I don't know the magic behind creating, cultivating, or finding one, but I suspect that giving up on the social-hour element is key.
It doesn't have to be large either.
The Paper Chase is a fictitious example, but might be worth considering, for its successes and failures.
Finding the lecturer's own notes doesn't hurt either. As in Chase and also this recent HN thread:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32335884
I don't know the magic behind creating, cultivating, or finding one, but I suspect that giving up on the social-hour element is key.
It doesn't have to be large either.
The Paper Chase is a fictitious example, but might be worth considering, for its successes and failures.
Finding the lecturer's own notes doesn't hurt either. As in Chase and also this recent HN thread:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32335884