Online courses through the NY Times

An interesting aspect of online courses, from the Grey Lady:

Nicholas Kristof, Gail Collins, and Eric Asimov will be teaching courses online and in person through the newspaper's continuing-education program, Knowledge Network, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab. The Times has been developing course material with local universities for nearly two years.

Mr. Kristof's online seminar will discuss "the oppression of women in the developing world." Ms. Collins's course will focus on "changes in the lives and status of American women over the past 50 years," and Mr. Asimov will offer a seminar on wine tasting. The courses will cost between $125 and $185.

I wonder, though, how "wine tasting" can be an online course. But then even now we even have language and PE courses online. Fascinating!

BTW, cheer Kristof on. Not because he is a fantastically qualified fellow--perhaps even more than some research university faculty. Not because of his wonderful columns. Not because of his Pulitzers. But because he is a local guy, who grew up round the corner (well, metaphorically) from our campus :-)