Recently, there is an idea sparkling out from my mind due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the past, we typically attend a course, complete homework and assignment, then finish the semester with a final exam. This takes around 4 courses per semester and 4 years for a whole degree. But I feel we can speed up this process with the aids of the online lecture, as provided from Quality of Videos Lectures and Lectures vs Textbooks. Scott Young had successfully done this by completing a 4-year computer science degree through his MIT Challenge. Thus, I believe online lectures are beneficial for the following reasons.
It helps people to accumulate the background to do research as fast as possible. As we know, mathematics is becoming more and more structured and complicated. To overcome this, we have to learn much faster and more effectively. Typically, online lectures are around 30 hours where people can watch all of them in a week (with note-taking and understanding). The best thing is we can always rewatch the part we don't understand and search for appropriate reference (using Google) to understand the idea better. Then we take another week to complete exercises and do final revision using Feynman techniques (teaching to yourself). We can complete a course ideally in two weeks.
Now let's see how many courses do we need minimally to be able to read research materials in mathematics. We need Analysis I, Analysis II, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Point Set Topology, Measure Theory, Complex Analysis, Functional Analysis, Commutative Algebra, Algebraic Topology, Algebraic Curves, Differential Geometry, Representation Theory... Let say around 20 courses to reach the level. Then we only need 40 weeks for the whole program. To be more relaxing, one year is sufficient for us to have the background to do research, of course with the aids of online lectures.
Here is my central idea: Self-studying by watching online lectures and then supplementing with exercises and textbook is much more effective than to read the textbook from pages to pages. It's like playing a new board game. Online lecturers (people who know board game) give the main idea of study (game) and then the students (players) do the exercises (play the games) after listening to the main rules. If there is any problem, they consult the reference book (player guide).
What do you guys think about this? Is learning online a better option for the future? I feel this is an interesting topic to discuss and I hope to get some opinions on this.
$\textbf{Edit}:$ I have to mention that doing this way only gives sufficient background to pursue research faster, but to consolidate the knowledge, the students have to read research papers, read more references, do more exercises on that particular research topic. For instance, people doing algebraic geometry should nevertheless do all the exercises in Hartshorne, read more advanced topics etc. When they face any difficulties, go back to the relevant prerequisites and consolidate them. (It should be easy to trace back since they have completed all courses)