I am also a former student and really enjoyed the class.
The mailing list has been instructional, as well. It's nice to know that, if you run up against a problem, there's help from the instructors and fellow students.
I'm looking forward to the TeaLeaf offerings.
Good material, project based course, interactive chat/forum with other students and live sessions (with live coding) done by teachers is a huge difference when you are learning new topics online.
I’m a self-learning guy but with Rails taking this course is one of the best decisions I have done.
I agree with you that watching the teachers coding the problem solutions is a big difference when you are learning. It’s much better than reading the result in a book because you can ask questions and interact with teachers.