Hey Tania, my experience with cMOOCs and the like has been that I get really close to particular people and if we have a common space to talk like twitter or facebook, or following each others’ blogs, a space that we continue to use as we go about our daily lives, it helps keep the connections up. From the list of ppl i mention, i knew Kevin, Terry and Simon via rhizo14 last January (but had come across Kevin from a distance back in Nov), and met Susan and Mia (ok i didn’t mention her, but still) via clmooc (which i heard about via Kevin and Terry), and i met new wonderful people like you and the 3 Lauras 🙂 and the other Maha, and i also got to know Alan and Howard whom i had known ABOUT before but were not talking to each other, so… With my rhizo14 group and some of the clmooc group, we stay in touch regardless of MOOCs, but with others you find someone you know in another MOOC and it helps you feel less lonely as it starts. I really hope you write for us at edcontexts – all of them people i met online over the past year or so.