Peer 2 Peer University

= an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses

URL = http://www.peer2peeruniversity.org/

Description

"The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well."

Description

Via Franz Nahrada:

1. Currently P2PU is in a pilot phase. At the beginning P2PU will offer scheduled "courses" that run for 6 weeks and cover university-level topics. Each course package, organized by a course volunteer, contains the syllabus, study materials, and a schedule. Learning will take place in small groups of 8-14 students. It could be considered a collection of online book clubs for open educational resources, navigating the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creating small groups of motivated learners, and supporting the design and facilitation of courses.
2. P2PU is designed to blur the boundaries between students and teachers. Volunteers step forward to create course outlines and facilitate the course work. In some cases they may be experts in the field, and in others, they may rely on input and advice from others who have expert knowledge.
3. During the current test phase the project aims to experiment with different styles of course structure, communication, and organization. As the project grows the goal is to become more of a platform so anyone can use P2PU to organize, design, and offer courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.
4. Like open source software communities, the participants in a learning group provide feedback to each other, reviewing and improving each others' work. Peers in the course will assess each others work, and P2PU online certificates will be offered to signal that you've completed a course.

Discussion

George Siemens’ appreciation of the Peer 2 Peer University project:

“What do I disagree with? I disagree with the notion of “sense makers”. We make sense personally. No one makes sense for us. I’m also somewhat unsure of the formality of this approach. It bears within it too much of the existing university model. Why centralize things? The only thing we really need to centralize is the accreditation (i.e. open accreditation). Who really cares where or how people “got their learning”? Use existing networks of learning opportunities. This is P2P University administered through centralized models (which, then means, it’s not really P2P). I love the concept. I like the vision. I don’t like the execution. It’s foreplay when we need consummation.” (http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2008/10/21/peer-2-peer-university/)