P2P University: Beginning the Journey

Session Title: P2P University:  Beginning the Journey

Presenters: Joel Thierstein, Executive Director, Connexions
Philipp Schmidt, Open Educationist, University of the Western Cape, P2PU
Stian Håklev, M.A. Candidate, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Delia Browne
Neeru Paharia

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Time & Date: 1:30 P.M. - 2:15 P.M., Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Location: Rm. C150

Session Description: Project: The Peer 2 Peer University: Opening the Virtual Doors

Organizations like Connexions, OCW, PLOS and Wikipedia have changed the way information flows in the knowledge community. Open innovation models have thrived on the combination of accessible means of production in the form of cheap computers, the emergence of self-organizing communities enabled by connecting these computers, and legal foundations in the form of alternative licenses that protect the creators’ and clarify the users’ rights. These developments have not left the university untouched.

The value of open educational content to support meaningful learning is limited without an infrastructure to complement it. Over the past few years, the idea of a truly open learning community, based on the principles and values of the free/open source software movement, and extending the OER movement beyond content, has been presented and discussed at a number of venues. In 2007, the term Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) was coined and stuck.

Over the past 2 years, Peer 2 Peer University has developed into a viable enterprise.  It has begun to forge its place in the OER community.  During this phase of its existence, P2PU has gone through the usual issues of any start-up enterprise. As Peer 2 Peer University nears its launch, it has engaged in the following discussions, which we will present in more detail at the conference:

• Course structure — Offer access to top-quality learning opportunities. Initially, identify a few well-known individuals to build a profile and reputation for the P2PU.  Courses are similar in scope and content to university-level courses.  Likewise, begin to work toward developing opportunities for the community to offer courses at a level and scope of their choosing.
• Student retention — develop methodologies to retain student engagement during the offering of a course
• Governance — establish a responsible governance structure for maintainence of the P2PU infrastructure
• Liability/Risk — create a safe environment for sharing of knowledge to occur
• Organizational structure — establish a legal entity able to receive funding responsibly and maintain the integrity of the P2PU.
• Learner communities — Enable self-learners to identify courses they might be interested in taking, or teaching, and allow them to collaborate with each other using a variety of available tools, including blogs, wikis, email and bookmark sharing. The P2PU site provides a central connector for these tools, it does not combine them in one monolithic portal.
• Showcase portfolios — Provide a mechanism for users to demonstrate their work in the form of online portfolios. These portfolios could be aggregated RSS feeds for content hosted elsewhere, or stored directly on the P2PU server and users can restrict access to their portfolios.
• Accreditation — Work with testing and assessment providers, including traditional higher education institutions and commercial testing services, to identify path-ways from P2PU to formal accreditation, either through exam challenges, or review of prior learning.  Likewise, allow the community to begin offering accreditation at a level of its choosing.  One method would be to allow for reputation building; over time, develop a community assessment and ranking system that provides summarized overview of a user’s “reputation” in a particular subject area. Access to the results can be restricted by the user.