The Peer-to-Peer University is hurtling towards a launch in 2009. I say hurtling, because just four weeks ago this was still an idea. An idea with some great backers, and an idea which got traction at iSummit 2008, but an idea nonetheless. The feedback from the Logan OCWC conference session seems to have convinced the people involved to throw the switch.Â
And throw the switch they did. Â Already an awful lot is in place:
- Advisory Group: includes, among others, the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation, the Executive Director of ccLearn, and David Wiley.Â
- A strong core team, including Delia Browne, Jan Philipp Schmidt, Stian Håklev, and Neeru Paharia.
- A project website: Including the Concept Document, and contact info for those that want to run a course, and a good description of what learning at P2PU will look like.
- Great coverage: The Chronicle has just featured the project in its Multimedia section.Â
The launch is scheduled for early 2009. The initial courses will be run as small groups, consisting of:
- Students, who pay a trivial fee to prove commitment to participating in the course — the fee goes to the charity of their choice after they complete the course.
- Tutors, who act more like a “party host” than a traditional tutor — pushing the participants to interact, starting conversations, maintaining the forward momentum of the course.
- Sense-makers, who design the courses in ways that may initially look much like OCW (I assume, in fact, that existing OCW will often form the basis for some of the initial courses). Some Sense-makers may be professors, but others may hold no formal degree, and P2PU is interested in faculty that may have expertise in an area but lack a degree.
The history of open courses is littered with vaporware and false starts, and I can see some people viewing this with a skeptical eye. But knowing the people involved with this project, I can guarantee you this is a project to watch. This is going to happen. And I think it might be very big.
Mike, thanks for a great writeup. It is indeed going very fast, it is extremely exciting, and the conference in Utah was very important. We were floored by the attendance on the afternoon of the last day at the conference, and very encouraged by all the positive feedback and constructive comments.
Just a small correction: Although only Joel Thierstein was listed in the conference program, the session was actually submitted with all of the core group’s names as presenters. Christine Geith was not a presenter.
Everyone, we’d love to hear your comments and suggestions. Head over to peer2peeruniversity.org.
wow, I can not believe how quickly this came to life…will def. keep up on the latest news.