Since today’s students are online all the time, it would make sense to find ways to legitimately educate them in their natural habitat (so to speak). With Internet speeds fast enough to stream multiplayer 3-D games and live HD-quality video and audio, creating a virtual classroom and teaching a college-level course over the web should be a walk in the park.

The real challenge for online courses thus far seems to have been one of legitimacy. Now, a new program that offers a three-year, online master’s degree in computer science at the University of Georgia seeks to change all that. The innovative program will cost $7,000 and will culminate in an accredited university degree. TIME investigates how such a venture could really take off, what its challenges are, and what this might mean for the future of affordable college education for everyone.

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