Students in MOOCs form groups to study and socialize

Students in online courses are forming groups, both online and in the real world, to study and socialize. They discuss the content of the courses and the MOOC process and its impact on higher education. The groups may remain active after the course ends.

Some examples I found in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education are:

• Using Meetup.com to form local face-to-face (FTF) groups
• Weekly Google Hangouts with the professor and interested students (John Boyer also uses weekly online office hours to supplement his massive on-campus class)
• FTF “office hours” in different cities
• Student organized groups on Google Plus
• CompScisters, a Facebook group to encourage women to take and complete MOOC’s in mathematics and science