These points have merit, yet I know of at least one pioneering effort that was successful: The "Higher Cracking University" or +HCU for short. It ceased functioning a long while back, but at that time it didn't just meet, but far surpassed the expectations of online learning described in these comments.
Here you had a community that
- spent years simply learning
- shared their knowledge (for free!) in essays, email, and forum discussions
- maintained a level of intelligence in incoming classes by use of strainers (reversing assignments such as http://www.woodmann.com/fravia/strain99.htm)
- never needed to meet in person to contribute these great works
It can be done, but perhaps the question is, "why haven't we seen more of these in the wild?"
The link speaks louder than my words: http://www.woodmann.com/fravia/student.htm
Here you had a community that - spent years simply learning - shared their knowledge (for free!) in essays, email, and forum discussions - maintained a level of intelligence in incoming classes by use of strainers (reversing assignments such as http://www.woodmann.com/fravia/strain99.htm) - never needed to meet in person to contribute these great works
It can be done, but perhaps the question is, "why haven't we seen more of these in the wild?"