Thinking of MOOCs from the connectivist perspective. In my opinion, this is this way of using a MOOC is the ONLY mode that has the possibility of offering a successful format for humanities. These social media can be used by any kind of subject, but if all schools are jumping on this bandwagon (and with a n xMOOC model in mind primarily), it is crucial that arts & humanities folks learn how make the most of social media. I would suggest that for a philosophy class, instructors will need to become very familiar with Twitter as well as Skype or Google Video. But again, here comes the labor intensity issue: This requires that folks doing MOOCs are primarily teachers not researchers. They need to give their time over to the classes to be a real resource if true connections are going to be encouraged. Students can learn for themselves in many areas. But there will never be a replacement for learning dialog & communication skills by actually having dialogs and communications with people who have decades of experience.

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