Having taken a number of MOOCs as well as having a traditional engineering masters (not CS), I'm inclined to agree.
- Although not universally true, you tend not to need labs stocked with equipment that aren't practical for an individual to purchase. (Though, yes, CS degrees can be oriented around hardware.)
- Automated grading of problem sets/tests seem to work better with software than just about any other topic of MOOCs I've seen. (Though that's probably not an issue for this sort of paid program as you can have paid TAs and professors directly involved.)
- Remote "teams" can clearly collaborate effectively on projects etc. as demonstrated by the fact that they do in many companies and on many open source projects. That said, a big part of a masters degree is going to be individual work anyway.
ADDED: As someone else mentioned, in-person mentoring would still be a concern of mine but that's probably a tractable issue.
- Although not universally true, you tend not to need labs stocked with equipment that aren't practical for an individual to purchase. (Though, yes, CS degrees can be oriented around hardware.)
- Automated grading of problem sets/tests seem to work better with software than just about any other topic of MOOCs I've seen. (Though that's probably not an issue for this sort of paid program as you can have paid TAs and professors directly involved.)
- Remote "teams" can clearly collaborate effectively on projects etc. as demonstrated by the fact that they do in many companies and on many open source projects. That said, a big part of a masters degree is going to be individual work anyway.
ADDED: As someone else mentioned, in-person mentoring would still be a concern of mine but that's probably a tractable issue.