MOOCing money

In more contemporary news of online education, the NYT today reports Massive Open Online Courses Prove Popular, if Not Lucrative Yet

One tiny revenue stream has begun flowing into the nondescript Silicon Valley office building where Coursera’s 35 employees work to keep up with the demand for their courses: the company is an Amazon affiliate, getting a sliver of the money each time Coursera students click through the site to buy recommended textbooks or any other products on Amazon.
“It’s just a couple thousand, but it’s our first revenue,” Ms. Koller said. “When faculty recommend a textbook and people buy it on Amazon, we get some money. The funny thing is that we’re getting more than twice as much money from things like Texas Rangers jackets as from what the textbooks are bringing in.”
Other possibilities around the edges include charging a subscription fee, after a class is over, to continue the discussion forum as a Web community, or perhaps offering follow-up courses, again for a fee. And advertising sponsorships remain a possibility.

And possibilities like making the course content freely available but charging for tutor services...
Or then again, maybe not.

Once Upon a School

 A couple of days ago my exercise-TED was Dave Eggers' wish: Once Upon a School, in which he tells the story of his attempt to start a volunteer tutor service in which his writer friends would be available to students...but the students didn't come, until "826 Valencia" also became the Pirate Supply House. And clever energetic people did clever energetic things, building up a volunteer list of people in the community who would come in for an hour or many hours each month, and it really seemed to help a lot of kids. Now there are a bunch of somewhat similar groups with a variety of themes, and there's onceuponaschool.org which, on its front page, suggests that you sign up by putting in your zip code...Hmmm, I see when I put in the Hamilton Central zipcode I get

We found 18 Opportunities

Volunteering Opportunities within 20 miles of Hamilton, NY 13346, US
Results 1-18 | Sort by: | Search Again
opportunity	location	great for
1. Mentor High School Exchange Students in Sherburne, NY and Surrounding Areas!	Sherburne and Surrounding Areas, NY	55+
2. Run the Exchange Student Program in Eaton, NY or surrounding areas!	Eaton or surrounding areas, NY	55+
3. ...

There are a number of volunteer "opportunities" associated with schools nearby, but it doesn't seem that my own school has signed up with any of the organizations in question. I wonder if a bet is being missed.