There are 180 seats in New York University professor Aswath Damodaran's Corporate Valuation course - a class in which, Damodaran explains, "every seat is taken."

Yet there are more than 830 students who are taking the course, and neither Damodaran nor NYU are the type to make such a gross mistake in student enrollment. Indeed, the vast majority of these students do not attend NYU - and some don't even live in the United States. The additional 650+ students are enrolled in the class on Lore, on which Corporate Valuation is listed as "public" - meaning that anyone can view the course at anytime.

“[My course] has always been open to the public. Now, with [Lore], it makes it a little more formal and easier for the students to get to stuff. They don't have to dig through my website - it's huge - and [my students] won't get lost. This way they can stay focused on the class,” he explains. “By the end of the 15 week class, if someone's followed my course on [Lore], they've got pretty much all the things that my class offers, minus the physical contact.”

Damodaran, in true business professor approach, views the extra time spent on his public course as an economic tradeoff – and one that’s worth it.

"One of the reasons I do this is because of all the business models in the world, the traditional university model is the worst," Damodaran explains. "It was created 800 years ago and has never changed. You're in a classroom. We're going to charge this exorbitant price.”

Damodaran pauses, and continues, this time more passionately. "I think it's time that someone shook up the system, and I don't have the energy to start the fight but I have the energy to throw in my lot and help do it."