Huh? Why would that be an important component?

I mean I know that it's typical for courses that come with credit, but in my mind it's just a side effect of the administrative side of providing courses, not something that's at all central to accreditation. I.e. if you build up the knowledge over a longer period (which you can still do with e.g. resits) that's completely fine as well.

Read any of the research on MOOCs and it becomes clear that we don’t have a clue how to write a self-paced course people finish with any regularity.