Luddites and self-styled liberal arts purists across the country took a bit of momentary comfort in the past few days as faculties at two private bastions of undergraduate liberal arts education, Amherst College and Duke University, voted their institutions out of administratively contracted agreements with purveyors of online education. Huzzah for the flesh-and-blood classroom! Down with MOOCs!

Well, the fine print below the headlines put the lie to the notion of out-and-out repudiation. In both cases, the dissenting faculties followed up their nay votes with resolutions affirming that they would, as the academic engines of institutions of learning, proceed in the direction of online learning, but on their own terms.

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