CourserA etc, legal limits?

The Chronicle of Higher Education says that Minnesota says online courses have to get local permission for Minnesota residents, but Professor Volokh says they're wrong: The Volokh Conspiracy » The First Amendment and Free Online Courses

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Minnesota has barred Coursera from offering free online courses — including ones that don’t even result in a degree — because it hasn’t properly registered as an educational institution with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, and, presumably, because the universities and colleges that provide classes through Coursera have not gotten approval to use the term “college” or “university” from that Office...
if an entity — whether or not it has “college” or “university” in its name — offers free non-degree-granting courses, it is as shielded by the First Amendment as a newspaper Web site, a site aiming to educate people about some political or scientific issue, Wikipedia, or for that matter a blog.
...I’m not sure whether Coursera is planning to fight the Minnesota rules; but if it does, I think it will easily prevail.

Wikipedia says

Volokh is noted for his scholarship on the First and Second Amendments to the United States Constitution

and has been cited in Supreme Court opinions and all that; maybe all is well.
Or then again, maybe not.

Update: Slate adds Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education.

Honorable mentions go to New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for driving out Uber’s online taxi-hailing service and to automobile dealers’ groups in four states for trying to have Tesla dealerships declared illegal. But the grand prize in this week’s unexpectedly heated competition for most creative use of government to stifle innovation has to go to Minnesota.... ... ... ... ...
Hear that, kids? The Internet is no place for learning. You can Facebook and Twitter and play World of Warcraft all you want, but if you want to study Machine Learning, Principles of Macroeconomics, or Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, you’re going to have to take it elsewhere.

And Adam Smith was right...you can't and shouldn't set government to zero, but the more of it you choose, the more representation you get for those who have a seat at the table and want to protect it, at whatever cost to the public.
(Or then again again again, maybe not.)