Is it worth two years and $120,000 or more to earn an MBA?

A master’s in business administration from a top-tier university many see as a path that provides a practical education, a lasting salary bump over time, and the connections to kick start an executive or entrepreneurial career. It’s largely considered valuable for those with an eye on consulting or finance.

But for the rest of us, who are just looking to hone our leadership or management skills, other options are proliferating. Indeed, author and entrepreneurship guru Seth Godin thinks that you can probably learn everything you need faster, cheaper and better on your own.

ZEITGUIDE friend Mike Savatovsky, entrepreneur and creator of the Le Mood project, recently told us about how he’d enrolled in Godin’s new altMBA program. That piqued our curiosity. The five-week intensive course is centered on hands-on projects—13 in all—designed to raise peoples game as leaders, decision-makers and agents of change. These are the skills, Godin says, that are needed to stay on top of today’s fast-changing business world.

“There’s a large and growing gap between what we know and what we need to do; a gap between what we hire for and what we seek,” Godin told ZEITGUIDE recently about the program. “We’re building a powerful tool for a few people, designed to help people level up. It’s thrilling, frightening and essential, and we want to help people move in this direction.”

He calls those who enroll “ruckusmakers.” They’re not corporate types in the main, but rather entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, engineers, artists and designers. The altMBA is designed to be done around a work schedule, and it costs just $3,000—or less than two weeks in business school.

Can it really replace an MBA? Probably not if you want to work for McKinsey or Chase bank. Many companies see an MBA as an important accreditation for executives. altMBA is more like an intense personal development program.

Godin isn’t alone in sensing that the traditional MBA (or even Executive MBA) programs are over-charging and under-delivering. More students are looking overseas at shorter, cheaper MBA programs that give them international experience. Online programs like Khan Academy and Udacity are creating nanodegrees focused on what tech entrepreneurs need and challenging an outdated model of education.

Are these alternatives the answer to the time-consuming and expensive costs of higher education? The jury may still be out. The “MOOC revolution” has so far been a damp squib as many of them have struggled with retention rates.

However, they are an indication of a larger movement that desires a different way to become educated and accredited. At the speed of our constantly changing culture, an alternative is needed and eventually, someone is going to crack the code.

The rules of building a business were turned on their head by technology. Today, the tools for learning are changing just as fast.