I think one of the big missing pieces is the social aspect. One of the big benefits of attending classes in person, is that you get to meet and network with other people with similar interests. It's much more difficult to get a study group, or that same level of social interaction when studying at home. There's room there for innovation and for someone to bring all the independent studiers together.
Completely agreed here. I'd also like to add that the benefits of social learning go beyond getting help and collaboration; they also extend to positive and negative reinforcement. Sometimes the benefit of a study group is simply establishing a social dynamic that discourages goofing off. And everybody wants to be able to get attaboys for their work, no matter who it comes from.
I'm not sure how much benefit Twitter/Facebook/Linked integration is. For most people, those are already channels they're familiar with and are able to easily reach out to, to find people to learn/study with.
You'll have a big list of people who are taking classes. A feature that suggests people to learn with would be helpful. The big challenge is bringing people together. If I'm studying the same course at the same time as someone I don't know, that doesn't do me much good, but if you can connect us, then you've filled in a big missing piece. I don't know that you need to build tools for that (I can chat, skype, email, etc on my own easy enough, but what I can't do easily is find others taking the same course at the same time).
