It is more like you ordered the 7 book set and received 1-5, and the last 2 books came in an audio version. Same information, same content, just in a different format. You don’t have to keep the set (and take credit for having read/heard/learned the info), but you can’t tell Amazon “I only want to pay for volumes 1-5 but I want credit for the whole series. I want a certificate that I read/listened to the WHOLE SERIES, as if I completed the series.”
Either it was a Harvard education or it was a substandard education, and I think if it was substandard, future grad schools and employers should know that. Perhaps a little * next to the discounted classes saying they were substandard? Should the students who finished the syllabus for Calc or Bio pay the full price because they got exactly what they were promised? If the Zoom course was exactly what was promised (the full 7 volumes of HP) should that student pay the full price even if the last 2 volumes were paperback and not hardback? Same info, different format.
If Harvard has online classes this fall and determines the price of those courses is exactly what was charged in the spring, and the student chooses to sign up and take those classes knowing they would be online, what then? You think the classes are substandard but you want the Harvard diploma. What do you do?
Harvard (and every other school) is arguing that the tuition was charged for 4 classes and the student took 4 classes and got credit for taking those 4 classes.