I have yet seen a way to scale having a beer with a teacher after the class is over and chat about the field of study. Email or IM is just not the same thing.

I have yet seen a way to scale having a beer with a teacher after the class is over and chat about the field of study. Email or IM is just not the same thing. I've seen people teaching online classes, and I've been in online classes. There's a difference between learning a series of facts and truly having access to an expert in the field.