direct interaction with professors, then they must pay for it. It's a pay-as-you-go model.

What young learners miss in direct contact with human professors, they will make up for by learning at their own speed and in the time of their own choosing. This will liberate us from the dreaded 8:30 a.m. lecture class.

It also forces professors to be much more tech savvy. And here we may find resistance from purists. They will argue, effectively and in many ways rightly, that education cannot be industrialized. It is an altogether different experience to teach someone face-to-face then via a software program and an online video.

But for many students who can't afford to attend a campus class -- because they work, or are far away, or simply don't see the need for it -- should they be cut off from quality education?

This is not a simple elitist-versus-populist argument. Education in any form, whether it's a children's cartoon or a lecture on astrophysics, is ultimately an elitist activity. Almost all of human history is about working and slaving away under a hot sun. Education is a privilege and it always will be.

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Pro: Are online courses good for higher education?