I was interested in this article, about SPOCs: Small private online courses. The idea is to create a course and license it to a university, organization or corporation with access to certification.
I can see how this concept works during a discussion with my son from Montana today. My son is required to complete competencies for his energy field through a series of outsourced online courses he is required to attend for his company.
He creates his own personal plan by indicating what competencies he already has attained and then chooses areas where more training is needed. A validator visits him on site to assure the competencies are attained.
I would be curious to learn more about the content of the online courses. From what my son described, the courses are basic content with quizzes. Support comes from the validator who is a supervisor at his company.
Overall, the SPOC concept is suggested as a way to meet the needs for specialized learning, localized learning, to smaller targeted classrooms. This is the kind of learning PSA finds happening in many arenas.